CHOOSING THE BEST GENERAL SOLUTION
Though we acknowledge that traditional instruction is effective in some circumstances, we believe that in order to help our students become true problem solvers and 21st century learners, Engineering-Based Learning is the most effective general solution for the classroom. IBL, PBL, and EBL are all similar, but EBL provides students with an opportunity to solve real-world problems, and lends itself well to open-ended lessons, activities, and projects to fit different situations and content. It is a more relevant approach and places emphasis on the process of problem solving. Though EBL is a great solution to implement in your classroom, it is also important to note that in choosing EBL, you may still need to use traditional and other teaching methods for specific content.
CHOOSING THE BEST EBL IMPLEMENTATION SOLUTION
While the types of EBL are different in scope and time requirements, they are all very flexible and the best solution for your specific situation may very well be a combination of multiple solutions or something in between two of the solutions. In order to choose the right implementation for your classroom, we believe the three most important things to consider are the motivations for you, your students, and your colleagues, your learning context and objectives, and your unique classroom situation. Keep your specific problem statement in mind when choosing a solution (what specific problem are you actually trying to solve and how will the solution you choose help you solve that problem?)
Considerations
The considerations below are suggestions for questions you should ask yourself before choosing a specific solution. They are not all inclusive and should be considered just a starting point to think about your own constraints and restrictions you have to work within.
Motivation
Student - Will the problem/project engage your students? What naturally motivates your students? What do they like to do/what are they interested in outside of the classroom?
Teacher - What are your interests? What kind of project will motivate you?
Colleagues - Are your colleagues (or department/school in general) struggling with the same problem as you? Is there interest in working together to solve common problems? Are there teachers in other disciplines that would be interested in working on a cross-curriculum project?
Learning
Time - How much time can you devote to the project in class? How much work will students need to do at home? Is there a trade-off between scope of the content and time on the project? What is the appropriate balance between scope and depth of content / project?
Objective - Are you trying to focus on a content area or a skill for students to learn (for example, more focus on the EDP as a problem-solving process)?
Content - How much content needs to be covered? Does the content align with the project? Is there room for students to explore different topics within the content area? Does the project need to aligned to school/state/federal standards?
Classroom
Facilities - Do you have a lab or shop that you could use for the project? What type of facilities does your classroom have? How could you utilize what is available in your classroom and/or school?
Class size - Do you have large or small classes? How will the number of students in your classes this impact the project? Should students work in groups or individually? How will the students in groups communicate (in class, out of class, across classes, etc)?
Materials - What physical resources do you need for a specific project? What physical resources do you currently have? Can you acquire the resources necessary through various means (students, school budget, department budget, grants, donorschoose.org , etc.)? Can you adjust the project to match the resources you have without sacrificing the objectives of the project?
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is important to remember that this process is iterative and you may want to return to this section after you have implemented a solution to revise and improve your solution.
Though we acknowledge that traditional instruction is effective in some circumstances, we believe that in order to help our students become true problem solvers and 21st century learners, Engineering-Based Learning is the most effective general solution for the classroom. IBL, PBL, and EBL are all similar, but EBL provides students with an opportunity to solve real-world problems, and lends itself well to open-ended lessons, activities, and projects to fit different situations and content. It is a more relevant approach and places emphasis on the process of problem solving. Though EBL is a great solution to implement in your classroom, it is also important to note that in choosing EBL, you may still need to use traditional and other teaching methods for specific content.
CHOOSING THE BEST EBL IMPLEMENTATION SOLUTION
While the types of EBL are different in scope and time requirements, they are all very flexible and the best solution for your specific situation may very well be a combination of multiple solutions or something in between two of the solutions. In order to choose the right implementation for your classroom, we believe the three most important things to consider are the motivations for you, your students, and your colleagues, your learning context and objectives, and your unique classroom situation. Keep your specific problem statement in mind when choosing a solution (what specific problem are you actually trying to solve and how will the solution you choose help you solve that problem?)
Considerations
The considerations below are suggestions for questions you should ask yourself before choosing a specific solution. They are not all inclusive and should be considered just a starting point to think about your own constraints and restrictions you have to work within.
Motivation
Student - Will the problem/project engage your students? What naturally motivates your students? What do they like to do/what are they interested in outside of the classroom?
Teacher - What are your interests? What kind of project will motivate you?
Colleagues - Are your colleagues (or department/school in general) struggling with the same problem as you? Is there interest in working together to solve common problems? Are there teachers in other disciplines that would be interested in working on a cross-curriculum project?
Learning
Time - How much time can you devote to the project in class? How much work will students need to do at home? Is there a trade-off between scope of the content and time on the project? What is the appropriate balance between scope and depth of content / project?
Objective - Are you trying to focus on a content area or a skill for students to learn (for example, more focus on the EDP as a problem-solving process)?
Content - How much content needs to be covered? Does the content align with the project? Is there room for students to explore different topics within the content area? Does the project need to aligned to school/state/federal standards?
Classroom
Facilities - Do you have a lab or shop that you could use for the project? What type of facilities does your classroom have? How could you utilize what is available in your classroom and/or school?
Class size - Do you have large or small classes? How will the number of students in your classes this impact the project? Should students work in groups or individually? How will the students in groups communicate (in class, out of class, across classes, etc)?
Materials - What physical resources do you need for a specific project? What physical resources do you currently have? Can you acquire the resources necessary through various means (students, school budget, department budget, grants, donorschoose.org , etc.)? Can you adjust the project to match the resources you have without sacrificing the objectives of the project?
FINAL THOUGHTS
It is important to remember that this process is iterative and you may want to return to this section after you have implemented a solution to revise and improve your solution.
"When planning projects, thinking about an audience is of critical, it will set the level of engagement. The larger the audience is for a project, the greater the student commitment and engagement. Having an audience recasts the teacher-student role form teacher as evaluator to teacher as coach and mentor. It is a great deal of work on the teacher(s), but the payoff is profound."
Ramiro - Boston Arts Academy
Ramiro - Boston Arts Academy