Empowering Inquiry and Community Impact with Project-Based Learning | E170

Embark on an enlightening adventure into the realm of Project-Based Learning (PBL) and discover how it can revolutionize the classroom. We'll share the secrets of embedding a powerful PBL vision in schools, and you'll hear an inspiring story from Indianapolis where student projects went beyond the classroom to make a real difference in the community. This episode is all about activating the potential within each educator to craft a learning environment that's as engaging as it is educational.

Step into a world where curiosity fuels the fire of learning, and every question leads to new horizons. We'll discuss entry events, community collaborations, and innovative "I like, I wonder" protocols that keep the spark of inquiry alive in students. Learn how to create a culture of critical thinking and problem-solving that prepares pupils not just for tests, but for life. Tune in and transform your perspective on education, one project at a time.

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Transcript

Ryan Steuer: 0:00

Welcome to the PBL simplified podcast, where we believe if every teacher was teaching as they always wanted to, the world would be a better place.

Ryan Steuer: 0:07

And what we have found is that when teachers are using project-based learning, they're doing just that. They're teaching the way they've always wanted to teach and leaders are leading the way they've always wanted to lead. You're leading with power and passion and excellence, and we think that that's so important. We've divided our whole organization or life to this. We believe that when 51% of schools are using PBL by 2051, that again that world is going to be a better place. So it only gives us 37 years, so we're kind of like pushing it here. We need you to have the inspiration and the tools and the experience to build towards this environment where learners are at the center and they're empowered and they're doing the work. As Trevor McKenzie says in Inquiry Mindset, at some point your learners start to differentiate for themselves because they know what questions to ask. They know where to find the answers. That sounds awesome, doesn't it? If that sounds too pie in the sky, like you've never been there, number one get Trevor's book. Number two keep listening, because this is our second episode on Inquiry for a leadership episode and if you missed the first one, go back two episodes and you can get the introduction.

Ryan Steuer: 1:14

Today we're going to be talking about where Inquiry fits in your PBL and some very concrete examples of that, how you can use them in your classroom and your school. But before we get there, I want to address the need to know for today, which is actually a carryover from last week, from two weeks ago. That need to know said how do I get my staff on board with my vision? And you say, well, I think it should be our vision and you're right, but the leader needs to bring the vision. The leader is the one that helps us be a part of something bigger. We get to see our place in that and then it can start to become our vision. But the leader is going to bring it. So you have to write it down. You're going to share it small before you share it big, and then you're going to talk about that vision all the time. That was the answer from two weeks ago, this need to know. But today I'm going to put a little bit of a quarter twist on it. The other way you get your staff to buy into your vision is by sharing stories. You need to share stories. You need to share wins of PBL that are happening in your school. If you don't have any yet one, get somebody started. Put them in the PBL online community. Get them moving with resources. You know who your innovators are. Get them moving.

Ryan Steuer: 2:19

If you don't share somebody else's, let me share one with you and one of our model school districts in Indianapolis you should go and visit. There is an elementary school there and some of the teachers at a PBL unit where their kids young elementary school kids created lunch bags for the local homeless shelter and they didn't just drop them off, they put artwork on it, they put encouraging notes on them. They also did some blankets for animals and animal shelter. So they're giving back to the community, which is huge right In and of itself that our young learners are learning how to give back and just to have it come full circle, some of the learners are now visiting the homeless shelter later and they're starting to learn how it works, how they can help again.

Ryan Steuer: 3:08

And, lo and behold, a woman's there and she says well, what school are you guys from? And they say their school. And she starts to get emotional and she had a job interview and she was actually going to her job and she didn't have anything for lunch and these bags were dropped off. She took that bag with her to lunch and she actually so she had lunch, got, went to her job. That was successful. She kept the bag. Well, guess who she happens to be talking to? At this shelter, the kids are there. This same child that decorated that bag for that woman was there and they got to meet.

