Project-Based Learning Design

When was the last time you asked yourself "What can I add to this learning experience?" You're asking yourself the wrong question. I learned this the hard way when designing a leadership program for first-time managers. My first iteration on paper was packed with content: video lectures, case studies, role-play scenarios, reflection exercises, peer discussions, and multiple assessments. I was proud of how comprehensive it was. Then I realised the harsh truth: these managers do not have so much time. If I were to get this program live, no one would finish it. I needed to simplify it - A LOT. The best learning designs aren't built up. They're stripped down. 🧩 The Jenga Strategy Now I design everything by "designing to the breaking point" - removing elements one by one like Jenga blocks until the tower wobbles, then adding back just enough to prevent collapse. That wobble zone is where the real learning happens. I took a radical approach: no instructors, no videos, no perfect examples. I removed element after element until we had just 4 things: - Real-world case studies - Peer feedback loops - Weekly mentor check-ins - Actionable tools to apply in their context The result? We had a ~90% completion rate! ✅ WHAT WORKS: Removing instructions until learners must think critically Cutting content to create productive struggle Eliminating scaffolding to promote problem-solving ❌ WHAT DOESN'T: Endless resources "just in case" someone needs them Over-explaining that robs learners of discovery Perfect examples that discourage experimentation Your best learning designs aren't the ones with the most elements. They're the ones where every single element earns its place by driving real results. The next time you're designing a learning experience, don't ask "What else can I add?" Ask "What else can I take away before it breaks?"

𝗠𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗩𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 (𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗮 𝗯𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗲𝘅𝗰𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴) Here’s the challenge with interdisciplinary learning: students often 𝘥𝘰 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬, but they don’t always 𝘴𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘪𝘨𝘨𝘦𝘳 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 of what they’re learning across subjects. This year, I’m trying a different approach. Instead of keeping our IDU plans “teacher-facing,” we’re sharing 𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗱𝗶𝘀𝗰𝗶𝗽𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗟𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘀 with students upfront. It not because a poster changes learning, but because 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳, 𝘴𝘵𝘶𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘵-𝘧𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘭𝘺 𝘧𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨 helps students understand the project, see how subjects connect, and feel more excited to get started. I used 𝗚𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗶 to create a set of posters for our MYP interdisciplinary units and framed each one as a short, project-based learning challenge where students collaborate to solve a problem or address an issue connected to the community. Each poster is designed to help students quickly grasp:  • What the project is  • What problem they’re exploring  • What product they’re creating  • How knowledge and skills from different subjects come together to make that possible My hope is simple: if students can see the “why,” the “how,” and the “so what” from day one, they’ll show up with more ownership, better questions, and a stronger sense of purpose. "𝘞𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘦𝘢𝘳 𝘰𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺’𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘺, 𝘮𝘰𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 ‘𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘦’.” #IBMYP #MYP #InterdisciplinaryLearning #PBL #StudentAgency #AIinEducation #EdTech #CurriculumDesign

If we want teachers to design learning that's real-world, meaningful and hands-on, we need to radically re-think Professional Development for teachers. Here are 3 ideas to shake-up your PD in August before school starts: #1: For real-world connection: Partner with 3-4 non-profit groups in your community. For a 1/2 day, send your teachers out. Have them volunteer with the groups. Learn what they're about and build relationships. For the 1/2 half, teachers create a presentation for their colleagues about how the organisation could be integrated into project-design, exhibition spaces or learning experiences for kids. Outcome: knowledge of local organizations combating local issues. Contact people within these organizations. Easier real-world integration learning. BONUS: Invite guests from other local community organizations during your ongoing PD over the year to give 1 hour presentations about their mission and what they do. #2: For subject-relevance: Partner with local companies that are integrating academic learning into what they do. Send your English teachers to a publishing company or the local newspaper. Send your science teachers to the bio-tech company in the next town. Send your math teachers to visit engineers. Use 1/2 the day to visit these places, talk about the real processes they use academic learning in. For the 1/2 have of the day, teachers work in their subject groups to dive deep into how their subjects can be connected to real careers in project design. Outcome: experience for how subject learning is used in content and processes outside of school. Relationships with professionals who can be experts for kids, projects that support kids to become writers, scientists, mathematicians, engineers, etc. #3: For MAKING: Use what teachers have planned for the first project of the year and spend 1/2 of the day having your teachers MAKE the product they want their students to make. Want kids to make a film? Go out and make a film. Portrait drawing? Draw it. Use 1/2 of the day de-constructing the making process. What steps are necessary? What supports are necessary for kids? Use this experience to help understand better planning for Project-Based Learning. Outcome: More scaffolding for kids in the making process. Creating frames to give freedom and allowing for more student-driven work that is high-quality and integrating a "learning by doing" experience in PBL. BONUS: Make this a regular part of project planning. From the wise words of Jeffrey Robin: Do the project yourself, first. Basically, get teachers OUT. Move PD from academic learning and into experiential learning. We cannot expect teaching for kids to change unless we change how teachers are learning. Need help? Reach out. info@imagineif.dk 📸 : 2023: Lynghede School partnering with Kongernes Jelling where teachers became students and used the museum to create a whole-staff theater performance in one day. #pbl #projectbasedlearning

