My Favorite Projects in 2016

It’s been a big year for PBL, and it’s been hard to keep track of all the great projects I’ve heard about via emails, on Twitter, at conferences, and from our National Faculty. For this post, my source is the 200+ blogs we posted at bie.org in 2016. There I found at least 40 good projects to sort through, ranging from relatively simple ones by first-time PBL teachers to more ambitious projects by PBL veterans. I was shooting for a Top 10 list, but couldn't decide what to leave out, so...

Here are 15 projects of different types and subject areas, that appealed to me for various reasons:

Elementary School:

• Kindergarten PBL: Happy Habitats from Mt. Vernon School for Innovation
• Trickster Tale Project from BIE National Faculty member Erin Gannon
• Monumental Sand Castle Project by Patrick Dyer, Hillcrest School, Oakland, CA
• Courtyard design and build project from Novi Community Schools, by a colleague of BIE National Faculty member Myla Lee
• Mission to Mars from BIE National Faculty member Kris Hanks
• Food Truck Frenzy from BIE National Faculty member Jenny Pieratt
• “How do we show the elderly that we care about their happiness?” described by Randi Downs, OCM-BOCES, NY

Middle School:

• Teaching Middle-Schoolers Climate Change Without Terrifying Them by Bertha Vazquez at George Washington Carver Middle School, Florida
• 3D Printed Prosthetic projects from BIE National Faculty member Rich Lehrer
• "How do we, as representatives of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, prevent misunderstandings today?" by Sarah King, Chancellor Middle School, VA

High School:

• Holocaust Project, by Miss Cleveringa, Parramatta Marist High School, Australia
• Drone Art Project, Maplewood HS, Nashville TN, from a BIE partner district
• CO2 Dragster Project, from BIE National Faculty member Jorge Valenzuela
• “How can we give a voice to the immigrant experience?” from BIE National Faculty member Krystal Diaz
• "Why should we celebrate Black History Month?" from BIE National Faculty member Dara Savage