The 6 A's of PBL Project Design: Adult Connections

 

Aptitude, arcane, archetype, arduous, aspire, atone ...these are all great words, but they are not what we mean we talk about the 6 A’s of PBL Project Design. We’re moving along in our 6 A’s of PBL Project Design series. This video will address Adult Connections.

If you take a look at the PBL graphic in this video, you’ll see that community partners is a cornerstone of PBL. We need adult connections to bring real world problems to raise the engagement level, so we can raise the rigor level. That’s the secret sauce! If you want this graphic, it’s on our website under the resources tab under “What is PBL?”. Schools love to use this graphic and the webpage to help parents and the community understand the importance of PBL. Feel free to set up a link right to it.

Community partners fit in many different spots in the PBL process. To launch a PBL unit well, bringing in an outside partner can help show the authenticity and importance of the unit you are embarking on together. Stronger yet, is to have an expert come in to teach a workshop. In the blogs linked below, Andy Larson talks about how when marketing for The Humane Society, your learners likely need more help from a marketer than they do from the Humane Society. Can your marketing partner come in or Zoom in for a workshop on clarity of message or do a feedback session? An authentic audience at the end of a PBL Unit helps put a bow on the authenticity on it. The work your learners are doing is so important that people will take time out of their work day to hear about the results. That’s a big deal!

Don’t use a fake community partner...even if you are in a small town. Learners can smell fake from a mile away. There can be truth though in the difficulty in finding a community partner if you haven’t done this before. During our Project Based Learning professional development workshops, we take schools through the process of establishing a list of community partners. You can take a look at our community partner slides by clicking on the link below. You, your colleagues, and your learners know more community partners than you might think. Check out the resources in the 6As link below.

You’ll love the engagement and excitement that a community partner brings to your classroom.

Additional PBL Resources

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