iPads & PBL

I am working with an elementary school who currently has iPads, but they use them for testing and skill & drill. I had the opportunity to meet with each grade level to discuss project based learning (PBL) and how to incorporate the iPads.

We started off by discussing creation type apps such as ShowMe, Educration, Explain Everything. We used the app ShowMe. Then we moved on to and quick example of PBL...The Marshmallow Tower challenge. I had to shorten the activity so we had 6 spaghetti sticks and 1 large marshmallow. Then each team had 4 minutes to construct the tallest tower they could. During the building process they had to take pictures. After 4 minutes, we took 5 minutes to create a narrated slide show about the process of building the tallest tower.Here is an example of their final project.





We also had a few minutes to debrief about the process. The response was positive and they reported having a better understanding of PBL. We laughed all day and enjoy creating projects on the iPads rather than skill & drill!