Designing Worthwhile PBL Projects for High School Students

"A project-based-learning teacher and coach with nearly fifteen years of experience writes about "the most effective tool for organizing content and motivating students to think hard."...What constitutes a worthwhile project for learners of this age group? What do educators mean when they say "project?" And what exactly is project-based learning (PBL)? Surprisingly, given how common the terms are, there appears to be no common understanding of their meaning, much less consensus about when a project approach should be the tactic of choice. It seems the PBL moniker may have become too big a tent by accommodating all methods related to hands-on learning....I define project as "an authentic performance-assessment task in which students must apply the knowledge and skills learned in class to solve a genuine problem outside the classroom.""