Badger Rock Charter School: Project-based learning? Maybe not

By Stephen Perez

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Badger Rock Middle School's mission statement demands that our academic program thrive on authentic community project-based learning.​ But what does that mean?

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Many parents who have chosen to send their students to the Badger Rock charter school included our project-based learning as a reason why they made that choice.​"My daughter really is a ‘hands on learner,’” one mother said. Another parent shared that her child struggles to pay attention in class and that doing “projects” would help her student focus more, hopefully. When I first announced that our class would be doing a project, hands shot up.

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"Can I make a poster?”

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“Can I make a model?”

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“What about a shadow box?”

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I was befuddled; they did not know what the project was. When I then explained that we would be writing a research paper, there was an audible sigh. My kids felt cheated. Apparently, the connotative meaning of “projects” is building something, or maybe presenting something.

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My view of project-based learning at Badger Rock Middle School is more broadly defined than an activity that is kinesthetically based. I'm wondering if a more appropriate term to describe what we do at Badger Rock is process-based learning. The process of writing the research paper began with the components of a sentence.

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A sentence needs a subject and a predicate. More simply, a “who” and a “did what.” The proficiency of my students’ writing was not surprising. I learned many years ago not to lament what they do not know and teach them what I want them to learn.