Project-Based Science: Engaging Students in Three-Dimensional Learning

Abstract

The biggest shift in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States 2013) is the focus on students making sense of phenomena or designing solutions to problems by using three-dimensional learning (NRC 2014). The three dimensions are disciplinary core ideas, scientific and engineering practices, and crosscutting concepts. Three-dimensional learning is the first criterion described in the EQuIP rubric used for judging if lessons and materials align with the NGSS (Achieve and NSTA 2014). The NGSS include student performance expectations that incorporate all three dimensions. Figure 1 (p. 26) shows two examples of performance expectations. The performance expectations describe what students should be assessed on at the end of instruction but do not describe how to support students in realizing them. Three-dimensional learning challenges educators to rethink the inquiry approach to teaching science content. Project-based science What instructional approach better aligns with three-dimensional learning? Project-based science (PBS) encompasses driving questions, investigations, and collaboration. First, at the core of PBS, is asking (Practice 1) and investigating real-world questions, a concept that dates back to John Dewey (1938), who promoted teaching about topics relevant to students' lives. The various genres of PBS share other fundamental features as well (Krajcik and Czerniak 2013). Second, to answer the meaningful questions raised in PBS, students plan and perform investigations, consistent with the NGSS Science and Engineering Practice 3, planning and carrying out investigations. As part of the investigations, students analyze and interpret data (Practice 4) and support their claims with evidence and reasoning to explain phenomena and design solutions (Practice 6). Third, students, teachers, and members of society collaborate on the question or problem to find solutions and make sense of the data (Practice 8: obtaining, evaluating, and communicating information). Fourth, students develop a series of artifacts or products that address the question or problem, often by constructing models (Practice 2) and developing explanations (Practice 6). Fifth, as students engage in investigations or construct artifacts, they use various technological tools when needed to obtain, evaluate, and communicate information (Practice 8). Figure 2 (p. 26) presents a summary of these features. Let's look at them more closely. Solving relevant questions I have referred to the meaningful questions students explore in PBS as driving questions. An example is Why do some things stick together and other things don't? (Mayer, Damelin, and Krajcik 2013), which focuses on electrical interactions, helping students build understanding toward two performance expectations: HS-PS2-4 and HS-PS2-5 (Figure 1). Developing understanding of electrical interactions helps students explain and predict various cross-disciplinary phenomena, including phase changes, chemical reactions, protein structure, and the energy in hurricanes. Being able to explain and predict these phenomena would involve students using disciplinary core ideas from PS1.A: Structure and Properties of Matter, PS3.A: Definitions of Energy, and PS3.C: Relationship Between Energy and Forces along with crosscutting concepts such as cause and effect, patterns (recognizing that macroscopic patterns are related to the microscopic and atomic level structure of materials) and structure and function; and scientific practices such as engaging in argument from evidence, constructing explanations, and analyzing and interpreting data. In PBS, it's important to engage students in the phenomena they need to explain. In the case of Why do some things stick together and other things don't? students should experience phenomena like socks clinging to other clothes as they're taken out of the dryer or of plastic bags sticking together. …