I think one of the most important ingredients for PBL at school is “administrator permission” and administrator encouragement. It’s unfortunately rare, in most US schools where I work, to find school principals who explicitly give tachers both permission and encouragement to engage in inquiry-based learning and PBL…. certainly before ‘testing is over’ in the spring.

One minority example of school administrator permission/encouragement for PBL/inquiry that I can point to in Oklahoma is Howe Public Schools’ “Lion Pride” project last year. This was a school-wide PBL effort and was very successful. The superintendent was pivotal in redesigning the high school weekly schedule so students had TIME as well as support in their projects, which were designed to both involve and impact community members.

http://okedushare.org/2012/02/15/howeschools-hs-school-wide-pbl-lion-pride-project/

We hear people talk about STEM and there is some funding for STEM, but we don’t see many BELL SCHEDULES at high schools changing. They did at Howe for their school-wide PBL project. I think we need to amplify projects like this more and especially help administrators develop their instructional vision for PBL/inquiry learning. Their explicit support is key for these kinds of projects to flourish.

This is soooo true. I also loved seeing people using cardboard and tape to create – its how my world was when i was at school. I have fabulous sticky tape skills. Sadly we don’t do anywhere near enough of this in education now. However, whenever I have got students to use the floor as their work area and use felt tips sticky tape and disassembled flip charts, they love it. They are engaged and are learning!