High Tech High Project-Based Learning- Basic Elements
Components( Not every project will have all components):
See additional resources at www.hightechhigh.org/project/hth-structures-project-management/
Examples of HTH Student Projects: https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects/
Other HTH Resources:
- An Essential/Driving Question – What question guides the student experience or what question are the students trying to answer with their work? Example: “Is democracy the most effective means of government?” A driving question should include (1) Who is responsible?(Individual/team/whole class) (2) The Audience(teacher/students in school/general public) (3) The specific challenge or problem being addressed (4) Should allow for multiple solutions.
- Learning Goals( content/process skills) – What do you want your students to learn, do, or accomplish during this project? Example: “I want students to interact meaningfully with adult professionals, understand how the democratic process works, and learn how to record and edit videos.”
- Products and Deliverables- What do you want the students to create? Example: “A two minute documentary film”
- Required Materials /Tools/Skills- This will affect both materials on hand and any preteaching or embedded tutorials made available to students, such as knowing how to use Scratch or I-movie
- Audience & Exhibition – When, where, how, and to whom will students present their completed works? Example: “Students will present their videos to the local city council just before the primary election season.”
- Student Reflection- " The Wicked Soap Company was a experience and project that really combined a lot of elements of chemistry together while making the process of learning fun. We learned through all the different recipes we experimented with this semester. It was also a way to incorporate how it would feel to be in a business, letting others interested in that field in the future seeing if they would really like to go down that path or not. It was overall just a fun experience and a project that you can you could only get here at HTHMA. – Mikaela Cuevas" https://www.hightechhigh.org/hthma/project/wicked-soap-company/
- Teacher Reflection- "...The work groups did in this final stages of the project dwarfed that which was done individually and the workload was not divided evenly between groups. The machinists shouldered the majority of the workload and were completely overwhelmed by both the technical difficulty of the project as well as the sheer workload. Many of the machinists stayed regularly until 6pm at night, came in on weekends, and even came in during thanksgiving break to work. ..." Scott Swalley, High Tech High http://gritlab.org/apocalypto-reflection/
See additional resources at www.hightechhigh.org/project/hth-structures-project-management/
Examples of HTH Student Projects: https://www.hightechhigh.org/student-work/student-projects/
Other HTH Resources:
- Gritlab Project Design Guide http://gritlab.org/project-design-guide/ (Recommended!)
- Work that Matters: The Teacher's Guide to Project-Based Learning