CH 11 RR

As a result of PBL, many positive things occur. For one, it allows us as teachers to examine our insights into our students. As international teacher Julie Lindsay puts it, "fostering student engagement means encouraging them also to think beyond the set class time...and therefore to be thinking about and constructing thier own reality". It is so important that our students take what they learn and apply it, and then for us as their teacher to watch what worked and what didn't work. From project based learning we also are able to collaborate with other teachers or colleagues. Furthermore, we can share our insights and ideas on a broader scale to get great ideas out, and then to search for different ideas if you have come upon a new idea or topic.

There are a few different ways to "bring the project home". As mentioned earlier, it is very important to make our PBL's real to our students. Once the learning becomes real and authentic, the students are truly motivated to do their best, and then hopefully do additional research on their own. When we hear of students going above and beyond the requirements, as teachers we feel as if we have truly done our jobs right.

One concept in this final chapter that relates to our project is bringing the PBL home. We don't want all of our hard work to go to waste, but to really cement the ideas in our students, and have them be responsible and motivated enough to take it home and expound on it. It is so important that what we are teaching and doing has meaning in our students lives, otherwise it can basically be for naught. By coping with the demands of the 21st century skills, we can use this in our PBL on nutrition/preservatives to keep in mind various tools and resources we can use to be successful, and then meditate on our success and make it even better the next time around.