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The Social > Middle School PBL
Description

Middle School PBL

Our middle school program provides students with hands on projects that encourage all types of skill building. Everything from 3D CAD to music production and many other cool activities that are introduced and explored as they are challenged to build awesome inventions and products as they build real world skills.
  • Teacher
    Kim Kuiper
  • Category
    Middle School PBL
  • Cost
    $89/student
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Class Description

The first half of the year Mrs. Kuiper will be leading the students through various hands on skill building projects that include art/prototyping/construction principles that will serve the students during the second half of the year. The second half of the year students will work through an awesome PBL challenge that will put all their skills to the test. This 18 session project will include a blend of technology tools and hands-on making activities that will produce a final result with supporting artifacts created by each individual student.

Objectives:

Business exploration: Students will be able to understand and practice the steps needed to create a company that produces a product and evaluate the pricing concepts like costs, margin and profit.

Computer program skills: Students will be able to use various web-based apps to support the creation of their business and product.

Craftsmanship: Students will be able to develop a reasonably high quality end product and prototypes, knowing the differences between ideas, rough “drafts," and final result.

Follow a process: Students will be able to follow a process that leads to the result of a finished product.

Problem solving: Students will be able figure out solutions to the challenges they encounter with their ideas. This includes navigating failure and how to use failure as a part of the process.

Product development: Students will be able to create a unique product that is supported by multiple artifacts that align with their overarching idea.

Entrepreneurship: Students will be able to create a product for the market that is supported by research and pricing at an introductory/exploratory level.

Activities: Supporting learning activities will be a mix of hands-on and computer focused solutions. Technology literacy is an important skill for students to explore as the future of work is moving more and more into a digital world. The other learning activities will be focused on physical making and crafting with the purpose of testing ideas and models to validate the student’s idea.

Requirements

Students should be prepared to be challenged and ready to have fun while they learn new skills

  • Equipment and Supplies
  • Students are required to have a laptop/chromebook
  • There are limited classroom computers available
  • There are no other costs for materials and supplies

Good to know

PBL is a popular delivery method and can be fun for students as it provides flexibility in their learning experience. Often there is no right answer as we model our projects after real world and work situations. There are no worksheets with predetermined answers. We see tremendous growth in confidence and public sharing as students learn to trust their judgement and decisions. We encourage trying and failing but also practice recovering through the problem solving process.