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K–12 teaching and learning · from the UNC School of Education

Traveling the world, virtually: Project-based learning in elementary school

Fifth-grade teacher Shannon Page shares her methods and experiences with using project-based learning in the elementary school classroom. Ms. Page's focus on taking virtual field trips, which are planned and guided by her students, helps infuse curriculum objectives with relevance and rigor.

By Dan Lewandowski

portrait of Shannon Page

(Photo provided by Shannon Page. More about the photograph)

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Shannon Page, a fifth-grade teacher at A.B. Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary School, readily admits to conducting unconventional classes. For one thing, they’re usually loud. “I’m not sure I’d be comfortable in a quiet classroom,” she says. “Without constant conversation, I would feel as if no one was learning.”

Then there’s all the activity. Every day her students do “hands-on” group projects, and every other week the kids change desk locations in the classroom. “I use a random-event generator to determine who will sit where. Every other Monday everybody gathers his or her stuff and moves.”

She hesitates even to call herself a teacher, preferring the terms “facilitator” or “mentor,” because her goal is less to transmit information than “…to teach my students how to think.”

Her method for reaching her salutary goal is project-based instruction. “I love it,” she states. “It’s rigorous and relevant. It teaches kids reasoning skills and requires them to take control of their own learning.”

Her instructional strategy, she insists, also keeps her actively engaged. Because the kids’ curiosity drives the lessons, “I’m continually challenged to keep up, to answer surprising questions and stay ahead of research when projects take unexpected turns, which they often do. I’m not exaggerating when I say I never know what to expect.”

Virtual field trips

There’s nothing new about virtual field trips; teachers have given students “destinations,” and encouraged them to “travel” via the Internet since computers first became available. Ms. Page, though, has expanded the concept exponentially. For the past two years, virtual field trips have been the basis for much — if not most — of the teaching and learning in her classroom.

“First, the kids love them, and that’s the most important initial consideration for any classroom project. When your students are interested and excited, there’s no limit to what they can learn because they’re not aware they’re learning.” They’re not memorizing and reciting; they’re thinking conceptually, having authentic experiences, and using real-world tools.

First steps

To plan her “trips,” Ms. Page first creates a “subjects wheel” — a simple diagram on a white sheet of paper. She writes the name of the project in the middle of the page then lists the learning areas she must cover — social studies, technology, math, writing, and reading — around it. Because she teaches her students all core subjects, she is responsible for achieving all of the NC Standard Course of Study goals and objectives for her fifth grade class throughout the year.

Then she fills in the blanks.

When she first began employing virtual field trips in her classroom, she chose destinations herself and based her choices on the availability of resources. Now, though, she involves the students from the start and doesn’t concern herself about exhausting resources. “I’ve learned as long as the kids are engaged, we’ll have plenty to do. If you allow your students to lead, they will.”

After the destination is selected, Ms. Page has her students complete the first two sections — “What I Know” and “What I Want to know” — of a KWL questionnaire.

These documents, she insists, are essential. “The kids’ entries guide the project,” she explains. “I refer to them constantly to make sure we’re addressing everybody’s interests.” As the project progresses, the students complete the “What I Learned” section of their KWLs, and those entries lead to yet more inquiries and, thus, a richer and deeper learning experience for both students and teacher.

New York City

The first thing Ms. Page and her students did for a recent virtual trip to New York City was complete a geography lesson: They looked at a map to see where they were going vis-à-vis their current location in Wake County. They noted the mileage as well as the names and shapes of the states they would “fly over” on their way to New York.

Next came an extended arithmetic lesson: figuring airfare. Using travel-related websites, the students examined, compared, and computed flight costs for themselves and the class as a whole, taking into consideration departure and arrival times as well as trip durations.

Next came an art and technology-skills lesson: The class created individual passports. “I explained we didn’t need them to visit within the United States,” says Ms. Page, “but we did it anyway because it was fun.”

