In Term 3, 2014, we guided our students through a project based learning unit on space junk. The Australian Curriculum asks for year 5 students to know that Earth is a part of a system of planets orbiting around the Sun and that important advancements have been made in science from people of different cultures. We discovered students mostly had a prior knowledge of the Earth as part of a system orbiting the sun, so our aim was to add depth to the students’ knowledge of objects that orbit. Enter Space Junk! During the process we aimed to meet the Gold Standards for Project Based Learning, John Mergendoller (Buck Institute) outlined at his 2014 PBL World Keynote.
The Gold Standards of project based learning are; authentic tasks, a driving question, sustained inquiry, student voice and choice, critique and revision, project based teaching, effective learning teams, and a public audience. It was great to see that Mergendoller linked the Gold Standards to John Hattie’s Visible Learning, as that is a key focus of the organisation in which we work.
Authentic Task
The task required students to research Space Junk and the possible impact it may have on the future of Earth and then teach a small group of younger students about it and present possible solutions. Space Junk is a real issue; it is one that has been developed by humans. In the quest for greater global connectivity, more and more objects have been launched into space and once it is no longer operational it is left in orbit. What is more authentic than being charged with teaching younger students about an issue that may affect them in the future?
A Driving Question
The students helped shape the driving question. Pictures of space were displayed on one of the classroom walls with a large piece of paper with ‘I Wonder’ written on it. Students were encouraged to right any wonderings and questions over a week. At the end of the week a class discussion was held and the question developed. As a result the driving question was ‘How does Space Junk affect our solar system and what can we do to prevent a disaster?’
Student Voice and Choice
As well as helping to shape the driving question, students were split into groups and given a task sheet that contained the driving question, the context, the task and some essential vocabulary. The students had the choice of how they could present the task. The final resources to teach 7-8yr olds included cartoons, picture books, PowerPoints and plays.
Effective Learning Groups
If an effective learning group is a group that has; no disagreements, gets the job done with no fuss, produces work at a very high standard the very first time, and requires no teacher assistance, then we had no effective learning groups. Fortunately, I believe effective learning groups are those that do not have smooth sailing. If there is no turbulence, no failure, then there is no chance for reflection and feedback which lessens the effect of the learning.
We introduced project contracts for the first time, where each group came up with jobs and rules that they all agreed to and signed. This was a great experienced and students had meetings to remind group members of the expectations and if it couldn’t be resolved they would seek teacher assistance. Groups began to realise they couldn’t just give a member the job of equipment, as then this person would then have no other work to do for the rest of the session. Jobs needed to constantly evolve throughout the project.
There was one group that just could not work together; we have taken this into account when selecting groups for the next PBL unit.
Sustained Inquiry
Our entry event included watching the trailer for Space Junk 3D, a movie we watched in the second last week of the project. After we had engaged the students in the topic via the development of the driving question and the movie trailer they were required to go and research space junk, pose new questions and look for new solutions. Students then had to decide what they would focus on and how they would present it.
Critique and Revision
During the process students met with their teachers on a regular basis to discuss their progress and review their plans. These conferences allowed the teacher to provide feedback to the groups and identify any areas that needed to be taught. A culture of a constant process of improvement is developing on the back of this practice. Students are developing a growth mindset. The task sheet was used to help students address the task and keep in mind the driving question.
Reflection tasks were built in to the unit and a summative task after the project required students to right a reflection.
Public Audience
Students presented their projects twice, to their peers and teacher and then to a small group of year 2 students. When students presented to the year 2’s they communicated their ideas as well as answering questions about space junk.
Project Based Teaching
Throughout the PBL unit project based teaching is everywhere, from staging an entry event, providing feedback and scaffolding. Our school is a Reading to Learn school, therefore we used the preparing to read, detailed reading, note-taking and joint re-write elements of Reading to Learn to build researching skills and content knowledge. We also watched this video at the bottom of the page to inspire the students.
Did the unit reach PBL Gold Standard? We think it’s on the right track, and aim to make the next one even better. Parts of this unit were better than our Waste Management System Unit and other parts did not reach those levels.We as teachers are on a quest to make every learning experience better than the last one, hopefully this growth mindset is rubbing off on our students and they want to make everything they do better than the last thing they did.
Nathan
Australian Curriculum Links (Year 5)
Science
The Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around a star (the sun) (ACSSU078)
Important contributions to the advancement of science have been made by people from a range of cultures (ACSHE082)
Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to solve problems that directly affect peoples’ lives (ACSHE083)
Scientific knowledge is used to inform personal and community decisions (ACSHE217)
With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be (ACSIS231)
Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS093)
English
Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds in formal and informal situations, connecting ideas to students’ own experiences and present and justify a point of view (ACELY1699)
Use interaction skills, for example paraphrasing, questioning and interpreting non-verbal cues and choose vocabulary and vocal effects appropriate for different audiences and purposes (ACELY1796)
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (ACELY1700)
Navigate and read texts for specific purposes applying appropriate text processing strategies, for example predicting and confirming, monitoring meaning, skimming and scanning (ACELY1702)
Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (ACELY1703)
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)
The Gold Standards of project based learning are; authentic tasks, a driving question, sustained inquiry, student voice and choice, critique and revision, project based teaching, effective learning teams, and a public audience. It was great to see that Mergendoller linked the Gold Standards to John Hattie’s Visible Learning, as that is a key focus of the organisation in which we work.
