Nell Duke: In the U.S., we have a persistent gap
in the achievement of kids who live in poverty
and kids in wealthy communities.
Teacher: What's this over here?
Nell Duke: Project-based learning is a very powerful tool
to connect students with their communities,
with real purposes and audiences,
and it does appear to be an effective way of improving student achievement.
Anne-lise Halvorsen: My name is Anne-lise Halvorsen,
and along with Nell Duke,
we designed curricula that integrated literacy and social studies
using project-based learning.
Nell Duke: Project PLACE stands for
"Project approach to Literacy And Civic Engagement."
We designed four big projects.
We aligned the units around the literacy standards
and social studies standards for 2nd grade.
Then we commenced a fairly large study to test the impact in
high-poverty low-performing school districts.
Our study was with 48 different classrooms
in 20 elementary schools.
Half of them were assigned to teach the projects that we designed,
and half of them were asked to teach the regular social studies curriculum.
Teachers were randomly assigned to do project-based learning or not.
These were teachers who did not have prior experience doing project-based learning.
They taught sixty lessons
and we tested children at the end of the school year.
Anne-lise Halvorsen: We found that students who received project-based learning
scored at higher levels in reading and social studies.
Nell Duke: So that tells us that a project-based framework
can be successful right out of the gate.
Teacher: So this morning,
we are going to go on our field trip to Hawthorne Park.
Aaron Phillips: My name is Aaron Phillips.
I teach second grade at Grayson Elementary.
We are doing the civics and government unit of Project PLACE.
We started the unit by taking a field trip.
Aaron: Go ahead, guys!
Aaron: We go to a park and kind of just discover the park
and look at its strengths and weaknesses.
All the kids were engaged, all the kids were interested.
That is when they can shine
and you can see a total difference in the learning.
Lynn Bigelman: It was very exciting for our kids to feel that they had a voice
in what could possibly promote change.
Student: Wow!
Nell: Right away, the driving purpose,
to improve the park or other public space, is established.
Aaron: All right, we'll start heading towards the bus.
Nell: Every lesson there's a direct connection between
what students are doing and that ultimate purpose that they have.
Aaron: So, the ground of the play structure is not safe.
Carter: We were writing things that you did not like
and you think that you can fix.
Student: You can like fall down.
Kingston: There's no wood chips and the weed barrier is coming out.
Aaron: So anybody have any ideas of something we could do?
Student: We could say to the person who made the park to fix the park.
Anne-lise: Our hope was that students would see that
they're valuable contributing members to community
and they can make a difference.
Aaron: I wonder if we could try to persuade people in the government
to fix something at the park.
Aaron: We learned how to write a proposal.
They got to create posters
for the different departments within local government.
Aaron: So what does the sanitation department do to help citizens?
Student: Helps the environment be clean? Aaron: There you go!
Anne-lise: Children are curious about the world around them.
They're curious about issues in their community and what adults do.
Aaron: This is what your group did, Kaylie?
Anne-Lise: So civic education is a really important part of
students becoming functioning citizens who are contributing
and are active in their communities.
Student: Make the play area safer.
Aaron: We took the work and made it into a PowerPoint presentation
to ultimately present it to somebody on City Council.
Student: Today is the proposing day where we propose to the councilman.
Randy Carter: Hi, I'm city councilman Randy Carter.
Anne-lise: We know from research, children's writing tends to be stronger
when they are writing for an audience beyond school.
Student: Good morning and welcome to Grayson Elementary.
Nell: Part of it is that project-based learning conveys high expectations for students.
Student: Our class suggested adding more wood chips.
Nell: As much as possible, we want to give kids
an opportunity to write for an audience that's not just their teacher
but maybe members of their local community,
their state, their nation, or the world.
Student: Councilman Carter, we hope you enjoyed our hard work.
Randy: They were able to show me with pictures and data
exactly what the problems are.
And I will act upon their proposal immediately.
Randy: Can we say Grayson Gators get things done?
Student: It just makes myself proud that I'm helping the whole community.
Lynn: Project-based learning gives children of all ages, of all status,
of all diversity an opportunity to have a voice.
I see the level of engagement. I see that the learning becomes contagious.
And I see that years later kids come back to me
and talk about the projects.
Anne-lise: We were excited about conducting this study to be able to really say,
project-based learning can make a difference
in children's achievement at the elementary level.
It's a great alternative to traditional approaches to learning.