This is how I learn ML 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻 𝗠𝗟 🔄 Machine Learning is an exciting field to work on, but it is also complex and fast-evolving. It does not matter how much you know today, your skills and expertise will become obsolete faster than you think. So you need to constantly learn new things. This is the recipe I follow to stay relevant an ML. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 💼 I frame my learning as a project. 𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒋𝒆𝒄𝒕 𝒅𝒐 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏? When you start from the end goal you keep focus, avoid distractions, and learn tons of things pretty fast. 𝗘𝘅𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲 Let’s say you wanna get up to speed with Large Language Models (LLMs). A good first project would be to build a 𝗥𝗘𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗣𝗜 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝗶𝘀. When you start your learning path with a clear goal in mind, you put your brain in a problem-solving mode. And you start asking yourself the right questions: → Where can I find a 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘁 to train and evaluate my model? → What is the right 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 for this task? → How do I wrap and 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆 my model as a REST API? So you go to the Internet and start looking for answers. At first you feel a bit overwhelmed. But eventually you start connecting the dots, and finding answers to your questions. For example, → 𝗗𝗮𝘁𝗮𝘀𝗲𝘁? → This Amazon Review dataset can be a good starting point . → 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹? → The Hugging Face transformers library provides great models for sentiment analysis, which you can use out-of-the box or even fine-tune with your own data to improve their accuracy for your task. → 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁? → AWS Lambda is a popular serverless deployment platform, why not try it? These are the building blocks of your solution, that you need to put together to be a champion. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗯𝗲𝗲𝗻 𝗻𝗼 𝗯𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗳 𝗿𝗼𝘀𝗲𝘀 🌹 Project-based learning is not a happy path, because having the ingredients is not enough to build your solution. You need to get your hands dirty, and start writing the code that cooks these ingredients into your masterpiece. This phase is full of ups and downs, little victories and frustrations. And this is when REAL LEARNING takes place. Only when you struggle and implement solutions yourself, you learn. As simple as that. 𝗪𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗺𝗽𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀, 𝗺𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗶𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 🏆 When you based your learning on building projects you get 2 things: 1️⃣ Immense joy when you manage to overcome obstacles and complete the project. 2️⃣ An incredible portfolio, that you can showcase in job interviews, that will help you stand out from the crowd. BOOM! ---- Hi there! It's Pau 👋 Every week I share free, hands-on content, on production-grade ML, to help you build real-world ML products. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄 𝗺𝗲 and 𝗰𝗹𝗶𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 🔔 so you don't miss what's coming next #machinelearning #mlops #realworldml #learning

Computational biology upskilling is like an upward cyclone, and every cycle of learning can happen through a project. This is why I'm all about project-based learning. It's quite hard to explain to people what project-based learning looks like. So I drew a diagram to show how I think about it visually. Every time you cycle/work through a project, starting with Project A, you combine your knowledge of biology with new skills in computer science and a deeper understanding of statistics. You mix them all up to solve a problem, and every time you do that, you upskill. No computational biology project is complete without at least those three elements applied to solve a biological problem. Completing Project A allows you to attempt Project B, then Project C, each one progressively harder. That's how you continue to upskill. This is, by the way, how computational biologists learn on the job. We advance our own skill and knowledge by designing and then completing projects. So if your concept of upskilling is entirely through coursework, I would encourage you to start incorporating project work into your learning strategy. Know how to upskill in this way is not a nice-to-have; this is a requirement for continued on-the-job growth.