Ryan Steuer: 3:47

Like how impactful is that for everybody in that room? Like that child gets to hear the story of the impact of the work that she did as a 10 year old. Like what is that going to do when she's 18? Like it just continues to build. Right, these, these moments are building up and up and up. They start to build these people that are empowered to go and solve these problems in our community. That's how we change the world.

Ryan Steuer: 4:11

So you say, well, you're going to. Well, what are the standards? My first question is is who cares? Like that's an amazing story that's changing people's lives. The second answer, if you didn't like that one, is it's all standard based. Right, as they're doing this work, they're doing the research, they're doing the language arts skills, they're writing the essays they need to write. They're reading the things they need to read. It's in the scope and sequence that the rest of their school's doing Like it's amazing work that is standards-based and it's changing the world.

Ryan Steuer: 4:39

Go for the both and Don't play small. This is time to go big because it's worth it for our learners and you can do that, right, you can do that. We have the structures, we've got the supports, we've got the resources for you and your staff to do this. And our model schools are doing this stuff right. And this school was not originally a PBL school, right? So this principal took a chance and said you know what I'm in, I can do this. He gave some autonomy to his teachers to do this work and amazing things are happening. Like lives are being changed on both sides. It's super good work.

Ryan Steuer: 5:12

So if you share that story in a staff meeting like that's when people can start to see the vision, like they might not see it and it makes sense, because day to day, like teaching is really hard. So it's like well, how are you gonna get me to do something else? That's the wrong question, right? You wanna address the vision piece of like that's how I've always wanted to teach. I want those stories for my learners Okay, how do I do that? And then we give them the resources and the training and the coaching and everything they need to do that. But first you need to cast the vision so that people can jump into it. All right, so that addresses our need to know in a different way. Right, there's always some technical pieces and then there's always some emotional relationship work. That needs to happen too. So address it from both sides. Let's jump into Inquiry.

Ryan Steuer: 5:57

Inquiry 2.0, if you will, is our second episode on Inquiry. You can go super deep on this, very well connected to PBL, but we wanna make sure that we really connect the dots here. So the first topic we're gonna tackle is where does Inquiry fit into your PBL? And the answer is that Inquiry isn't layered on as an afterthought. It's not like well, I have this PBL unit, how do I get Inquiry in it? You really wanna start to create a culture of Inquiry where we're continually asking questions and you might even you wanna become the educator that answers questions with questions. Right, you wanna be that person. When a student asks you a question, you're gonna ask them a question to see where they're really at, to see if they can solve this on their own. So when we say Inquiry isn't an afterthought, I think of it more of like the engine of PBL. It's making things move.

Ryan Steuer: 6:46

We invite Inquiry at the onset, like right at the entry event. Right as you're launching, you're building curiosity, you're bringing in a community partner and your learners are thinking who is that? Are they mean? What do they do for a living? Why are they here? How long will they be here? All of these questions start to bring curiosity and inquiry. And as soon as you have that, you've got your learners, because now they're leaning in just a little bit more than they were. They're starting to be naturally curious about this. So maybe you go and visit the community partner, maybe you have an entry event letter that's written from a community partner and they do it in such a way that's like wow, that's really neat, I'd like to do that.

Ryan Steuer: 7:24

Or we had one PBL unit where somebody from the Hemophilia Society came in and said hey, every day parents are gonna find out that their child has a genetic disease. There's two things they wanna know. Number one is my child gonna be okay? Number two they wanna know everything there is to know about that genetic disease. Hey, eighth graders, would you help us with number two? Would you help us give these parents everything they need to know about this genetic disease? Yeah, I would right. Every kid heads up and yeah, they're in right. Because it starts to build that curiosity Like I could be a part of change in the world positive change, even right.

Ryan Steuer: 8:04

So finding these ways to create inquiry and curiosity are really important. So the entry event is a great place to bring curiosity in and then just to double down on that. You have the need to know process. So now you start asking questions of all these things that we don't know brings in a whole another level of inquiry around the idea of like, how are we gonna learn these things right? Are we gonna research on Google? Are we gonna have books? Are community partners gonna come in? There's so many different ways for us to find these things out. How are we gonna do that? So you're trying to build inquiry throughout, because that's getting your learners to lean in just a little bit.

