Projects Ideas for 21st Century Classroom

These are not necessarily original ideas, but are inspired from other websites mentioned in this blog. 

• debates
• math games fair
• science fair
• organize school events
• meetings
• ongoing blog of experience 
• mini math lessons via video (ex, algebra tiles and linear equations)
• democratic elections (for positions of responsbility in the classroom/ school/ at meetings)
• committees
• organization of school and community events, clubs, teams, fund raisers (student plan, organize, run, and reflect on events)
• ambassadors to other schools (teaching math games, conducting science demos and/ or projects with students, presenting technologies to help young readers, demoing math manipulatives)
• periodic news papers/ broadcasts
• I see the progression in a 21st century classroom very much one of a gradual release of responsibility. I think it would work well to start with activities where everyone is responsible for learning the same material, but presenting it in their choice of way, and/ or a series of activities where everyone is responsible for learning different material, but presenting it in common ways (so as to familiarize themselves with methods of demonstrating learning, provide exemplars for future use, and evaluate the relationships between the type of knowledge gained, and the method of demonstrating learning)
• After reading some of the information on Innovation Unit I've been thinking about a few new projects that would have a local focus, and a local impact. I would love to see some community partnerships into some of these projects. Ideas include; A project on sustainable trail building. The trails could be mountain bike, ski, or multipurpose, but would include research into trainbuilding techniques, local flora, fauna, topography, microclimate, and use; A second local project along the same vein I've been thinking about it is one on winter backcountry use. This could include studying weather patters, snowpacks, avalance gear and technology, GPS technology, and winter survival skills. The specifics of the projects would be entirely up to the students, but our goal as a learning community would be to create local partnerships and produce a product that could be shared with the community.
• A day in the life of ______________ (a project where students really research a career of their choice and report back to their classmates)
• Wikipedia creations (students find something they have expertise on and create content to add to wikipedia)
• Environmental Stewardship (student teams create, design, and implement projects to help green their school and make it a better environment for the life that exists in and around it)
• Documentaries/ Commercials/ Promo Videos (students create videos to promote Prince George/ their favourite book/ a novel they've read that's been turned into a movie...)
• School News/ Radio (students create broadcasts to be shared with the school/ community)
• Technology You Need (students research and market emerging, cost saving technologies to local businesses, VOIP phone?, Google Reviews, Twitter, Urban Spoon)
• Winter Frisbee Golf Course/ Golf Course Used for Cross Country Skiing/ Skate Park/ Indoor BMX park? (Students create their own piece of the park as part of a course the class would put together)
• Build a trail project (students work together to design a sustainable mountain bike trail with no net impact on the local ecosystem)
• Backcountry safety (students create PSAs to help teach younger students the value of backcountry safety)
• Here's another site with a host of "Challange Based Learning" (CBL) Projects teachers internationally are developing and implementing. The CBL format is analogous to PBL, but with its own unique process and Apple spin. 
• http://www.challengebasedlearning.org/
• Tweet Up where students take on roles as characters (for example, this could be science based and students could take on the roles of historic scientists; alternately, this could be socials based, and students could take on roles as 
• Class Elections where students have to campaign and run for roles in class government, modeling their platform on a certain party, individual, the position they are running for
• Toy Building Project where students design toys research, design, and send children's toys to an underprivileged community in BC (possibly floating toys to go along with Science 8 Water Unit).