Project Based Learning Resources
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 [...]
What If Students Designed a Fully Self-Sustaining School?
A high-quality PBL example that turns an 8-part homestead graphic into a campus resilience studio. I was scrolling Instagram when a homestead infographic stopped me. Eight labeled systems. A greenhouse. Rain barrels. A woodshed. A [...]
Building a Shared Definition of High-Quality PBL Through Calibration
When a team of educators sits down to talk about project-based learning, we often assume we’re speaking the same language. We’re not always right. At Patiño School of Innovation, I faced a familiar challenge: a [...]
Icebreakers That Actually Teach
Turning Light Activities into Durable Skill Practice with Meta Moments We’ve all sat through the obligatory icebreaker. Name + something interesting about yourself. Two truths and a lie. Find someone who… The energy is polite, [...]
What a Murder Trial Taught Me About the Kind of Learning Students Never Forget
The surprising connection between true crime and the most powerful project-based learning I’ve ever designed I’ve been following a high-profile murder trial for weeks. Not because I enjoy the tragedy; but because something about the [...]