Project-based education
I met Chris Lehmann from Science Leadership Academy on the way to Austin last Saturday. Chris runs a school in Philadelphia called Science Leadership Academy ( scienceleadership.org ). I would highly recommend that you spend some time on their site reading about what he has done. Chris has managed to build a standout school in Philadelphia focused on math and science while staying true to the public school ideals of equal access. The demographics of his student body represent the city of Philadelphia in economic status, gender, and all other areas of population segmentation.
The students at Science Leadership are all admitted based on interviews. Those interviews are conducted primarily by the other students. Yes, that’s right. Students interview and judge prospective students as a part of the admissions process. Prospective students must present to the admissions group, and admission is granted based on the strength of the presentation. It is not just based on grades, either. There is an assessment of cultural fit as well. If this sounds eerily similar to the job application process in the “real world”, I think that’s on purpose. One of the great things about Chris’s school is that the student body has it’s own public blog. Students are encouraged to write about whatever is going on. If you read it, I think you will see that there is no filter ( or it’s not obvious ).
The Science Leadership curriculum is a project-based curriculum. While I probably will do a poor job of representing what that means specifically, Chris described a typical day with students working across disciplines ( science, literature, math, etc. ) in a given subject and toward a specific goal for a specific period of time.
This dove-tailed nicely with a session I attended at SXSW on the US FIRST robotics program ( usfirst.org ). I had never heard of this program before this past week, but after learning about it I am planning to either find a team for both of my kids or start one. The US FIRST program is also a project-based initiative where kids come together for 6-8 weeks to build a robot and then take it to competition. They have to learn to work with others, work with adults, and complete a project all in the context of learning valuable math and science skills. The presenters at the session were practically begging for more involvement in science and math. The shortage of engineers is real in this country, and it’s one that affects our future in very real ways.
The Science Leadership Academy and US FIRST are two great examples of what education might look like going forward. I am really excited about both of them.
What are similar programs that you have heard about? What are the problems with project-based education? What would it take to replicate the SLA curriculum in other areas of the country?