The Powerful Benefits of Project-Based Learning
- Generates Creative Expression
- Promotes Self-direction
- Cultivates Intrinsic Motivation
- Exposes Student to the Chaos of Life
- Produces Learning Products worthy of being kept and displayed
Using Projects instead of Curriculum to Direct Learning
The difference between a project based learning system and a worksheet based system is the difference between chess and checkers. When students engage in responding to questions or seeking answers through the development and creation of projects they are delving into a system of infinity, much as with chess. The rules are simple, and clear which paradoxically allows for infinite variety of action. Much like the fact that sports are governed by rules, but within the bounds of those rules an incredible range of skill, creativity, and drama can be displayed.
As can be seen in an unlikely series of events leading to a surprise victory in a sports game or this image of a Mandelbrot Box, infinity defies containment, or standardization. The Mandelbrot Box above has infinite surface area but no mass, which is a paradox. All football games have 60 minutes of regulation time, and yet how many variations?
How many variations to answers on a standardized test?
Projects provide a set of very broad boundaries, notably when the work must be completed it creates a finish line which then generates the chaos that makes for a good game.
Project based learning simulates more closely the infinite complexity of real-life, while mass education curriculum and standardized tests are purely artificial, like food stripped of all its wholesomeness and nutritive value.
Dr. Eric Jensen (2005), renowned leader of the brain-based-learning revolution, finds “little evidence” that the skills developed in a test taking learning environment are useful in the real world (p. 152). Standardized tests lack chaos, and therefore are a very poor imitation of the tests of life. In real-life, chaos is the everywhere, always-on friction that challenges a person’s skills on every level as they work to complete a project. Dr. Jensen explains,
“Human beings have thrived because we continually seek viable alternative solutions instead of being bound to a single path…Limiting education to search for the right answer—as we do when we focus on standardized testing—violates the law of the adaptability of the developing brain. Quality education encourages a wide-open, creative problem-solving approach, thereby exploring alternative thinking options, multiple right answers, and creative insights. These are not valued on standardized tests” (p. 153).
Seth Godin described the career outcome of an education directed by a standardized curriculum, “Most people have bosses who hire them to fill a slot in the work chart and to do what they are told. And most people who are doing what they are told feel safe; it feels reliable”. Standardized tests feel safe. A standardized curriculum feels safe, but the walls that keep out the real world are not put there for safety, they are the walls of a prison.
The chaos of attempting to complete a real world project, is a far better teacher than the artificial construction of a mass education curriculum. Thinking in terms of logging quality hours in the Sweet Spot, projects are a wide-open, and rich hunting ground, while a standardized curriculum is an over walked path overrun by car driving tourists. In terms of promoting creativity projects are a blank canvas, indeed projects actively encourage creative expression, creative problem solving, and creative exploration, while standardized curriculum and worksheets demand mind-numbing conformity and regurgitation of stale “right” answers. Projects encourage the development of cognitive strength and fitness, while standardized curriculum requires memorization. Projects are wholesome nutrition, while standardized curriculum is refined empty calories. Projects are an adventure, while standardized curriculum is a like waiting in line at the airport.
But Beware…
Unlike standardized tests which are settled territory, devoid of nature like an overpopulated and overdeveloped city, the lands of a project are wild and contain dangerous challenges. Among these, and possibly the most pernicious dragon that must be defeated to bring forth any real world creative project, is what author Steven Pressfield calls Resistance.
“As powerful as is our soul’s call, so potent are the forces of Resistance arrayed against it. We’re not alone if we’ve been mowed down by Resistance; millions of good men and women have bitten the dust before us.”
Resistance is the universal force, like gravity or entropy, that works against a person attempting to complete a meaningful project.
The following image presents another aspect of infinity of chaos, and provides a meaningful visual representation of the resistance that must be overcome in the course of a project, from beginning to end.
