Project-based Learning Excites & Engages

Here’s an example of how U.S. high schools can change their approach to teaching and learning:

Napa New Technology High School encourages students to learn through collaboration with business and emphasizes a project-based approach to teaching and learning. Indeed, some of the classrooms resemble corporate conference rooms. Students and teachers work to solve problems that often have an impact on the quality of life for school and community. One example is a project on conservation methods that not only protected a neighboring watershed from erosion by planting native shrubs and trees, but also saved the school hundreds of dollars on its monthly utility bill. As creative and innovative as this project is, sadly it cannot be a common component of U.S. schools that are focused on standardized assessments that focus on discrete sets of outcomes.

Schools like Napa New Tech are living embodiments of the creativity and innovation so essential to U.S. educational and career success. Professional development and teaching practice balance knowledge and skills to model critical thinking and creativity to solve problems that have meaning to the students and their surrounding local community and serve as a model to bridge the gap between school and work. For more about Napa New Tech: http://www.newtechhigh.org