A Challenge-Based Learning model pioneered by Apple is now helping teachers engage middle school students in deep learning through projects that combine developing questions, investigating scientific phenomena, and solving problems in their classrooms, schools, and communities.
In a recent edWebinar, Anthony Baker, project director for Digital Promise, which has further developed and researched the Challenge-Based Learning model, explains that this approach enables students to make meaningful connections to their science curriculum while also answering the age-old student question: “Why do I need to learn this?”
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Recent projects implemented successfully at the Middletown Middle School in Ohio include the engineering/design challenge of creating throwing devices to help students with disabilities participate in the Special Olympics, and then working with those students to explain and test the devices.
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