If you ask any educator who is a fan of the popular teaching strategy known as “project based learning”, they will tell you that their students learn best when engaging in the planning and execution of real-world and personally meaningful projects. The critical thinking skills and deep content knowledge involved in such projects instill not only a sense of ownership and independence, but also a level of creativity that students can struggle to find in more traditional settings. When students are invested in the entire process of completing a project, they are given the opportunity to flourish and create well beyond the limits of pencil and paper. Need some inspiration? The possibilities are endless, but teachers can start with these four ideas for promoting creativity through project based learning:
- Digital Travel Brochure: Pack your bags and grab your passports, because we’re going on a trip! Have students choose a vacation destination and create a digital travel brochure informing prospective travelers of all the great amenities available. From the cuisine to the culture, students will take a deep dive into everything that makes their destination great. Visit the beautiful country of Italy in this example!
- Hometown Museum: After all that traveling, there’s nothing like coming home and learning more about your own hometown. Have students create a museum full of artifacts that represent the history and culture of their hometown. Interviews with members of the community can uncover hidden gems that will foster a whole new sense of appreciation for your own backyard. Learn all about the great city of Fort Collins, Colorado in this example.
- Interactive Family Tree: Bring the age-old tradition of creating a family tree into the 21st century by having students include photos, videos, and voice-overs of their relatives. Students and families alike will enjoy learning more about each other and preserving special memories for years to come in a project like this example.
- Online Cookbook: Everybody needs a good cookbook, so why not have students create their own? Recipes can be gathered from across print and online sources, and compiled into different categories for easy browsing. Hyperlinks, images, and videos can all be included to make sure the chef never misses a step. Check out this awesome chili recipe!
It’s clear that project based learning is continuing to gain more and more traction over the years, and for good reason. Students gain real-world experience and knowledge that can be carried into their future endeavors in ways that a simple lecture or exam can’t provide. If you’re ready to empower your students to create stunning projects, then your school district needs MyVRSpot. With a suite of instructional and creative tools, students and teachers can work together to create impactful, technologically relevant, and visually appealing projects. To prove it, all of the above examples were created with MediaSpot, MyVRSpot’s drag-and-drop digital graphic organizer tool. Contact us today to see how MyVRSpot can empower your educators to provide high-quality project based learning for their students.