findings

It's all about the rhythm. Traditional science teaching is all lined up and quick-fire. Bang, bang, bang, churn out those objectives day after day. If nothing else, it makes the teacher feel productive. I wonder what the students get out of it. The pbl project, on the other hand, is much more free-form and less planned out. You have a starting point and a destination (the project goal), but the journey is so much different than the standard pedagogy. And just when I'm relaxing and getting into it, and the students seem to be ramping up a bit, it's going to be over for this year. I'm getting psyched for next quarter and planning which targets I'm going to cover, and I'm going to do the target-direct assessment I tried last year, so at least the system won't be an exact return to first semester.