Project-based Learning Refection

I feel as though project-based learning is extremely important and needs to be included in all classes at school for students. I am a middle grades science education major and it is extremely easy for me to use this way of learning in all my classes. Using experiments and building projects that relate to standards in science is a great way for students to learn and retain the lessons. When kids learn a skill by doing that skill they are way more likely to be able to recall that information later. One project that I will always remember from science when I was younger was building a egg drop box. They asked us to come to school with materials we think would help to keep an egg whole and we built them in school. I had fun doing this and learned about gravity and forces acting on the egg. I will always be able to retain this information because it was so interesting and I had to think deeply about it when I was creating my project. 

I think there are many pros for project-based learning. I believe when students are active in their learning they will enjoy it more and will learn more easily. Getting kids excited about what they are learning about can really help make the teacher’s job easier. It makes learning less stressful and boring for all the people involved. I think there are absolutely more pros to project-based learning there are some cons. I think that students do need to have some instruction that is not project based because at times if they do not know the fundamentals they will not be able to do a project based on the information. I think there is a need for non-project-based activities such as vocabulary and basic skill being taught through lecture or practice. I do think for the most part that project-based activities do nothing but help students but I do see a need for different types of instruction as well.

I believe the pros and cons I stated above are the same for student and teacher. As a teacher you want your students to learn the information and as a student you want learning to be fun and easy. I think both the pros and cons are related to both sides of education. I will absolutely be using project-based learning in my own classroom when I am older. I think it is what we need to transition towards as future teachers. In life students learn things through doing them and I feel like it should be the same in the classroom as well. I am happy we were able to learn more about this skill and that I was able to share my feeling about it in this reflection.