While it may seem straight forward, begin-expand-close, sailing this ocean is treacherous with failure. Each peninsula is riddled with diversions, within every cove hides the monster of perfectionism, and the distance to the finish is very often daunting to the point of despair. The graphic below shows how a simple project comes with a number of tasks to be completed, and as the complexity of a project increases so to the number of tasks. However, as with the picture representing infinity above, perfectionism generates an infinite number of tasks and the project is never completed. 
Actually completing a project, worthy of presentation to the world, requires self-discipline, dedication, and steady challenging work in the Sweet Spot, as well as the ability to close in for the kill. Or to be able to accept that there is no such thing a perfect. To finally slay the dragon takes a different kind of strength from a student, then does taking a standardized test.
Entrepreneur and author Seth Godin exclaims of finishing any real world project, worthy of being presented and sold to the world, “You have to have balls of steel to ship!”. Being able to close out a project requires the strength to accept imperfection. A person can take the SAT test and get a perfect score, but no one can create a project that is perfect. Projects can always be improved, but that leads one to the siren call of perfectionism and the inability to ship the project.
“Long-term, we must begin to build our internal strengths. It isn’t just skills like computer technology. It’s the old-fashioned basics of self-reliance, self-motivation, self-reinforcement, self-discipline, self-command.” – Steven Pressfield
Like the legendary Greek King of Ithaca, Odysseus, hero of Homer’s epic poem the Odyssey, the captain of a project must employ all their skills to defeat the challenges, the storms, the monsters of a thousand kinds, to bring their ship home, to make it to the finish line. 
We can all agree that having finish lines provides an important psychological, and even assessment function. A race, a marathon, would not be as useful in engaging people’s best efforts, if there were no finish line. Some people would still run, but many would lose motivation without some boundaries in which to operate, because those boundaries provide stable points for measuring performance. As the process continues, turbulence and chaos cause problems which must be overcome, but like the wind strengthening growing trees, these adversities provide the challenges that force growth, that generate real learning. There are moments of self-doubt and the very real lack of ability a student must overcome and thereby improve. By the process of completing a project, both internal and external dragons are slain, and the final event, or “shipping”, is the place where all the work comes together and the hero can arrive home!
Projects obviously require more time and resources, but the level of engagement is worth the added expense. Projects are not barred for safety, but are exposed to the abrasive chaos. However, it is the depth, the open-ended nature of a project that invites students to express their own creativity. There is room for the unexpected during the development of a project. A student’s mind can stretch it legs. As students engage with the material work of the project, day after day, the learning is reinforced like extra coats of shellac brushed on again and again, and concepts and ideas from other parts of the learning day filter into the mix to create new and grander ideas. For example, a simple lesson on mars opens into a compare-and-contrast poster project and the student embarks on a journey through the entire history and stories of all the Mars’ rovers and humanities attempts to explore the red planet.
Mini, Medium, and Large projects
The Mars’ Rover project took 5 days to complete working on it 1-2 hours a day. We would consider this a mini-project, and it included the application and utilization of the following skills:
1. Drawing – student drew a picture of each of the rovers on the chart.
2. Research – student used the internet to research the history of this topic, selected key information, and hand printed this information on the chart.
3. Information processing – Student watched all the video content we could get on the subject including 3 high quality videos created by NASA and NOVA for the subject and distilled the most important information into bullet points for the chart
4. Writing – student had to summarize and capture key the story of each rover.
5. Presentation – Student gave an oral presentation on the subject using the chart as a prop.
This is a mini-project compared to our large projects which take months to complete, such as the History Wall Timeline or Kickstarter Campaign projects.
