This week in my Technology and Student Engagement course at UGA, we were asked to examine project-based learning and the assessment and evaluation tools.  We had two videos to watch and two articles to review.  The video which I most enjoyed concerned a high school geometry class and the culminating project for that class.

The project was designed for a high school geometry course.  The task was to design a 2050 high school on the site provided.  A complete site plan was provided to the students.  Students had to produce floor plans, a site plan, a building cost analysis, and a mock up of one room of their school.  The teacher located two local architects to assist her in guiding the students and evaluating the final products.  The students also presented their finished work.  Finally, the class took a walking field trip of their city, inspecting the architecture of many buildings and finishing their day at the office of the architects for the presentation of excellence in various areas.

The video demonstrated how much collaboration was involved between students, the architects, and the teacher.  This was not the first year of this project for the teacher.  Over the course of nine years she developed an extensive rubric which served as the guiding tool for the students.  This project was outstanding.

My favorite reading this week was by Diane McGrath, entitled Artifacts and Understanding, published in Learning & Leading with Technology, V 30 No. 5, and is an ISTE production.  Dr. McGrath listed several things that could be considered artifacts.  These included physical models, multimedia projects, Web sties, and robots.  The important thing about artifacts is that the students constructed the product while "constructing their own knowledge about important subject matter."  She stressed that these projects required extended time, often many weeks to a year, so that enough time was available to develop understanding and produce an excellent project.

When you get the time, please check out the video and the article.  It is time well spent as you employ project-based learning in your own classroom.