Building Problem-Based Learning Units

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Building PBL Units

Module Six - First Things First

**Stages of Problem-Solving**
Define Problem	Gather Data & Explore Possibilities	Invent Options	Evaluate Options	Create a Plan	Act

Today we are hoping you will leave with a rough draft of a PBL unit plan you could use with your students (or maybe three units). You may create this draft working solo or collaborating in a cross-disciplinary team.

The first step is to identify a problem, issue or challenge that matches your curriculum standards and focus. Once you have something in mind, you should devote a half hour to mapping out its dimensions in the same way the traffic questions was 1) stated as a simple sentence and 2) expanded into a cluster diagram with 10-20 elements.

Most folks do not know what they do not know when they start to investigate a problem. For this reason, their first list of questions and the design of data collection is usually incomplete.

The Research Cycle

One way of thinking about this process of exploring and uncovering problems is to picture a cycle of questioning and exploring.

The researcher poses questions, starts to explore, begins to see surprising new issues and returns to revise the original list of questions, expanding and elaborating on the first effort.

The researcher mucks around until clarity emerges. It is somewhat like peeling back the layers of an onion.

While you would ultimately involve your students in this same expansion and questioning process, you need to do some of this exploration today to determine if the problem or issue you have selected is promising and would meet the criteria mentioned earlier:

Check List for a Unit Question

The question identifies an issue, a problem or a challenge from the real world that actually needs attention (hunger, traffic congestion, litter, vandalism, etc.).

The question includes the mention of action, as in "What should be done about the traffic?"

The question should lead to tasks and an investigation that is within the capabilities of the age group.

The target issue or problem should somewhat manageable - open to solution or improvement.

The target issue should be fascinating.

Sometimes a problem that seemed promising at the outset proves disappointing for a number of reasons ranging from weak information to a sense that the material might be upsetting, boring or frustrating for middle school students.

Your team may have to compare and contrast 2-3 different problems.

As you develop some confidence that you have a good unit question, open this unit planning template and enter your question/problem.

PBL Unit Template (With Macs use CTRL-click so you can tell to save where you want it. With Windows, right mouse-click to do the same.)

Next module. Please do not proceed until asked to do so by the workshop leader.