I recently visited
Blue Valley School District's CAPS program (Center for Advanced Professional Studies) and was impressed with the enthusiasm and motivation of its students, who partake in Project Based, 21st Century Learning.
Junior and Senior students in the district can elect to spend half of their school day immersing themselves at the CAPS facility in a collaborative learning environment, solving real-world, profession-based problems while gaining high school and college credit.
During my visit, I was allowed to explore the building at my own pace and visit with the students in each classroom while they worked. I could see the enthusiasm in the students' eyes as they told me about their projects. It was evident that each student had an emotional connection with their project. They saw it as their "baby," that they had created and they loved it.
One very bright student told me about an app she was creating that would allow doctors to check-up on their patients following a visit. Beaming, she presented her concept to me in a very professional manner and even allowed me to make a few suggestions for the app. Later I realized she was just humoring me, she clearly had already thought of all the things I brought up and determined it wasn't right for her project. The entire exchange with the student was very professional and I could tell she was learning more than she ever could in a typical classroom. The way this student presented herself, she could easily be mistaken for a graduate student in engineering.
This is a sharp contrast to what I remember my typical classroom environment was as a teenager. Students would try to stay awake while a teacher gave a lesson that was often forgotten by the next day. Rather than allowing the students to explore and teaching them to be curious about the world, the teachers were delivering a lecture that would more successfully have been delivered professionally produced in book format or video.
As our education model slowly changes, I hope my own elementary aged children will be given more opportunities to learn through collaborative, project based methods.
