Our fifth-grade students worked on Project-Based Learning (PBL) activities created by their teachers.  These meaningful learning experiences are different from a project in a few critical ways. PBL always starts with an open-ended question that has more than one solution. Students then generate an inventory of what they need to know to solve their questions. Once they understand the tasks, students often work in teams to answer their questions and share their unique solutions with an audience.

Our fifth-grade teachers created a PBL around the topic of oceans.  The question the teachers shared was, "How can you as an environmental influencer, launch a campaign that persuades the Brookfield community to reduce their consumption of single-use plastics and inspire them to have a positive impact on the oceans?" In order to answer the question, students learned about the ocean's ecosystem and how to write a persuasive essay.

The solutions were as varied as the students. Some made posters. Others created slideshows — a few made t-shirts. The students were excited to share their process and their process with a variety of audience members to learn about the students' solutions. There were teachers, parents, administrators, and even other students from multiple grade-levels. The pictures below are from this final sharing event.