Chickasaw TRIBE Talk: From the Middle: PBL in Action and Homecoming

Project Based Learning in the Content Area:

This year the middle school is working at incorporating Project Based Learning into the content area. Students will be using critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication in the learning process. Teachers are identifying critical standards and using the standards to set up a learning experience. Students need to have basic knowledge (surface knowledge), deep understanding (ability to apply knowledge in a higher manner), and transfer learning (apply information in a new and unique situation). The audience the projects will be presented will vary depending on the topic. One of the first PBL units implemented this year has been in Mrs. Rodger's 7th grade science classroom.

Topic: What Does an Animal Need to Survive

Project Summary: Students will research living (biotic) and nonliving (abiotic) factors for an animal of choice. They will describe how the animal live in their environment. Students will then create a habitat for their animal in another world and describe success of the organism.

Students have been working in groups to learn about what makes an organism successful, habitat factors, food chains and webs, and living and non-living factors. Students are in teams and record process each day while making decisions for the the group for future class periods.