Submitted by Maria Gregorio on
The OPSF grant committee awarded Stan Spurlin, a Science Teacher at Olathe East High School, a grant for his “Pharmaceutical Engineering in the High School Classroom” project during the 2016-2017 school year. The awarded funds were used to purchase a spectrophotometer, a device that measures the amount of a chemical substance. A new spectrophotometer allowed students to collect data in a timelier manner and increased the number of students who can participate in a given project.
Mr. Spurlin challenged his Chemistry students to team up and develop a new, lower-cost, extended release delivery system for the active ingredient in Ritalin, methylphenidate hydrochloride. Used as a treatment for attention deficit disorder (ADD) and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), it is available in a solid tablet and capsule form. But patient compliance is poor because patients must take their medication several times a day. Extended release versions are available but they are expensive.
Each team must outline their solution in a written report, backed with the data they collected during class, and present their proposal during a 10-minute presentation. The written reports gave many students their first real opportunity to produce a high level written science report that was not just a “fill in the blank” lab report.
When evaluating grant proposals, the OPSF grant committee look for innovative ideas that prepare our students for their future. Innovation not only covers the latest technology and equipment (although it can). How will the equipment be used and how does it tie in with student learning? What will students get out of this? The committee does not award funds for technology for technology’s sake, but to enhance the classroom and bring students closer to the skills they will need in the real world.
Projects Vs. Project Based Learning
Everyone remembers doing projects for school – maybe you had to make a poster about a disease, describing its effects on the body, treatments, and causes. These projects were then displayed in class, and that was the end of it. Many times there was no formal presentation of the project or feedback-based discussion. The unit ended with a big test.
Fast-forward to today, where Project Based Learning (PBL) is a hot topic among educators. What is the difference between projects and PBL? Whereas projects have the same end goal (everyone creates a diorama of the Alamo, for example) and are the “dessert” that comes at the end of a unit, in Project Based Learning, the project is the main course and students learn the material from completing the project. PBL projects are organized around an open-ended Driving Question – i.e. Should we build a new highway in a proposed area of town? How can we improve the quality of a local river? – and students are tasked with coming up with their own proposed solutions.
Information is Cheap
“We spend way too much time measuring kids to the right answer, the predetermined right answer. And that’s not how things are in the real world,” explained Mr. Spurlin. He draws from his own real world, industry experience to design projects that engage his students. He started out in his professional life as a research chemist and went on to work in the animal and human pharmaceutical industry. Over the years, he worked in product development, engineering and product scale up, and various management roles. But mostly, he considers himself a scientist at heart.
“Information is cheap now. Everyone’s got information. It’s your ability to use that information, to figure out how to use it to solve problems - that’s the skill that separates us, our ability to problem solve and be resilient. And that’s what project based learning really helps you do.”
“Information is cheap now. Everyone’s got information. It’s your ability to use that information, to figure out how to use it to solve problems - that’s the skill that separates us, our ability to problem solve and be resilient. And that’s what project based learning really helps you do.”
Real World Connections
Meaningful PBL projects have an authentic connection to the real world. Authenticity can take many forms:
- Context: students are asked to solve problems faced by people outside of school, like urban planners designing a more welcoming public park or small business owners creating a marketing plan.
- Tasks, tools, processes and quality standards: students use industry-standard equipment or software to create their solution or use processes common in scientific research.
- Personal: when the project speaks to the students’ concerns, issues, cultures, and interests.
- Impact: students address a need in their school or community, like designing and building a community garden.
Authenticity has been shown to increase student motivation and learning. This is not surprising. If students can see a real world connection to what they are learning about in school, student engagement will follow. “Pharmaceutical Engineering…” brings together chemistry, biology, and engineering and challenges students to apply what they are learning, using the same tools and processes real researchers use. Science is interdisciplinary; oftentimes problems in one field can yield interesting solutions in an another subject. “We often tell students about the applications of science around them,” said Mr. Spurlin. “But we rarely give them an opportunity to actually conduct research projects centered on chemistry in the real world.”
Try and Try Again
Feedback, reflection, and revision are a vital part of the PBL learning process. Reflection can be part of a classroom discussion, peer-to-peer critique, teacher feedback, or a project journal. During classtime, Mr. Spurlin rotated among all of the groups, offering guidance and asking questions. Students reflect on what they are learning and why, how their learning can be applied to other problems, and how they can improve their proposed solutions. Students develop resilience as they try new things, make mistakes, assess, and create even more iterations of their ideas. When reflection is made part of the learning process, students internalize what they’ve learned and how they can improve their skills and ideas.
Enter the Shark Tank
Tying into reflection and feedback is PBL’s emphasis on a public audience for a student’s project. When students present their projects to people outside of the classroom or school community, it raises the stakes and motivates students to produce high-quality work. “Pharmaceutical Engineering…” will culminate with each team presenting their concept with a 10-minute proposal, in a “Shark Tank”-type format, in front of their peers and Mr. Spurlin’s colleagues from the University of Kansas.
Tomorrow’s Problem Solvers
PBL projects are more challenging to execute, for the teacher and the student. They take a lot of time to develop. They can be expensive. But, if we want today’s kids to be tomorrow’s problem solvers, we need to give them a real world problem to solve.
Resources
This blog post was greatly informed by research and articles from the Buck Institute for Education.
