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One Kilmer student’s persuasive letter about the need for a playground at her school served as a springboard for Project-Based Learning, or “PBL”.
The 4th-grade students in the class became engineers tasked with designing a playground for a week in June. Students engaged in many lessons during the PBL, including creating a budget sheet (Mathematics), examining playgrounds around the World (Social Studies), investigating what causes objects to be in motion (Science), and composing interview questions to gather information from professionals in the field (English Language Arts). Students had the opportunity to ask their questions when engineers visited their classroom.
"This was an amazing opportunity for students to see the real-world application as it [PBL] relates to all areas of discipline. Students were able to see first-hand and understand how one subject connects to another. I am so proud of all the hard work our students put into this project. I look forward to seeing more PBL experiences across the district in the 2022-23 school year," said Joanne Sung, assistant superintendent of teaching and learning
The PBL culminated in a gallery walk that showcased the students’ proposals, including their prototypes and budgets.