The end of the school year is among us, and everyone is tired. You're tired, your students are tired. Testing season is wrapping up, some students are studying for finals or wrapping up big projects. Others are helping prepare for end of the school year events such as prom or graduation. Let's face it. It's a lot.

So why not let down your hair a bit and let your students have some fun and learn something at the same time? I've compiled a list of my student's favorite experiential learning activities to do at the end of the year.  

Spring is the perfect time of year for citizen science! It's warming up outside, students are getting antsy and exhausted, testing is underway, breaks are badly needed. On top of that, things start to get active in the world of wildlife, especially in temperate regions like Minnesota. Animals emerge from hibernation, migrating species begin their long journeys to their summer sanctuaries, and it's breeding season for many organisms. ​

Has anyone else binge-watched "Down to Earth" on Netflix? If you haven't, do it! Down to Earth is the epitome of project-based learning on the road and/or abroad.

Zach Efron (yes, I know), travels around the world focusing his energy on ONE global issue. For example, he visits Paris, where he dives deeply into the issue of clean and healthy drinking water. He talks with engineers, city planners, and local political figures. He talks with locals and visits a water treatment facility.

I have been a high school experiential educator for over a decade, and my dominant approach has been self-directed project-based learning. Students design and execute their projects from start to finish with my guidance. 

I didn't choose personalized project-based learning when I first started teaching. In fact, I didn't even know what it was. But the school where I taught insisted on it, and for good reason. PBL is a deep and powerful learning tool, especially when self-directed. 

But it's not perfect. That is the reality. 

Last week's post was all about how I assess experiential learning activities, particularly when it comes to project-based learning. Project-based learning rubrics are great for evaluating project-based learning activities as single experiences, but how can students document or share their learning experiences on a deeper and more comprehensive level? What can used as a big-picture project-based learning assessment?

​Learning portfolios! Students can self-direct project-based learning assessment portfolios, building and managing the portfolios themselves.​

If you are doing experiential learning activities with your students, such as self-directed project-based learning, having students build a portfolio of learning outcomes is essential.

Spring is here, the weather is warming, and students are getting antsy. The school year is wrapping up. Teachers want to end the year with a bang, but are also exhausted and don't know how much more they have left in them to give! It's testing season, graduation season, grade report season. Ah! Spring is bonkers in the world of education. 

So What better way to cruise through the rest of the year and go out with a bang than with community action projects (CAPs)?

When I was teaching high schoolers, I included community action projects in every facet of my teaching. A community action project is a form of project-based learning where students identify issues in the community, research the issues, brainstorm solutions, develop an action plan, and take action. These experiences are the coolest form of self-directed service-learning.

My entire teaching career was at one school, and the philosophy is strongly rooted in "community" as the foundation for learning. In nine years teaching there I developed a deep appreciation for student-involvement in the community. 

Students have the capacity to make massive waves of change because they are young, technologically savvy, and many injustices happening in the world today are happening to them, impacting them directly.

"Authentic" is a buzzword in the project-based learning world. Authenticity is the foundation of PBL and plays a role in every step of the process from project design to final evaluation.

​That is one feature that separates project-based learning from other teaching methods. Learning experiences, final products, sources of information, the presentation, assessments, reflections, etc. should all be authentic - i.e. relevant, real-world, have meaning in the lives of learners, and give students clarity of purpose. ​