Project Based Learning Opportunities 'Rocks' at Grass Lake School

The Spring PBL Showcase at Grass Lake School featured the hard work of teachers and students in many unique ways. This all school event culminated in a two day event allowing the students to see or experience learning being demonstrated through projects of every student in the building. Project Based Learning is a way of doing a project. It involves a shift in instructional approach, giving the students a way to learn by being actively engaged in real-world and personally meaningful projects. The projects hosted at the Showcase included: PreK/Art- Kindness Rock Art, K- Cars and force demonstrations, 1-Understanding Emotions through a Shadow Play, 2-Enrichment- Learning about animals through service and helping with Sanctuary Solstice(Salem Lakes, Wi), creating Eric Carle farm art and a coin war to support the Sanctuary animals, Fraction Games, 3-Music- Live snack store with music jingles to promote products, 5- Fraction Games created and played by Middle Schoolers, 6-Designed a lunar base settlement that mimics how to survive on earth,7-Art- Symbolism through Literature and a self-portrait, 8- Sharing the Impacts of the Holocaust within our School, 8- Classmate Support Event.

This teaching strategy has been a focus at Grass Lake School for two years. It has been an opportunity to shift learning techniques to be more interactive and use cooperative learning for staff as well as students. This involves the entire staff to assist the classes with their research and discovery as they see adults in different roles. Benefits of this approach include: meaningful collaboration, as students worked in groups, instilling interpersonal values and skills with deeper engagement, communication development, fostering creativity, cross-discipline by design, perseverance and fun!