Guest Blogger - Kim Butler

Critical Thinking in the Library

Kim Butler, Teacher Librarian - Birch Elementary

Project-Based Learning Pilot Program

This year I have focused my with students on critical thinking skills and teamwork. I have been fortunate this year to work toward this in a couple of areas. I have been working with our TAG Coordinator to provide extensions for students on ALPs, and other teacher selected students. These extensions became Project Bulldog; a project based learning pilot program. We meet with the students twice a week for about 40 minutes each and the students work on various projects. Project based learning takes authentic learning opportunities and gives the students freedom to explore a topic thoroughly while producing a project to share with an authentic audience.

How can we, as innovators, create a space that will meet all of our needs?

Our first project was all about the furniture. The driving question was: How can we, as innovators, create a space that will meet all of our needs? We were a Phase One school and so the majority of our construction happened over the summer. The furniture we ordered did not arrive until late November. In preparation for this we took the Project Bulldog kids on a field trip to a school that had similar furniture and had some speakers address the kids for our entry event.

From there the students created projects that centered around the furniture. Some of them developed floor plans using feedback from teachers and research on appropriate classroom set ups, some made safety videos, some even delved into the history and evolution of furniture. Some students created a persuasive video for how to use the furniture in the cafeteria, and some made video games that set a furniture layout based on individual responses to questions. They shared their projects with their classmates and parents in a gallery setting. The completed projects were put on the Birch site for people to explore.

How can we, as community planners, provide Mars colonists with a full and satisfying community life?

Our second Project Bulldog project took on a different flavor. We decided to aim this more towards the standards in the individual grades and offer a little more guidance and background knowledge. For 4th and 5th grades we decided to center our work on exploration of Mars.With the driving question: How can we, as community planners, provide Mars colonists with a full and satisfying community life? This would hit the exploration standards for 5th, space for 4th, and also provided an authentic topic because of all of the incredible work that is currently happening in regards to occupying Mars.

We did some work around Mars as a planet, comparisons to Jamestown, and even had an expert in to share some information about travel to Mars so far. The students are now developing projects centered on government development, entertainment, “a day in the life”, job recruitment, and transportation. So far their projects range from recruitment videos to 3d models of games, and even the best way to tax the community. These projects will be explored by a panel of “experts” including the speaker from earlier.

...projects will be explored by a panel of “experts” ...

For the second Project Bulldog project in 3rd grade, we decided to focus on a more authentic and school centered need. Each year the third grade students take a trip to Ecocycle to learn about recycling, and the kids in Project Bulldog are leading the charge toward better recycling within the school. Students had visits from a recycling expert and then developed a plan to share the things they’ve learned with the school. Their plans included a trivia slideshow that plays during lunches and culminates in a trivia contest complete with prizes, a video game that also instructs about proper recycling, and a video sharing the importance of recycling. Projects will be presented to the entire school as well as within the Third grade classrooms and on the Birch website. We’ve expanded the Project Bulldog work to include 1st grade, and they are learning about composting to accompany their classroom investigations of plants.