Where do Community Partners fit into my PBL?

 

How Do I Plan a PBL? Series #2:

Community Partners

PBL Simplified PBL Planning Form (Download for FREE)

At Magnify Learning, we believe Community Partners are a cornerstone of PBL. There is synergy that happens when we partner -- We need them to bring authenticity to our PBL project by: *Launching a Project *Being an expert during a workshop *Joining us as an authentic audience And community partners love to give back to schools. If you ask the average person on the street, “Do you want to help schools?” they will say yes, but they aren’t sure how. The problem is an engineer can’t just show up at the front desk of a school and say, “Here I am! How can I help?” Project Based Learning is the connection between schools and communities. When our learners get to interact with Community Partners, they can see themselves in those positions. We raise the importance level of the work in our classrooms when we have someone from outside of the school come in.

Learner, “Why is that person in our classroom?”

Facilitator, “They are here because the work you are doing is really important.”

Learner, “I didn’t know people outside of school cared about the work we are doing. Cool!”

Community Partners are a crucial part of the PBL process because it brings the authenticity and real world problems/solutions into your classroom. Community Partners can be found in any area from rural to urban areas. Start with warm contacts of people you already know and move out to larger organizations like zoos and museums who have an educational outreach position. Once you invite a community partner into your classroom, you’ll never go back! Check out our Community Partner Resources listed below to get you started.

Video Related Resources

  1. Why Does My Community Partner Have to Be Real? (Blog)

  2. Community Partners (Website Resource Page)

  3. Planning a PBL Unit (Website Resource Page)

Additional PBL Resources

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4. PBL Movement Online Community - Connect with other like-minded educators and get access to a ton of PBL Resources.

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