>>Teacher: On March 24th you're going to stand in front of your peers.
You're going to stand in front of your parents.
You're going to stand in front of a panel of engineers.
You will have data.
You will have graphs.
And you're going to knock the socks off people.
>>Narrator: Seattle teacher, Scott McComb is outlining a project
to his ninth grade physics class that will have them creating, building,
and testing various wing structures that they will design in teams.
McComb is part of a growing group of educators
who believe project learning is the most effective way to teach.
>>Man: Try right now.
So you know how to do it?
>>Linda: When you think about project-based learning,
learning that results in demonstrations of performance,
real tasks that have brought challenges to students to solve,
you can see that it's in context with the ways in which kids have
to be able to be functioning adults.
>>It's quite an improvement.
>>Remember our first wing didn't even hold water?
>>Narrator: Project learning is a hands-on student directed activity
in which students create something
that demonstrates what they have learned whether it's a website,
a play.
>>Can you believe this arrogance?
They think they can stop us.
Nothing can stop us.
>>Narrator: Or a wing design portfolio.
>>Seymour: First thing you have to do is to give up the idea of curriculum,
curriculum meaning you have to learn this on a given day.
Replace it by a system where you learn this where you need it.
>>So that means you're going to put kids in a position
where they're going to use the knowledge that they get.
>>Narrator: Projects involve in-depth investigations of subject matter
which are often guided by professional experts who enrich
and supplement the teacher's knowledge.
>>Teacher: We do this in the real world too and it's very cool.
And that's- I'm hoping to show you how cool it is.
>>Hayley: I like doing hands-on projects more just
because I feel I learn better by learning from my own experiences.
When we were doing the wing project I learned
like our first wing was really bad
and then our third wing, we did really well.
>>Oh I'm so proud of us!
>>Narrator: Current research shows
that project learning can be more effective
than traditional instruction in increasing academic achievement.
It is also effective in helping students understand,
apply, and retain information.
Other benefits include building skills like critical thinking,
communication, and collaboration.
Students who work on projects show increased motivation
and engagement in their studies.
>>Our task was to create a high-efficiency, low-weight wing
that when tested it would, you know,
it would show the values you'd want for a real wing.
>>Mike: These kids the way they present themselves,
they're articulate, they know what they're about,
they know what they've learned.
They've obviously been able to work together and in a situation like this
for ninth graders to pull off something
like that is absolutely remarkable.
>>Student: And here's our data for our wings.
This would be the first round would be one, two and three,
then four and five and six.
>>For more information on what works
in public education go to edutopia.org