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ERIC Number: EJ1172574
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2018-Mar
Pages: 6
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0036-8555
EISSN: N/A
The Activity Summary Board
Touitou, Israel; Barry, Stephen; Bielik, Tom; Schneider, Barbara; Krajcik, Joseph
Science Teacher, v85 n3 p30-35 Mar 2018
Project-based learning (PBL) is an instructional approach to science teaching that supports the "Next Generation Science Standards" (Krajcik 2015; NGSS Lead States 2013). In a PBL lesson, students design and solve real-world problems or explain scientific phenomena. Students using a PBL model learn and retain more than those not using PBL (Krajcik and Shin 2014). At the core of PBL is the open-ended "driving question." The driving question guides all learning tasks inside and outside the classroom, supports and inspires students' curiosity while learning more about the phenomena being explored, and culminates in the creation of a final artifact. The driving question board (DQB) serves as a visual organizer for PBL units (Weizman, Schwartz, and Fortus 2008). Teachers use the DQB to display the driving question to remind students of the goal of the unit's investigations. Students write their own questions and comments about the driving question, the phenomena, or anything that arises from subsequent investigations on the DQB. Using sticky notes for this means students' questions, categories, and groupings can be easily added, revised, or moved as more information is acquired during the unit. This article introduces an additional tool, the activity summary board (ASB) (Figure 1). The ASB is a classroom organizational tool that summarizes what students do and figure out in the classroom as they take on the role of scientist or engineer to make sense of the phenomenon or problem. The ASB augments the DQB: Student questions that have been investigated and answered are physically removed from the DQB and then placed on the "Question" side of the ASB (Figure 1). Thus, the ASB provides a visual representation of the students' progress in making sense of the phenomenon. A two-week physics unit in a classroom of one of the authors illustrates use of the DQB and the ASB.
National Science Teachers Association. 1840 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22201-3000. Tel: 800-722-6782; Fax: 703-243-3924; e-mail: membership@nsta.org; Web site: http://www.nsta.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: High Schools
Audience: Teachers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A