T-Minus 3 Connections Until Operation "What's The Problem?"

Week six ended with advice from Mr. Jonathan Seaman that has popped up in our readings for the seventh week of the semester; utilize problem based learning and project based learning! Problem based learning is a teaching method where complex, real-world problems are given to students as a vehicle to promote learning new concepts instead of presenting the students directly with the information you want them to learn. There are seven essential elements to problem based learning.

• Key Knowledge & Understanding
• Success Skills
• Challenging Problem or Question
• Sustained Inquiry
• Public Product
• Authenticity
• Student Voice & Choice
• Reflection
  

Problem based learning is a hot topic in education, so I highlighted six connections I made to this technique concerning my Student Teaching Internship, courses, and a helpful resource to implement problem based learning in the classroom.

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There used to be eight essential elements to problem based learning. One of the old elements was "Need to Know", however a student's need to know belongs more in an argument for why problem based learning is essential to engage the classroom as opposed to an element of problem based learning. This information helped me to realize the importance of problem based learning going into my Student Teaching Internship. It is easy to get lost in the storm of planning content and forget what we are actually preparing for come January. All students have a need to know new content, but many students do not realize why it is important for them to learn and many teachers fail to explain this why. Utilizing problem based learning in my classroom as a Student Teacher, I will not only be explaining "why" the content is important, but backing this "why" up with the real world challenges that problem based learning focuses on will help develop a felt need for students to learn in my classroom.

Project based learning is different from projects. Instead of teaching students a concept by giving lectures, assigning readings, and conducting activities and serving that unit up with a project as dessert to assess learning, project based learning offers a project that requires student rigor to communicate curriculum. By instituting project based learning in my classroom as a Student Teacher, I will be tasked with creating unit plans that focus on giving students a project to learn material through rather than coming up with activities to teach material to them with.

Schools that successfully implement project based learning in all of their classrooms come with a plethora of support from their administration, professional development opportunities, and resources. In order to better implement project based learning as a Student Teacher, having a conversation with my Cooperating Teacher about this topic may help me develop support that will make these techniques more successful.

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Many of my teachers and professors have not utilized problem based learning during my academic career, but I sure do remember the ones that did. In my Introduction to International Agriculture course in college, I remember learning about how we can implement sustainable agriculture across the world by completing a project where we researched a certain country's typical agricultural practices and developed solutions to make them more sustainable. While I did not know it at the time, I was witnessing project based learning at it's finest!

In AEE 311 this semester, my class has been learning about motivating students. One motivation technique we learned that ties directly into problem based learning, is allowing students to have a say in what they are learning and how they are learning it. Problem based learning not only helps students learn topics relevant to real world situations, but it also allows them to feel some autonomy in regards to their education by guiding their own learning through research and problem solving.

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To wrap up the topic of problem based learning, I found a resource that details a great example of this technique in action. As I dive deeper into unit and lesson planning I am realizing that some of the hardest aspects of learning techniques like these is implementing them. Check out this link and the citation below for a lesson plan that utilizes problem based learning to teach about technology in agriculture. Have any ideas for implementing problem based learning in an Agriscience classroom? Let me know what your ideas are in the chat!

Gardner, A. & National Center for Agricultural Literacy. (2021). Robots Wanted! National Agriculture in the Classroom. https://www.agclassroom.org/matrix/lesson/756/

"Taylor"ed with love,