Why projects are important to learning.

After the recent science fair at my school, one held a discussion of how the science fair went, what they liked and what they would do differently next time. This group of 7th graders asked if they would be assigned a project similar to what the 8th grade made for this year's science fair, next year.
I told them that they would be assigned almost the same project with some stricter rules about what could or could not be used for materials, especially given that one student this year went ahead and used the templates that I had put on the forbidden materials list from day one.

As the discussion went on, one of the kids mentioned a project and said that they expected something far better from the student who made it, stating "that student is so smart, we thought their project would be far better than all of the others". This lead to a discussion of how some people are more mechanically inclined than others regardless of what we consider as 'smarts'.

Later I got to thinking about this and looking back over the past year of project based activities in my classroom, how they evolved and improved over time with some students and how some students have totally balked at the idea of ever making another project, asking rather to have tests that they can study for and pass easily.
Maybe this is a reflection of our society, maybe not... In general, we have students who work very hard in class, study and prep for tests, and then pass the tests with flying colors, provided the test is straightforward question and answer. What I am finding is that when I go the next step and ask students to show their actual understanding of the concepts by creating a project, this is where those who can study and pass, often fail. The application of information is not internalized and these students have a harder time taking information and making use of it in any form or media.

In this particular 7th grade class this year, there have been students who fit both categories, those who would rather study for a test and just answer the questions and move on, and those who have gained higher understanding of the concepts by completing some unique and amazing projects. Project activities such as exponents and prime factorization in math class are an example, we had projects that were very simplistic showing a list of numbers and how they increase exponentially (kids who prefer tests) and then we had projects that took actual items such as a grain of rice and showed how that would increase with each exponent to the extent of how much the final pile of rice would weigh after 30 exponential increases. Other students used beads, straws, paper towel tubes, and pieces of string to show each change in the size of the number with each change in the exponent used. This group of students came to a clearer understanding of the concept than those who just did the calculations and showed the numbers. Similar projects were produced for prime factorization, once again with simple lists of a number being factored. Other students created tactile presentations using playing cards, groups of corn kernels, and a stop motion video of a tube that decreased in size each time it was divided in half. Several Scratch programs were created for this as well. My favorite project in math this year was made by one of the sixth graders, she titled it 'The sounds of Math'. It was her trimester project and she used musical notes for each required part of the project, making the connection between musical notes being factored from a whole note, to half notes, etc; patterns that make up a song and more. A photo of the project is below.

Yes, this is a flat, non-electronic project, but it shows an amazing connection of the concepts to real life applications in Music. This same student made her first project a stop motion animation of how patterns can change by color, number and size and ended with this nice combination of all of the concepts.

In science, many students produced projects related to the water cycle and the distribution of water over the Earth. The goal for this project was to go well beyond a simple water cycle diagram or presentation and to take it the next step to include how water is distributed around the Earth, and connected to all of the different Earth systems. Once again, we had students who only took this to the extent of making simple posters, with simplistic explainations of the water cycle. Then we had projects such as the one below, which were amazingly interactive (unfortunately the video didn't save) but below you can see students showing how snow falls on the ground, they also used water, and how the water soaks in and/or runs of the ground into ground water, eventually returning to the oceans.

Another group chose to show their understanding of the water cycle in game format. Below you can see some of the kids in this class playing the game, it followed a Chutes and Ladders format.

Other projects that kids did this year included stop motion animated videos of weather reports, I have not been able to upload all of the videos as of yet from the school iPads. Many of the videos were amazingly well done, with humor and attention grabbers that kept the audience interested. Once again though, a large portion of the projects were basic regurgitation of the data collected without any real analysis or though to what the overall project would look like. I will admit that this was indeed the first time many of the children have used the stop motion animation software, myself included, most students did in the end state that given more time, that the projects could have been better (I guess three weeks wasn't long enough for some of the kids).

I have also included tests in both my math and science classes this year, and in those tests were sections to apply data, or to create a lab report based on data. This continued to be a struggle for the kids who where more inclined to multiple choice preference, though students who were excelling in the project based activities did very well in this area of the tests.

This keeps me wondering why we test so much, and allow authentic learning so little. I am blessed to work in a school that supports my project based approach. I only wish that it could be implemented into all levels of education, starting in the early grades and at home. The more kids make and create with a large variety of materials and tools, the better they are able to understand the world around them. I am thankful for my parents who gave us more than enought opportunities to learn by doing, either by playing outside, building treehouses, helping dad with projects or learning how to knit, we were never without something to do or make. More of this type of learning would be so benifitial to all students... I will keep working in my small area of the world, to create learning possibilities... for all.