Authentic Task
The task required students to research Space Junk and the possible impact it may have on the future of Earth and then teach a small group of younger students about it and present possible solutions. Space Junk is a real issue; it is one that has been developed by humans. In the quest for greater global connectivity, more and more objects have been launched into space and once it is no longer operational it is left in orbit. What is more authentic than being charged with teaching younger students about an issue that may affect them in the future?
A Driving Question
The students helped shape the driving question. Pictures of space were displayed on one of the classroom walls with a large piece of paper with ‘I Wonder’ written on it. Students were encouraged to right any wonderings and questions over a week. At the end of the week a class discussion was held and the question developed. As a result the driving question was ‘How does Space Junk affect our solar system and what can we do to prevent a disaster?’
Student Voice and Choice
As well as helping to shape the driving question, students were split into groups and given a task sheet that contained the driving question, the context, the task and some essential vocabulary. The students had the choice of how they could present the task. The final resources to teach 7-8yr olds included cartoons, picture books, PowerPoints and plays.
Effective Learning Groups
If an effective learning group is a group that has; no disagreements, gets the job done with no fuss, produces work at a very high standard the very first time, and requires no teacher assistance, then we had no effective learning groups. Fortunately, I believe effective learning groups are those that do not have smooth sailing. If there is no turbulence, no failure, then there is no chance for reflection and feedback which lessens the effect of the learning.
We introduced project contracts for the first time, where each group came up with jobs and rules that they all agreed to and signed. This was a great experienced and students had meetings to remind group members of the expectations and if it couldn’t be resolved they would seek teacher assistance. Groups began to realise they couldn’t just give a member the job of equipment, as then this person would then have no other work to do for the rest of the session. Jobs needed to constantly evolve throughout the project.
There was one group that just could not work together; we have taken this into account when selecting groups for the next PBL unit.
Sustained Inquiry
Our entry event included watching the trailer for Space Junk 3D, a movie we watched in the second last week of the project. After we had engaged the students in the topic via the development of the driving question and the movie trailer they were required to go and research space junk, pose new questions and look for new solutions. Students then had to decide what they would focus on and how they would present it.
Critique and Revision
During the process students met with their teachers on a regular basis to discuss their progress and review their plans. These conferences allowed the teacher to provide feedback to the groups and identify any areas that needed to be taught. A culture of a constant process of improvement is developing on the back of this practice. Students are developing a growth mindset. The task sheet was used to help students address the task and keep in mind the driving question.
Reflection tasks were built in to the unit and a summative task after the project required students to right a reflection.
Public Audience
Students presented their projects twice, to their peers and teacher and then to a small group of year 2 students. When students presented to the year 2’s they communicated their ideas as well as answering questions about space junk.
Project Based Teaching
Throughout the PBL unit project based teaching is everywhere, from staging an entry event, providing feedback and scaffolding. Our school is a Reading to Learn school, therefore we used the preparing to read, detailed reading, note-taking and joint re-write elements of Reading to Learn to build researching skills and content knowledge. We also watched this video at the bottom of the page to inspire the students.
Did the unit reach PBL Gold Standard? We think it’s on the right track, and aim to make the next one even better. Parts of this unit were better than our Waste Management System Unit and other parts did not reach those levels.We as teachers are on a quest to make every learning experience better than the last one, hopefully this growth mindset is rubbing off on our students and they want to make everything they do better than the last thing they did.
Nathan
Australian Curriculum Links (Year 5)
Science
The Earth is part of a system of planets orbiting around a star (the sun) (ACSSU078)
Important contributions to the advancement of science have been made by people from a range of cultures (ACSHE082)
Scientific understandings, discoveries and inventions are used to solve problems that directly affect peoples’ lives (ACSHE083)
Scientific knowledge is used to inform personal and community decisions (ACSHE217)
With guidance, pose questions to clarify practical problems or inform a scientific investigation, and predict what the findings of an investigation might be (ACSIS231)
Communicate ideas, explanations and processes in a variety of ways, including multi-modal texts (ACSIS093)
English
Clarify understanding of content as it unfolds in formal and informal situations, connecting ideas to students’ own experiences and present and justify a point of view (ACELY1699)
Use interaction skills, for example paraphrasing, questioning and interpreting non-verbal cues and choose vocabulary and vocal effects appropriate for different audiences and purposes (ACELY1796)
Plan, rehearse and deliver presentations for defined audiences and purposes incorporating accurate and sequenced content and multimodal elements (ACELY1700)
Navigate and read texts for specific purposes applying appropriate text processing strategies, for example predicting and confirming, monitoring meaning, skimming and scanning (ACELY1702)
Use comprehension strategies to analyse information, integrating and linking ideas from a variety of print and digital sources (ACELY1703)
Plan, draft and publish imaginative, informative and persuasive print and multimodal texts, choosing text structures, language features, images and sound appropriate to purpose and audience (ACELY1704)
Use a range of software including word processing programs with fluency to construct, edit and publish written text, and select, edit and place visual, print and audio elements (ACELY1707)