What is it?
Project-based learning (PBL) allows students to apply theory in a real-world context. PBL Works, one of the most respected contemporary PBL resources, identifies Project-based
learning as learning in which projects frame the work that students do—the projects
are the vehicles for student learning—and contrasts this approach with other kinds
of “dessert projects,” projects that are a product of the learning rather than a part
of the process. In true PBL, the projects provide students essential opportunities
to try, fail, and to learn throughout the process of doing authentic work.
PBL’s long history began with medical schools that recognized the need for students
to find answers and gain skills in the context of actual medical cases. Students learned
through case studies that required them to use their growing knowledge in context.
This approach is, however, scalable. Project-based work can happen within one class
with case studies, within one class with an industry partner who brings in a problem,
or across multiple classes that provide a variety of disciplinary perspectives on
the problem at hand. In CACS, we do all of this!