How to Use the Community as a Resource in Project-Based Learning

A couple weeks ago I took my two young children to the zoo. On our way home my four-year-old said "did you know that jellyfish can grow their bodies back when they get chopped up?" In other words, they can regenerate when, say, they have a close call with a sea turtle. My son learned this from chattin' it up with a zoo volunteer. He practiced communication skills, asked questions, took a social risk, and gathered information from an expert on a topic of interest.

I often talk about project-based learning on this blog because it's what I know and use in teaching. An overarching theme of project-based learning is community, from generating projects ideas to the final assessment. Students use community experts to gather information on their project topics, create innovative final products that impact the community, and present their projects to an authentic audience, one that is relevant and often public. All of the PBL components just mentioned involve the community in some way or another. 

Before I get into any details on specific ways to use the community as a resource in project-based learning, let's first talk about why you would do this in the first place? Sounds like a lot of work, an extra task or thing to organize, or time away from teaching content. It can be an extra task if you let it. But you could also put some of the responsibility on your students. They can certainly and should be tracking down their own community experts and authentic audience. Community experts also deliver much of the content you would have to otherwise. It also doesn't mean you have to leave the building. As an experiential learning educator I strongly advocate for doing so, but that is not an option for everyone. If it's not an option in your situation, then bring the community to you! And your students can do the same. I'll get to some options soon, but first, why bother to use the community as a resource?

Benefits of Utilizing the Community in Project-Based Learning: 

1) Development of 21st-century Skills - students learn a variety of important life skills such as resourcefulness, communication, and collaboration. 

2) Real-world application of content - students make meaningful connections when they can see and experience concepts first-hand. For example, shadowing a genetics counselor would allow students to experience genetics concepts in the context of real-life.

3) Building a professional and personal network - students develop a hefty network that could lead to future references, job offers, lifelong mentorships and even friendships. 

4) Strengthening the community - community collaboration puts students in a position to actively work at breaking down walls between students and community members that may have developed due to misunderstandings or stereotypes. There is so much to be learned from others, and not just from their expertise, but from their stories. 

5) Access to resources you may not be able to offer - I took a graduate class with the biotechnology department at the University of Minnesota several years ago. They offer up their equipment to educators and their students, which I have taken advantage of many times. There have been a variety of scenarios where my students have needed a resource that our school couldn't provide, from actual materials to expertise or skill. 

How to Use the Community as a Resource in Project-Based Learning:

​The following are ideas or ways that I have personally used or have seen coworkers use the community as an element of learning experiences. You do not have to be doing project-based learning to include community resources in your curriculum. Use some of the suggestions below and adapt them in a way that works for you and your learners. 

• Shadow or observe experts in action out in the community. What this means is highly dependent on the community your students are a part of. My students live and learn in the heart of the Twin Cities. The Twin Cities are surrounded by natural parks, the Mississippi River runs between them. This metropolis is burgeoning with businesses and community events, colleges and universities, medical centers, research centers, non-profits, etc. We utilize ALL of these resources as much as we can. However, just because you don't live in a large city, doesn't mean there aren't options. All communities provide valuable learning experiences, you just need to get students in it and involved. Examples might be bringing students to sit in on college classes, go see community speakers, shadow a business owner, or take a class from an expert in their working space. 

 

• Invite community experts to your learning environment to assist with projects or other learning activities. This could be ANYONE and could be incorporated into ANY learning activity. 

 

• Ask students to use at least one community expert for every project they complete. They can do this by interviewing, shadowing, or even having the expert come to the school to teach them a skill or work with them on a concept. I have a FREE PBL community expert form in my TpT store that might help students organize and plan their use of experts. I also have a product line of guided project-based learning resources that require community expert use.

• Invite community members to come speak to your students on a topic related to a project or to introduce a topic. This is a great option for those of you that can't leave the building.  
• Invite community members to teach your students a skill. We have invited artists, graphic designers, chefs, self-defense instructors and more to work with our students. 

• Use the world as the classroom (if you can) - take students on field trips and travel experiences simply to provide opportunities for sparks, and to learn about and develop an appreciation for any given community. 

 

• Community feedback - One way of using the community as a learning resource is to ask that community members weigh in on student work. Invite the student's project community experts to evaluate their work periodically as well as provide formative feedback. You can also ask community members to observe and evaluate student work at presentation or exhibition events. You don't have to only include community members that have been actively involved in student projects. Invite everyone in the community so that they can see what your students do. This is one way of correcting misunderstandings or stereotypes that I talked about earlier.

 

• Civic engagement. Have students get involved in community issues.  For example, I have my students do two projects that directly involve participation in the community. One is to study a local business. The other is to shadow the organization and execution of a community event such as a festival. Students could also take direct action on a community issue. My students do community action projects every year, where they take action on one community issue that is important to them. 

• Service learning - Encourage students to get out in the community and provide a needed service such as home maintenance for the elderly community, volunteering at a food shelf, cleaning up garbage in the neighborhood, or reading to local elementary students. This could be done as a group activity or as part of a student-specific project.  

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• You could also do service learning projects right from your classroom. This may not make as much of an impact depending on your delivery, but if you can't get your students out in the community, serve the community from your classroom. Examples include creating holiday cards for veterans or making blankets for a homeless shelter. 

 

• Share resources - There have been many instances where I've used equipment or learning spaces outside of our school. The University of Minnesota has been amazing in this way. I have done science lessons using their greenhouse, we have used wind turbine kits to study wind energy in their biotechnology lab. A neurologist from the U of M has come in to my school with an actual human brain for students to study. A nearby church donated all of their leftover garage sale items to our school for our own sale. One of my students was building a go-kart for his senior project. He worked with a mechanic the gave him half of the parts he needed. The list goes on.

 

• Student mentorships - I left  my teaching job to stay home with my children as this program was really starting to take off at my school. We now have a mentorship program thanks to some dedicated staff and board members. This is so critical, especially for teenagers. 

These are only a few options of many. When planning community involvement in your curriculum, consider the topic of study. Take constraints such as time, your own skills, equipment and space into account. Think about your needs and how a community member might be able to fill that role or provide that resource. It may seem like an additional task to an already demanding load. But if you plan well and put some of the responsibility on your students, it may actually feel like you're saving time, and the end result is worth it. The benefits are worth it. 

What are some ways you currently use the community your curriculum? I would love to hear more examples. If you don't currently, what is keeping you? What obstacles do you face and how could you work around them or work through them? 

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