From June 17-June 28th, 139 teachers came together from SDUSD middle and high schools at PBL Institute to work in interdisciplinary teams to design rigorous real-world projects to implement with students during the 2019-2020 school year. During the two weeks, teachers engaged in a design challenge, job shadow, workshops, brainstormed, created meaningful essential questions, and used the Six A's of PBL as they collaborated to develop a new (or improved) project.An example of an interdisciplinary project is "Energy Independence: The Future of City Heights" designed by the Sustainable Academy of Building and Engineering (SABE) of Hoover High School for their 9th graders. The project integrates Green Up and Go, Integrated Math 1, and English and challenges students to consider the question: "How can the use of renewable energy to promote economic self-sufficiency in low-income communities?" Through the project, students will explore renewable energy sources, sustainability principles in housing, and how renewable energy and sustainability principles can help communities be self-sufficient. Students will utilize renewable energy (wind and solar) to power an EnergiPlant from Primo Energy that is off-the-grid and will provide clean electricity to Hoover students and community members. Additionally, students will be writing proposals to City Heights CDC to potentially establish partnerships between City Heights CDC and Primo Energy for the purpose of fostering economic self-sufficiency in City Heights through the practice of sustainable principles.
This is just one example of the 35+ real-world and client-based projects created by teachers this summer. View more - PBL Institute Projects Click here to learn more about the SD Unified PBL Institute.
