Key points:
- Designing learning around authentic projects expands what it means to be “good at school”
- Building skills by designing backpacks: PBL shifted how students see math
- Fueling student passion for STEM with project-based learning
- For more news on project-based learning, visit eSN’s Innovative Teaching hub
For a lot of students, school can feel like a transaction: You do the work, you get the check mark, and then you move on. That model can unintentionally cap what students show us about what they know and can do.
Whenever I reconnect with former students I taught years ago, I’m always struck by what they actually remember. Nobody brings up a worksheet, a slide deck, or a specific test question. Instead, they bring up their experiences: moments where they got their hands dirty solving real problems, collaborating with people outside our classroom, and wrestling with big, complicated questions.
When we look at why those experiences stick, it comes down to how project-based learning brings content to life.
Project-based learning in action: The borderland course
Back in the 2015–2016 school year, on the eve of a presidential campaign filled with intense rhetoric about immigration, my students in San Antonio—just a few hours from the United States–Mexico border and deeply connected to it through family and community—were hearing about it everywhere. They were genuinely asking, “What is actually happening there, and what does a border really mean?”
So, we designed a project-based course centered around one driving question: What is the purpose of a border, and what has shaped your answer to this question?
We lived inside that question for months. Students traveled to the border, visited sections of the wall, and walked along natural riverfronts. More importantly, they conducted interviews with real stakeholders—Border Patrol agents, asylum seekers, local mayors, and community aid organizations.
What made this project-based approach so powerful was that students saw how lived experience shapes different perspectives. We kept returning to our driving question at key milestones so they could watch their own thinking evolve.
Years later, those students still bring up that project. Some pursued careers in policy or social issues, but for all of them, it provided a visceral, human experience no textbook or standard unit could ever replicate.
Unlocking capabilities beyond the worksheet
Designing learning around authentic projects widens the lens on what it means to be “good at school.” Traditional assessments only give us a tiny window into what a student can do, which can unintentionally cap their potential.
During one evening of our border course, a local aid organization reached out asking if our students could help support women and children asylum-seekers who had just been released from detention facilities. My students stepped up to coordinate transportation, manage logistics, and care for young children.
That night I saw a student who had always been quiet and unassuming in traditional class setups take action, organizing flight schedules with legal aid, translating seamlessly between languages, and calmly solving high-stakes problems as they arose. The authentic context of project-based work called forth leadership and problem-solving capacities in him that traditional assignments simply couldn’t reveal.
Another student had spent years afraid to speak in class because he thought he never had the “right answer.” Through project-based inquiry, his role shifted to interviewing adults with wildly different viewpoints. Realizing that adults didn’t have one uniform answer either was liberating for him by teaching him that real-world knowledge is about inquiry, interpretation, and judgment rather than multiple-choice options.
What changed for these students wasn’t just the format of the work; it was the purpose. PBL honored their curiosity, their identities, and their real-world skills. It widened the definition of what it means to be “good at school,” and as a result, they showed us who they really were.
The cognitive engine of PBL: Why learning lasts
When former students head off to college, they often tell me two things: first, that they are surprised by how hesitant their college peers are to speak up or ask professors questions, and second, that their peers are baffled that they voluntarily spent lunch hours and weekends working on high school projects.
High-quality project-based learning changes the underlying engine of how students retain knowledge:
- Intrinsic motivation over point-chasing: When learning is driven by authentic curiosity, students are chasing actual understanding instead of credits or grades.
- Capless learning environments: Conventional instruction often sets a fixed target with a ceiling. Authentic projects give students room to surprise us, going far beyond what the teacher originally imagined or the project entailed.
- Durable confidence: Regularly presenting public work to real audiences and interviewing outside experts builds communication skills and confidence that translate directly to success in higher education and future careers.
How district leaders can support project-based classrooms
Creating a project-based culture where learning lasts can’t be pulled off by teachers working in isolation. It takes intentional, district-level support to scale project-based learning effectively across schools.
District leaders can create the conditions for long-term retention by:
- Setting standards without uniformity: Establish clear district-wide rubrics for core competencies like critical thinking and collaboration, while giving teachers the autonomy to adapt projects to local community context.
- Expanding measures of success: Look beyond standardized snapshot testing by integrating public exhibitions of learning, student defense-of-learning presentations, and performance-based tasks.
- Prioritizing sustained coaching: Moving from traditional instruction to project-based facilitation requires real practice. Teachers need dedicated time and coaching to collaborate, design units, and refine their craft together.
Creating learning that lasts
Think back to a moment when learning felt truly alive for you—when you were deeply curious, fully engaged, and driven by a real challenge. What were the conditions? How real did the work feel?
Project-based learning intentionally creates those conditions for students. In an era where AI can instantly produce facts, education demands curiosity, empathy, and the ability to navigate ambiguity. Designing learning that is joyful and connected to the real world ensures students do far more than just retain content. Joyful learners are the ones who will do well in the next era of schooling, work, and civic life. PBL is one of the most powerful tools we have to help cultivate them.