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Setting the Stage

  • You are providing students with a (real world) challenge or problem to solve.
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  • What skills and knowledge will they need to solve it?

  • In what order will they have to work in order to achieve the (tangible) end goal?

Project Based Learning

  • Each activity and lesson should build essential content knowledge, mathematical skill sets and/or mission skills.

  • Each activity or lesson might not necessarily be about teaching a concrete math skill.
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  • Many lessons in a project based learning experience will involve time for exploration, research, creation, reflection, discussion, critique, and redesign.

What is Project Based Learning?

  • Project Based Learning is “a teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge” 

  • This kind of learning is all about engaging students in real world problem solving and in challenging students to make choices, reflect on their efforts, and work as a team.

  • In project based learning, the end product is important, but even more important is the process in which students learn: problem solving, self direction, follow through, accountability, communication, how to ask for help, reflection, critique, persistence, planning, time management, and teamwork.

Getting Started

  • Read through the list below and work through each item.
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  • It is crucial that you have a clear plan from the outset. Project based learning takes a lot of teacher prep on the front end so that you can provide students with the materials, instruction, and organization they need in order to thrive.
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  • Utilize the chart below to help you with the beginning stages of laying out your unit plan.
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Forensics Unit

  • Below is an example of a 6 week forensics science unit in which the final product was for students to work in small groups to analyze a "murder" crime scene and determine the culprit.

  • This example shows a clear linear progression of teaching particular concepts in order to provide students with the skills and knowledge necessary to perform the final, larger project task.
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  • This unit has real world applications and provides students with many opportunities to utilize and practice the scientific method.

Week 1 - Scientific Method

  • Investigator's agreement
  • Investigator's notebook
  • Introduction to the Scientific Method
  • Inferences vs. facts
  • Formulating questions
  • Tomato lab - Observations
  • Crime scene lab - observation
  • Data collection
  • Data analysis
  • Making a hypothesis
  • CSI - facts vs. media myths
  • History of forensics

Week 2 - Fingerprints

  • Observations
  • Analysis
  • Intro to fingerprint analysis
  • Correct fingerprint recording method
  • Class fingerprint database
  • Loops, Arches, Whirls
  • Enlarging fingerprints for analysis
  • Dusting for fingerprints and lab
  • Experimenting with dusting materials
  • Fingerprints crimescene
  • Teamwork
  • Organization

Week 3 - Chromatography & Handwriting Analysis

  • Intro to Chromatography
  • Intro to microscopes
  • Analyzing types of ink
  • Making predictions
  • Comparing and contrasting
  • Chromatography lab
  • Handwriting characteristics
  • Form, line, arrangement, content
  • Handwriting analysis
  • Ransom note mission
  • Forgery detection

Week 4 - Blood Spatter

  • Creating fake blood
  • Importance of spatter
  • Types of Spatter
  • Measuring spatter
  • Spatter patterns
  • Predictions, observations & analysis
  • Outdoor spatter lab
  • Spatter height demo
  • Spatter height as evidence
  • Spatter on different surfaces
  • Surfaces demo and experiment
  • Spatter surface discussions

Week 5 - Spatter, Interviewing, & Crime Scene Sketching

  • Effects of force on spatter
  • Blunt force objects
  • Experiment predictions
  • Blood spatter simulation lab
  • Spatter analysis
  • Interrogation/Interviewing
  • Interviewing techniques
  • Interview models
  • ​Crime scene sketching
  • Crime scene analysis

Week 6 - Final Crime Scene

  • Solving a "murder"
  • Expert group student choice 
  • Crime scene protocol review
  • Expert teams collect evidence 
  • Analyzing the crime scene
  • Reflecting in expert groups
  • Reviewing the evidence
  • Gathering suspects
  • Agreeing on the culprit
  • Making an arrest
  • Reading the Miranda Rights
  • Reflecting on the final crime scene
  • Reflecting on the unit
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