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Illustrates how to strengthen learners' problem-solving skills by incorporating problem-based learning (PBL) with Internet resources and presents projects that correlate to national science, mathematics, and technology standards.
Project-Based Learning in the Math Classroom explains how to keep inquiry at the heart of mathematics teaching and helps teachers build students' abilities to be true mathematicians. This book outlines basic teaching strategies, such as questioning and exploration of concepts. It also provides advanced strategies for teachers who are already implementing inquiry-based methods. Project-Based Learning in the Math Classroom includes practical advice about strategies the authors have used in their own classrooms, and each chapter features strategies that can be implemented immediately. Teaching in a project-based environment means using great teaching practices. The authors impart strategies that assist teachers in planning standards-based lessons, encouraging wonder and curiosity, providing a safe environment where failure occurs, and giving students opportunities for revision and reflection. Grades 6-10
Are you interested in using Project Based Learning to revamp your lessons, but aren’t sure how to get started? In DIY Project Based Learning for Math and Science, award-winning teacher and Edutopia blogger Heather Wolpert-Gawron makes it fun and easy! Project Based Learning encourages students and teachers alike to abandon their dusty textbooks, and instead embrace a form of curriculum design focused on student engagement, innovation, and creative problem-solving. A leading name in this field, Heather Wolpert-Gawron shares some of her most popular units for Math and Science in this exciting new collection. This book is an essential resource for teachers looking to: Create their own project-based learning units. Engage student in their education by grounding lessons in real-world problems and encouraging them to develop creative solutions. Incorporate role-playing into everyday learning. Develop real-world lessons to get students to understand the life-long relevance of what they are learning. Assess multiple skills and subject areas in an integrated way. Collaborate with teachers across subject areas. Test authentic skills and set authentic goals for their students to grow as individuals. Part I of the book features five full units, complete with student samples, targeted rubrics, a checklist to keep students on track, and even "Homework Hints." Part II is a mix-and-match section of tools you can use to create your own PBL-aligned lessons. The tools are available as eResources on our website, www.routledge.com/9781138891609, so you can print and use them in your classroom immediately.
Results from national and international assessments indicate that school children in the United States are not learning mathematics well enough. Many students cannot correctly apply computational algorithms to solve problems. Their understanding and use of decimals and fractions are especially weak. Indeed, helping all children succeed in mathematics is an imperative national goal. However, for our youth to succeed, we need to change how we’re teaching this discipline. Helping Children Learn Mathematics provides comprehensive and reliable information that will guide efforts to improve school mathematics from pre--kindergarten through eighth grade. The authors explain the five strands of mathematical proficiency and discuss the major changes that need to be made in mathematics instruction, instructional materials, assessments, teacher education, and the broader educational system and answers some of the frequently asked questions when it comes to mathematics instruction. The book concludes by providing recommended actions for parents and caregivers, teachers, administrators, and policy makers, stressing the importance that everyone work together to ensure a mathematically literate society.
This volume covers the many issues and concepts of how IBL can be applied to STEM programs and serves as a conceptual and practical resource and guide for educators and offers practical examples of IBL in action and diverse strategies on how to implement IBL in different contexts.
Help your students to think critically and creatively through team-based problem solving instead of focusing on testing and outcomes. Professionals throughout the education system are recognizing that standardized testing is holding students back. Schools tend to view children as outcomes rather than as individuals who require guidance on thinking critically and creatively. Awesome Math focuses on team-based problem solving to teach discrete mathematics, a subject essential for success in the STEM careers of the future. Built on the increasingly popular growth mindset, this timely book emphasizes a problem-solving approach for developing the skills necessary to think critically, creatively, and collaboratively. In its current form, math education is a series of exercises: straightforward problems with easily-obtained answers. Problem solving, however, involves multiple creative approaches to solving meaningful and interesting problems. The authors, co-founders of the multi-layered educational organization AwesomeMath, have developed an innovative approach to teaching mathematics that will enable educators to: Move their students beyond the calculus trap to study the areas of mathematics most of them will need in the modern world Show students how problem solving will help them achieve their educational and career goals and form lifelong communities of support and collaboration Encourage and reinforce curiosity, critical thinking, and creativity in their students Get students into the growth mindset, coach math teams, and make math fun again Create lesson plans built on problem based learning and identify and develop educational resources in their schools Awesome Math: Teaching Mathematics with Problem Based Learning is a must-have resource for general education teachers and math specialists in grades 6 to 12, and resource specialists, special education teachers, elementary educators, and other primary education professionals.
This second edition of Project-Based Learning (PBL) presents an original approach to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) centric PBL. We define PBL as an “ill-defined task with a well-defined outcome,” which is consistent with our engineering design philosophy and the accountability highlighted in a standards-based environment. This model emphasizes a backward design that is initiated by well-defined outcomes, tied to local, state, or national standard that provide teachers with a framework guiding students’ design, solving, or completion of ill-defined tasks. This book was designed for middle and secondary teachers who want to improve engagement and provide contextualized learning for their students. However, the nature and scope of the content covered in the 14 chapters are appropriate for preservice teachers as well as for advanced graduate method courses. New to this edition is revised and expanded coverage of STEM PBL, including implementing STEM PBL with English Language Learners and the use of technology in PBL. The book also includes many new teacher-friendly forms, such as advanced organizers, team contracts for STEM PBL, and rubrics for assessing PBL in a larger format.
Like most good educational interventions, problem-based learning (PBL) did not grow out of theory, but out of a practical problem. Medical students were bored, dropping out, and unable to apply what they had learned in lectures to their practical experiences a couple of years later. Neurologist Howard S. Barrows reversed the sequence, presenting students with patient problems to solve in small groups and requiring them to seek relevant knowledge in an effort to solve those problems. Out of his work, PBL was born. The application of PBL approaches has now spread far beyond medical education. Today, PBL is used at levels from elementary school to adult education, in disciplines ranging across the humanities and sciences, and in both academic and corporate settings. This book aims to take stock of developments in the field and to bridge the gap between practice and the theoretical tradition, originated by Barrows, that underlies PBL techniques.
Numerous teaching, learning, assessment, and institutional innovations in undergraduate science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education have emerged in the past decade. Because virtually all of these innovations have been developed independently of one another, their goals and purposes vary widely. Some focus on making science accessible and meaningful to the vast majority of students who will not pursue STEM majors or careers; others aim to increase the diversity of students who enroll and succeed in STEM courses and programs; still other efforts focus on reforming the overall curriculum in specific disciplines. In addition to this variation in focus, these innovations have been implemented at scales that range from individual classrooms to entire departments or institutions. By 2008, partly because of this wide variability, it was apparent that little was known about the feasibility of replicating individual innovations or about their potential for broader impact beyond the specific contexts in which they were created. The research base on innovations in undergraduate STEM education was expanding rapidly, but the process of synthesizing that knowledge base had not yet begun. If future investments were to be informed by the past, then the field clearly needed a retrospective look at the ways in which earlier innovations had influenced undergraduate STEM education. To address this need, the National Research Council (NRC) convened two public workshops to examine the impact and effectiveness of selected STEM undergraduate education innovations. This volume summarizes the workshops, which addressed such topics as the link between learning goals and evidence; promising practices at the individual faculty and institutional levels; classroom-based promising practices; and professional development for graduate students, new faculty, and veteran faculty. The workshops concluded with a broader examination of the barriers and opportunities associated with systemic change.