Ryan Steuer: 8:42

So once the curiosities are on the table, trevor McKenzie, with inquiry mindset, would say provocations, these things that are provocative. They're getting us to think through. So now, in the middle of your PBL unit, you're starting to allow your learners to explore the curiosities. You've got these student-centered workshops. You've got protocols set up where I'm starting to think about different things. I'm ideating, I'm speculating, I'm making these hypotheses that could be right, could be wrong, and now I'm gonna research it to figure out, like is this gonna help solve the problem that we've defined? So you've got these protocols where kids are starting to learn new language. So we like to use the, I like and I wonders.

Ryan Steuer: 9:21

In next steps, once your learners start to say I wonder, I wonder if this would work. I wonder if that would work. I wonder if you thought about that. Both the person giving the feedback is wondering, the person receiving the feedback is wondering that's all inquiry. And now their brains, like the gears, are turning. You might see a little bit of smoke, you know. And they're starting to develop these skills.

Ryan Steuer: 9:46

You know, you say well, while learners should have critical thinking skills, how does that happen? Right, like, well, inquiry is a great place to purposely have these inquiry steps in here, where they start to think critically. They have too many solutions and they have to pick one and test it and retest it. That's where they're not just thinking, they're thinking critically like what will actually work for my situation. And then, as you're doing that and they create curiosity in them personally, they're thinking like how do I learn best? Like in the next PBL unit you're gonna ask, like, what went well in the last one, how would you like to learn in the next one? And now you've got them thinking again how do I learn best? What am I still grappling with? What do I like? And now you start to get into even some of these career exploration ideas, right? So all of this can happen at any level K-12. You know, it might look a little different in each classroom. If it's your first year with PBL, it's gonna look a little different. And then, if it's your 10th year, right, you might have some things established with your learners that in one classroom that aren't established yet. You might need to talk about these things even more.

Ryan Steuer: 10:47

Although one of the things I love in Trevor McKenzie's book Inquiry Mindset is that he goes through the metacognition with us, like here's what I'm thinking, here's what I'm saying to my learners, and he's constantly asking questions. I think I actually looked it up to see if there's a Guinness Book of World Records for the most questions asked in a book and I couldn't find it, but I think his book would win actually. So I don't know if we can get Guinness to figure that out or not, but I feel like there's so many questions because he's really trying to get us, as educators, to develop an inquiry mindset. So that's great, ryan. I see that I should have inquiry in my PBL unit, like, how do I do that? I should have inquiry not just in my unit but in my culture of my classroom. How do I do that? One ask questions. Right, ask lots and lots of questions. It's okay to answer questions with questions.

Ryan Steuer: 11:36

Now, some really specific things you could do is wonder boards. I was not a big like Bolton board guy when I was in the classroom. I was at learners that did that. I just don't have that wrinkle in my brain. Maybe I should have, but what you can do that I should have done is to create these wonder boards. What are your learners wondering about? Maybe it was something that they saw the night before, but they've got this wonder. Maybe it's a wonder about the current PBL unit. It doesn't really matter. You're going to capture the wonderings of your learners, whatever that looks like. Again, k-12, kindergarteners might be wondering something very different than a senior, but they're all wondering something in the world because we don't have it all figured out. Maybe it's a Socratic seminar, maybe it's a curiosity jar where maybe you put in curiosities, your learners put in curiosities, you bring it out and you have a conversation about that curiosity and the whole point is you're starting to bring your learners into a place where they're asking questions and they're getting curious.

