In an article for Education Week that came out today, my colleague Larisa Bukalov and I wrote how we use project-based learning in our math classes. As math teachers ourselves, we know firsthand the pressure we face to teach the many procedural skills that are emphasized in local and state standards. Many math teachers believe they don’t have time to incorporate projects. They also feel that projects are better suited for social studies or science. We think of project-based learning as a way for students to learn how to make connections and solve problems – skills that are usually emphasized in a math class. In this article, we also discuss the importance of asking open-ended questions and ways that technology can be used to ask them.
The article is adapted from our chapter on project-based learning in The Math Teacher’s Toolbox: Hundreds of Practical Ideas to Support Your Students (Jossey-Bass, 2020). The complete text of the article is here: https://bit.ly/edweek-projects .