To: PBI Students

According to the Partners for 21

st
Century Schools, formed in 2002 by the US Department of
Education, there is a significant gap between the knowledge and skills acquired by students
within a traditional K-12 education setting and the knowledge and skills needed to succeed as
effective citizens, workers and leaders in the 21
st
century. Traditional teaching models in which
students are passive learners as teachers impart their knowledge fail to prepare students to
become creative problem solvers, effective communicators, collaborators or critical thinkers.
Todays students, as digital natives, are significantly different learners than were students of the
past. These students require an alternate instructional delivery method to better meet their
learning needs as compared with students who entered our K-12 education systems a decade
ago.

Project based learning is a method of instruction that engages learners in exploring authentic,
important, and meaningful questions of real concern. Through a dynamic process of investigation
and collaboration and using the same processes and technologies that scientists, mathematicians,
and engineers use, students work in teams to formulate questions, make predictions, design
investigations, collect and analyze data, make products and share ideas. Students learn
fundamental science and mathematical concepts and principals that they apply to their daily lives.
Project-based instruction promotes equitable and diverse participation and engages students in
learning.

A major hurdle in implementing project-based curricula is that they require simultaneous changes
in curriculum, instruction and assessment practices changes that are often foreign to students as
well as practicing teachers. The difficulty in training existing teachers to teach differently has
created a situation in which applicants who are already experienced with project-based
instruction are highly valued by principals, superintendents and curriculum directors. The goal of
the PBI course is to prepare pre-service teachers to be such applicants.

Your task as a student enrolled in the PBI course is to develop a deep understanding of Project
Based Instruction as you spend 8 hours observing high school classes that are structured around
the project-based method of teaching, teach a 3 day problem-based lesson in a high school
classroom and fully develop a 2-6 week project-based unit plan. The project-based unit will
include a rationale and objectives, benchmark lessons, investigations, a lesson sequence that
incorporates appropriate instructional approaches, a list of annotated resources and technological
tools, an anchor video, a calendar, the theoretical basis for the project, a concept map, alternative
assessments, rubrics, strategies for differentiating instruction for students with special needs,
safety precautions and technology-based elements. Through a grant proposal to fund the
resources needed to implement your PBI unit, you will clearly articulate the educational benefit of
this instructional approach, based on the course readings as well as field experiences observing
and teaching a problem-based lesson within a project-based learning environment.

At the conclusion of this course, you will present your PBI unit with required components to a
panel of school district personnel as well as UTeach staff. The panel of judges will consider the
quality of work completed as well as the demonstration of a deep understanding of PBI as an
instructional best practice. We wish you the best in your endeavors and will facilitate your learning
to the best of our abilities,


Your PBI Instructional Team