Project Based Learning Resources
Spirit Store Field Work: A High School Seasonal Marketing Project
Students study Halloween marketing where it actually happens, then write a proposal a local business can use. High School PBL Idea Project Summary: High school students treat a Spirit store as a field site. They [...]
Saudi Space Agency & Axiom Space / DreamUp: Designing Student Curriculum and Teacher Training for the Human Space Program Outreach
Summary In support of the Saudi Space Agency’s Human Space Flight Program and the Ax-2 mission, CraftED Curriculum partnered with DreamUp (in collaboration with the Saudi Space Agency, Axiom Space, and Nanoracks) to design the [...]
Winter Market Pop-Up: A Middle School Entrepreneurship Project
Students investigate how a seasonal business actually works, then design, price, and sell a product of their own at a school winter market. Middle School PBL Idea Project Summary: Middle school students study a real [...]
12 PBL plans on the circular economy
PBL Ideas From the Innovation Barn These plans came out of a teacher workshop at the Innovation Barn, focusing on the work the Barn does in the building: refuse, reduce, reuse, repair, and recycle, across [...]
Innovation Barn Part III: Teacher Workshop Recap
This is the final of a three-part series on a PBL partnership between CraftED and Innovation Barn. On Saturday October 3rd, teachers gathered at the Innovation Barn for a hands-on professional development session focused on [...]
The Innovation Barn Part II: Field Work as Teacher Professional Development for PBL
The Innovation Barn isn't just a venue, it's a model for how professional development for educators can work. Instead of sitting through slides, teachers spent the day in a real place, doing real work, with [...]
The Innovation Barn Part I: Field Work for PBL
A field trip isn't a day off from learning, it's a data collection day. The best teachers treat it that way, and the results show. The Innovation Barn in Charlotte is a fantastic place to [...]
The Friction & Fact Protocol: Outsmarting the Yes-Bot in PBL
If you have ever watched a student paste a project idea into a chatbot and get back “Great idea! Here’s a complete outline,” you have seen the Yes-Bot Problem. AI is trained to be polite. [...]
Architects of Empathy
Middle Project Idea · Grades 6–8 A snapshot of the 5-Phase Prompt Sequence for Project Framing — in action. Teachers don’t need another 40-page packet. They need to see the process move. Here is one [...]
Play Part III: When to try play in PBL, with adults.
Who Can Do It---> Teachers on Monday. Leaders in the Next PD. Tinkering is not a specialist’s job. If you have students, a table, and ten minutes, you can do it. If you lead adults, [...]
Play, Part II: Why Tinkering Belongs at the Front of PBL
In a recent Substack post I wrote about play as an entry point to project-based learning—a provocation that opens the door before anyone announces the driving question. Tinkering is that idea made physical. We do [...]
Play, Part I: Tinkering Is Not a Station-It’s a Way of Thinking
Last week I sat in a workshop and watched a slide that named something I have been circling for years. Tinker (verb): to explore by trying, making, noticing, changing, and trying again. That is the whole [...]