Then Ms. Page configured the chairs in the classroom like seats on an airplane; the kids “boarded,” “stowed their luggage,” and “buckled their seatbelts”; and the “plane” “took off,” after which the students completed their next lesson: writing about their flight experience.

“Some of the kids got very creative,” Ms. Page admits. “We had lots of bags falling out of the overhead compartments, and quite a bit of airsickness.”

Next came a reading and technology-skills exercise: researching the Statue of Liberty. “We chose the statue as the first site we’d visit based on the amount of interest the kids expressed on their KWLs.”

This exercise led to unexpected history lessons about Ellis Island, immigration to the U.S., and the Great Depression. “I didn’t anticipate this tangent at all,” says Ms. Page. “Again, the kids led and I scrambled to stay with them.”

The virtual visit to the monument entailed more math lessons. Was there a fare to ride the ferry? Was there a fee to enter the statue? If so, were the fees different for adults and children? What was the total cost for the whole class to enjoy the total Statue of Liberty experience? [View a Statue of Liberty math handout created by Ms. Page.]

More entries to the students’ KWLs followed, as well as follow-up research and another writing assignment — this one regarding the students’ impressions of the monument.

Throughout the project, which took about a month to complete, Ms. Page often consulted both her “subjects wheel” and the Standard Course of Study to create timely assessments for her students.

While “in” New York, her students also visited Wall Street, researched and chose stocks in which to “invest,” and “bought and sold” shares, all of which entailed lessons in not only math and history but also financial literacy and money management. “Not many fifth graders have much experience with losing money,” Ms. Page explains, emphasizing the educational efficacy of authentic intellectual exercises. [View a stock market worksheet created by Ms. Page.]

By the end of the project, Ms. Page’s students had gained not only a wealth of knowledge about New York City, but also a new respect for the dollar expense of any vacation. “One of my students said to me, after seeing the grand totals for the trip, ‘I think my family will probably take the car the next time we go on vacation.’”

Covering the curriculum

Although project-based instruction continues to gain popularity among educators, not much relevant professional development is available, and the practice remains far from common. “The main question I hear from teachers who haven’t tried it,” says Ms. Page, “is, ‘Are you sure you’re covering the material?’ My answer is always the same. My students take the same end-of-grade tests as students who are taught in traditional classes and they do as well or better every time, so, obviously, they’re learning what they’re supposed to learn.”

Nor, she insists, is this accomplishment attributable to the particular student population at A.B. Combs Elementary. “Yes, this is a magnet school, but our kids come from every economic stratum. We have students here from fifty different countries.”

She admits, though, she had trouble learning not to obsess about curriculum coverage on a day-to-day basis. “I needed to become comfortable with the unpredictable nature of this style of teaching and accept that if I didn’t accomplish everything I wanted to accomplish on a given day, that I’d get to it eventually.”

Successful project-based instruction, she says, requires teachers to trust themselves, their students, and the process enough to relinquish substantial measures of control over both lesson content and pacing.

Onward and upward

During her four years of teaching, Ms. Page has “traveled” with her students to, among other places, Hershey, Pennsylvania (”What child isn’t interested in a place devoted to chocolate?”), Alaska for the Iditarod Sled Dog Race, the North Pole, and even Mars. Recently, though, she has begun to try different types of projects. Her latest effort, for example, involves challenging her students to “come up with a new invention, create a new product, envision a new way to solve a major, real-world problem.”

Ms. Page cannot imagine returning to traditional methods of teaching. She’s proud her students are learning according to the demands of the Standard Course of Study but she’s even prouder they are learning to express and assert themselves, ask questions and make mistakes without fear, and apply common sense and critical thinking skills to matters that arise in their everyday lives.

The only reason, she believes, teachers would not embrace project-based instruction is if they had never seen it in action, if they had never felt the enthusiasm and energy in a classroom full of kids on a mission, if, in Ms. Page’s words, they never “saw the excitement in kids’ eyes” as they found their own way — under the gentle guidance of a mentor/facilitator — to success.