Such large projects break down nicely into many mini-projects, like the Mighty Morphing Power Rangers coming together to form a much larger and more powerful unit. The mini-projects are fully complex enough to allow for a wide range of choice and freedom in expression and application of skills. For example, here is a list of mini-projects (roughly 6-8 Sweet Spot Hours) that can be used for just about any lesson or subject:
• Create an 8-page “mini-book” using a large piece of art paper
• Create a graphic organizer with text and images
• Compare-and-Contrast project with art and bullet points
• Draw a map with graphics and key
• Create an infographic to explain a key concept
• Create a comic strip to explain a key concept
• Create a short video/podcast discussion Using the Power of Three (1.Tell them what you are going to tell them, 2.Tell them, and then 3.Tell them what you told them)
Because projects are selected by the student, allow for open-ended creativity, and can extend for long periods of time, they actually create a home base the student can return to after venturing into new content. Throughout the day as the student is exposed to new content, they are able to return to the long-lasting project for a sense of familiarity, and as a place to log solid hours of activity. For example, a year-long box-art project means that the student becomes highly competent in that project even as they are working at the edge of their ability. Large projects create a source of confidence, a seat of power, the student can return to after an intense effort working with new and unfamiliar content.
Also, large and extended project require high level teacher input to begin, to get the project moving, but eventually allow the student to exercise a great deal of self-direction, which has an important impact on motivation. For the BoxArt Project, Student X required support to get started, help with understanding what Box Art offers, and how to use the tools of box art, including supervision learning how to properly wield a box cutter and hot glue gun (“Don’t Burn Your Fingy”). To begin I created a small and simple piece of box art, that demonstrated the basic activity and sparked student X to start imagining what she could create. Soon enough, she took over and started applying her own creativity.
At regular points I would help by providing assessment of work completed, give suggestions, share ideas, and allow her to describe her vision. All these processes generated momentum to help carry the project forward, and as previously mentioned, this large project often served to provide several hours of daily “cutting edge” creative work that gave Student X a boost of confidence from a sense of high productivity. Logging hours in the sweet spot, hours beating back resistance, hours generating creative cognition, such as this are rejuvenating and support learning in other areas and other activities.
After a lesson where the student is relying on the teacher for guidance, returning to a level of competence and self-direction is very powerful. Specific, to box-art, a student can go from a frustrating stumble through an hour of writing, to a comfortable seat on the cool tile floor, masterfully in control of a box cutter with a fresh titanium coated blade.
The Most Valuable Aspect of Project-Based-Learning.
Projects create tangible works that students can be proud of and display as a sign of their best work and highest quality effort. Such does not happen with worksheets or standardized test scores. Has anyone ever framed their SAT scores or their transcripts? No, they frame their degree sure, but often they frame pieces of their own work that they are particularly proud of, and if a fire was taking out their home office they would grab their personal work before they would grab the gold trimmed diploma. Some of the projects students create show the signs of future success.
Each student’s unique strengths and weaknesses come together to form a uniquely flawed and perfect personal representation of understanding, perceptions, and ability. The project becomes a map of the journey taken, and a tangible talisman that measures the myelin massed in the brain. The best project a student can produce is also a milestone which the student can use to measure their own progress. A completed project is valuable in itself, and may be kept and displayed by the student for years.
How to Begin…
Find a real-world project with a date for final submission. For example a local library art submission or contest, or find and sign up for a walking half-marathon. Then start working toward reaching that finish line. It is that simple. Like riding a bicycle, being told how cannot convey the forces that are experienced one you start moving. Steven Pressfield likened these to the Muses and the benevolent forces that help a traveler get home.
Pike’ Peak Library District’s Maker Faire served as the finish line for Kikamush Kingdom’s Box Art Project, Boxtoberfest2015. After watching the amazing video, The Cardboard Bernini, about artist James Grashow creating art with cardboard, months of sustained work began. However, in final week before the actual date of the faire, something amazing happened.
As the day of shipping neared, as the time when the student would have to present her work to world, work on the project consumed nearly all productive hours. The project required the entirety of our collective resources to complete on time, and drew out the best in our daughter, and through the vortex like pull of her deep engagement in the creation of her box art kingdom, our entire family was pulled into action, and we all participated together in this fantastic journey with her as captain of the ship. By the time she actually presented the project at the Maker Faire, it was a great relief, and a rich reward to finally reach the finish line, and then to literally make it back home, and as is our way, take a very long and very well-earned nap.
Mind Tree Exponential 