Exploring Project Based Learning

Hiking the Appalachian Trails

1. I chose this project out of the six we were presented with because I thought it had a clear outline for what was to be done and it had a definite end. I think that it is important for students to know what is expected of them and where they should be ending up with a finished product. I like that involved a lot of research about climate, traveling, saftey, and much more. I also like that it incorporated math because of mileage count and budget. It also made the students plan everything out which will help them both in the classroom and outside of the classroom in the future.


2.I think this project hits all levels on Bloom's Taxonomy pyramid. That is one reason why I chose this project. The students must use their personal judgment from their research to determine the kind of climate they will be faced with as well as the kinds of things they need to take into account for safety precautions. Because they have not actually participated in this hike before they must use their creative thinking skills to plan and put together a trip that would actually work. They must break each aspect of the hike down to ensure they have everything covered; food, safety, time, lodging, transportation,  and clothing, this involves their critical thinking skills to insure nothing goes wrong. They will have to apply their new knowledge that they have obtained through research to put their plan into action. They will have to understand all the information that they have obtained in order to actually plan and understand everything. They have to be able to describe and explain why they planned what they planned and how and why they think it will work.

3. The only thing that I think needs to be done to this project is to give the students a time line so they know if they are moving at the right pace. Otherwise, I think this is a very well laid out and thought out project and it will be easily understood by the students. Print Page in IE