Grade 9, Columbus Signature Academy New Tech High School
Now that
I have a few projects under my belt, I think I can finally pick my favorites so far. All of the projects that I have undertaken so
far have been a blast. I’ve learned something interesting from every one
of them, like how to streak a plate in Biology, or how to write a really good
narrative in English. Projects have always been fun for me, but a little
daunting, and going to a PBL school has helped me overcome that fear.
At first
I was afraid, not so much because I thought projects would be time consuming,
but because I was afraid of failing. I was afraid that I wouldn’t be
perfect, which I think is a big problem in today’s society. Society puts too
much emphasis on grades and not enough on ingenuity. PBL schools help
kids get good grades because of their ingenuity, and that’s why I enjoy
projects so much; I don’t have to be perfect.
And yet,
while I don’t have to be perfect, I still want to put in a perfect effort.
I think that perfect effort and a ingenuity are the things that make or break a person in the world. Albert Einstein flunked math, but
with ingenuity and quite a bit of effort, he managed to come up
with a lot of the theories that we use today.
While I
like all of my projects this semester, I have a couple favorites, both
individual and collaborative. Individual
projects are not the basis of PBL, but they do help us learn to manage our time
and prepare us for individual tasks in the real world. My favorite individual
project this year would probably be writing our English CRA. For that project,
we had a choice between two books to read: The
World Without Us or Ishmael. I
chose to read both, and both are fantastic. That project probably was the
one that put the most stress on me, but in the end, I got to write a paper on
my philosophies and how Ishmael
supported them. I love to talk about philosophy, and I love to read, so
this project was fun. But it was also challenging because of the amount of work
that I had to put into it, while balancing band and other activities.
Group
projects are a much bigger part of PBL, and as such I feel I should also
include my favorite group project. My favorite group project was designing a
rainwater harvesting system for GEO/ IED (Geometry + Introduction to
Engineering & Design.) In that project, our task was to create a rainwater
harvesting system for our school garden without changing anything about the
current method for diverting rainwater from the roof to the ground. This was a
challenge because the current system left little to no room for improvement or
modification. We settled on incorporating the placement of a garden shed into
our design, and using the roof of that as the source of rainwater. I had fun
with that project because everyone was working, and they were working well. We
were working hard because we were practicing things that sparked our interest
in a safe environment, and we could help each other.
I think that’s
what everyone looks for in a project: an opportunity to practice what they love
to do and hopefully increase their aptitude through doing it. And I think
that’s what all projects are about, and I don’t just mean school projects.
These experiences prepare us for the “project” of life, and help us decide how
we will contribute to mankind. PBL lets us explore all the possibilities.
PBL is about
so much more than just getting through the school day. It’s not that
students don’t get tired or don’t complain; it’s that they tire, and complain,
while happy. They’re happy because they are doing something they love and
figuring out solutions for real problems. PBL is ideal for ambitious students
to be pushed further and harder, and helpful for not-so-ambitious students to
figure out what they want to do in their life. PBL is a new method for a
new age of scholars. This new age of scholars will fix new age problems.
And it all starts with kids having favorite projects.
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