Step 5: Using Project-Based Learning to Engage Students

Another tool to help engage students in course content is project-based learning, in which students gain focal knowledge and skills while completing an authentic and interesting project. Eric Mazur’s course uses project-based learning as “a Trojan horse, in which physics is hidden.” Mazur’s teaching fellow explains how project-based learning helps students retain what they are learning in class: “In the process of building something, the students really engage actively with the concepts, and they see a physical manifestation in the world of their knowledge.”

Profiled: Eric Mazur, Balkanski Professor of Physics and Applied Physics, teaches "Physics as a Foundation for Science and Engineering" to 60 students at Harvard College.

Takeaway Tips

Identify challenging projects that put class concepts into real-world applications. Try to find projects that are ambitious enough to engage students and push their thinking but achievable for learners given time and space constraints.

Make sure that success in course projects is contingent on the depth of students’ understanding of class problems, not on related skills like project management or design thinking. While the latter are generally important, projects should not be seen as something separate to the fundamental learning that is expected within the class.

Provide scaffolding for students throughout the project. Different students will need support at different stages along the way.

Related Resources

IDEA describes how problem-based learning can be one way to engage students in knowledge construction in a hands-on fashion.

The University of Delaware’s Institute for Transforming Higher Education shares sample syllabi, problems, and evaluation forms for problem-based learning.

This Faculty Focus article outlines six key steps in designing and implementing problem-based Learning.

Reflection Questions

Do you incorporate project-based learning into your curriculum right now? If so, how? Do you see any opportunities to introduce a new project or real-world problem in your curriculum?

Do you have any colleagues who use this type of learning in their classes from whom you might learn?

Project-based learning allows students to engage with course concepts in an active, engaging way. You don’t need to build your entire course around projects, as Eric Mazur has, but consider how you might incorporate some into your class. Project-based learning is often done most effectively in teams, so in our next video, we’ll learn one way to help students learn from collaborative projects.

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