Ryan Steuer: 12:35

We'll get back to the episode in just a few minutes, but I wanted to chime in real quick just in case you didn't know about the five reasons why your principal should put you into the PBL Movement online community. We've got a free PDF in the description below that will give you five reasons that your principal should put you in this online community. Now the PBL Movement online community has two big sections. One of them has on-demand courses. That's going to give you PBL start to finish. It's going to give you Community Partners 2.0. Essentially, any big need to know that we've taken over the last decade. We've turned it into a course, so you get all those asynchronous that you take whenever you want. You get full access for a year. You also get access to a private Facebook group that's filled with movement makers, just like you. It's filled with beginners that realize there's something that needs to happen differently in classrooms to move kids from passive to empowered. It's also filled with innovators that are PBL certified. They've been doing PBL for a decade. So when you throw a question out, you get answers. You get answers. So if you need a question answered tomorrow, that's real quick. That can happen. If you need a resource, if you need to be a partner, if you need a brainstorming session, you can get all of that within this private Facebook group from movement makers just like you. So go into the description of this video right now and download the five reasons why your principle should put you into the PBL movement online community.

Ryan Steuer: 14:06

Trevor McKenzie in the inquiry mindset. Also, he's got this observation table. So it's really just a table with a bunch of cool stuff and like magnifying glasses so you can just see what do you observe here? If something really cool is happening outside of the classroom, you might stop for a second and say what do you observe? Well, I see an earth mover. I see they're digging big hole. Somebody else says I wonder why they're digging that big hole. I wonder if he's going to fall in it. I wonder if the pipes are going to break. All kinds of interesting wonders because you want to have a culture of curiosity and a lot of different things happen when you start to create this culture.

Ryan Steuer: 14:42

We had in my classroom. We had the learner that had the lowest score on our summative assessment or our formative assessment, nwa. He had the lowest score and mostly because he wasn't trying was a good chunk of it. But he also didn't ask questions. He learned early on that he asked too many questions and people didn't want to answer them. So after a while he just stopped and through the need to know process and project-based learning, he found out that if he asked a question we'd create a workshop and in the workshop he could actually get his question answered. He started to ask more questions and pretty soon, very soon as NWA score skyrocketed up. He was nowhere near the bottom, but it was because he realized it was a culture where if you ask a question, we start to create answers Doesn't mean I just give it to you. Right, I'm still going to create some students in our learning so that you can discover the answer, but I'm going to help assist you.

Ryan Steuer: 15:37

Provocations, just these ideas or questions that are kind of provocative, these things that you know how long is a blue whale, would it fit in our classroom, would it fit in the hallway, like all of these things. Just start to change your mindset a little bit and when learners walk into your classroom, you want them to think this is a place where I can be curious, this is a place where I can ask questions. And if you're a leader listening, how do you do this with your staff? What if you took some of your faculty time to dream, have conversations, ask them good questions, not free time. Just like you wouldn't give students free time, don't give your staff just free time, but ask them some really good questions.

Ryan Steuer: 16:16

What are some things that really work in our school? What are the three best things about our school culture? What are the three things that you would like to be a part of our school culture that aren't? And just have a question, have them write those down to share them out. Now, what is your staff thinking? They're thinking, oh, my principal wants me to be thinking of solutions. If I have them, he or she wants me to share those Awesome Right Teachers, you can do the same thing with your learners.

Ryan Steuer: 16:42

We've talked a lot about that, but you can still ask really good questions on a daily basis, find some good questions that are interesting, that really start to get you thinking, and once you start building inquiry into the culture, I would say culture is like the current of a river. Right, if you get in a current of a river, it's just going to take you. Right, you jump in your life jacket, you hop in and it starts to take you down and sure you can swim against it, but it's harder. So if you can create a place where it's easier to ask questions and be curious, it's actually easier to lean into the work that you're doing, because it's what we do here. Right, you're starting to establish that that's what we do here and that's when you're winning with inquiry, that's when you're winning with product-based learning. So I hope you've got a few different tips of where you can bring inquiry into your PBL unit. I've got really practical tips. Again, if you need some more tips, I highly recommend Inquiry Mindset by Trevor McKenzie. You get boots on the ground, advice, some theory, some whimsy, some tools that you can use right away in your school and your classroom. Tune in next week we're going to have Chad Dumas in here talking about PLCs and project-based learning and how they fit together. I think you're going to love it and it's going to help you lead and teach inspired.

Ryan Steuer: 18:01

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review? When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning, and PBL Simplified popped up. When they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening, so they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you, thank you.