The Importance of the Student Voice in Project‐Based Learning
As part of my Virtual Teacher Institute (VTI) training, I am working with Jennifer D. Klein to design and lead a Project‐Based unit on the human body. During this five week unit, my seventh‐grade class has been working in groups of two or three to design and build a prosthetic hand capable of being used to play their particular favorite sport.
The groups together interviewed an engineer about the types of materials they could use and how to limit the range of motion in the joints of their prosthetic hands. Students also reached out to athletes in their respective sport to understand how the athlete moved his or her body while competing in the sport. Students learned the dynamics of throwing a softball, the importance of cradling a football after catching it, what the “shooting” hand does while shooting a hockey puck, and how the wrist flicks when making a shot with a basketball.
During this several day process, students drew a prototype to share with their respective experts and then reworked their design based upon their conversations with their experts. During a field trip to a local hardware store, each group was given twenty dollars to purchase materials for their prosthetic hand. The groups had 30 minutes to select specialty items like springs, hinges, eye screws, and pvc pipes.
Students are using class time to build their prosthetic hands using simple hand tools. After the students complete their individual build, they will then share their results with the other groups in a “marketplace” of ideas before they again share their results with their respective sport expert, as well as with the prosthetic limb designers and engineers.
The most important aspect of this project is the “student voice”. Each student group selects the sport for which to design their prosthetic hand. Students also meet with experts one‐on‐one without their teacher; they share and explore their ideas, while at the same time learning about the critical special needs for a prosthetic hand for their respective sport. Students working together decide how to modify their original designs before they begin to actually construct their respective prosthetic hands. Additionally, student design choices drive the types of supplies and materials they need. The supplies purchased separately by the teacher merely supplement what the students already felt they needed, instead of the teacher‐selected supplies influencing or dictating the students’ ultimate designs.
As opposed to spending several days listening to others lecture and explain how to do PBL, VTI allows me as the teacher‐resource person to work one‐on‐one with an expert in PBL during the actual school year, while I am actively engaged in planning and leading a PBL unit.
Just like my students, I too now have a voice in what I am learning and what I need help with, as I strive to improve the learning each one of my student’s experiences.
— Jonathan Reveal, Middle School Science Teacher, Ensworth School
