Learning To Question in Passion-Based Projects
When choosing a topic, students must develop a central question that their project will focus on. When deciding on a central question, students must remember to keep their questions open-ended. This means that they should not be simply answered with a “yes” or “no”, and answers should not be easily found with a quick Google search.
Image by Don Moyer, Flickr.com
A “Good” question:
Example of a “good” question:
* How do you build a computer from scratch? (open-ended; requires knowledge-building regarding parts of a computer and related jobs of these parts; Allows for hands-on discovery and computer-based research to find answers.)
Example of a “poor” question:
* What is a computer? (Only one answer that can easily be found with Google search; no pique in interest; obvious.)
Teacher’s role:
As students begin to submit their topics and central questions they will answer, be lenient on approval; students need to realize on their own that they may have chosen a poor question/topic and have the chance to revise. Unless the topic is inappropriate, too vague, or of little depth, consent should be given, as students should feel like they are in the driver’s seat as much as possible.
- is open to research.
- may have multiple answers.
- has a clear focus.
- involves finding an answer that you do not already know.
- has an answer you are interested in finding.
Example of a “good” question:
* How do you build a computer from scratch? (open-ended; requires knowledge-building regarding parts of a computer and related jobs of these parts; Allows for hands-on discovery and computer-based research to find answers.)
Example of a “poor” question:
* What is a computer? (Only one answer that can easily be found with Google search; no pique in interest; obvious.)
Teacher’s role:
As students begin to submit their topics and central questions they will answer, be lenient on approval; students need to realize on their own that they may have chosen a poor question/topic and have the chance to revise. Unless the topic is inappropriate, too vague, or of little depth, consent should be given, as students should feel like they are in the driver’s seat as much as possible.
Narrative Examples of PBPThe buttons to the right all lead to TRUE-STORY, narrative examples of passion-based learning projects in classrooms. There are stories for three different levels: Primary, Intermediate, and High School.
By clicking on these links, you will be led into each story as it pertains to student work with specific learning modules on this site:
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