PBL and IBL: Advantages and Uses in the classroom.

Fun and interesting ways to grab your students attention as well as teach them content can be difficult to come by. These are a couple of best practices that do just that. 

In a few words, project based learning and inquiry based learning are two engaging and authentic ways to grasp new concepts. In the classroom, we can use these strategies to increase the students depth of knowledge and their ability to interpret, problem solve, and apply information in new ways.

According to Blooms Taxonomy creativity is the highest level of learning, and if have all those skills and information they will be able to create. So now you may be asking, what are these wonderful teaching methods?

 

Project Based Learning

Simply put, project based learning is an immersion process. The students are learning by doing. They are dropped into the actual or simulated environment that they are learning about. It is one of the most interactive learning processes that exists in the academic world.  Students are able to investigate and respond to an engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge through hands on activities and experiences. This information was sourced from BIE click here to go to their website.

 

One great  and currently relevant example of project based learning is a mock election such as in this video.

 

 

Inquiry Based Learning

Inquiry based learning is exactly what it sounds like. What do the students want to know; what are they inquiring about? They want to know the answers to their questions. They want to know what an elephant feels like, what the ocean smells like, and why the moon does not always look round.

 

How does this help teachers? We get to listen to them, give them a topic, or even some of the questions. Then they want to know about the information. They are actively asking questions and getting involved. They having find the answers themselves. They find out an elephant feels like leather, the ocean smells like fish, salt, and fresh air, and the moon does not always appear round because it only reflects light back from the sun and is not always facing us directly. Then they take that data and pull it together into something that makes sense and can be applied in other ways. Elephants feel like leather, Rhinos are similar to elephants so maybe Rhinos feel like leather too! This information was sourced from the Educational Broadcasting Corporation. 

 One great example and further explanation can be seen in Mrs. Schile-Reed's class in this video.

 

E. (2004). Inquiry-based Learning: Explanation. Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/concept2class/inquiry/index.html

 

B. (2016). What is Project Based Learning (PBL)? Retrieved February 11, 2016, from http://bie.org/about/what_pbl