Human beings never stop learning Both at school; Like at home, with family, or on the street, with friends and other acquaintances, we can nourish ourselves with new knowledge that is useful for our daily lives.
Everyday situations provide knowledge, and this is taken into account by the approach of Problem Based Learning (PBL) This method aims to confront the student with real situations, investigate them and, through the use of critical judgment, learn autonomously and cooperatively.
The number of problem situations that can arise are infinite. In this article we are going to see 10 cases of problem-based learning and some of the concepts that can be taught through them.
1. Economy: A family purchase
A low-income family wants to buy everything they need, but without spending more than they can afford.
Students can ask themselves several questions: what are basic foods? what are its properties? How to make the purchase as cheap as possible?
Based on these questions, they can investigate the nutrients in foods and determine which ones are dispensable. Besides, This exercise leaves the option of doing field work, going to supermarkets and comparing the prices of the products
This knowledge is useful since they learn what basic foods are, in addition to being able to apply the new acquired knowledge and savings strategies in their daily lives.
2. Biology: Insect pest
There is a plague of mosquitoes in a town, which affects tourism and harms the health of the inhabitants.
Some questions that students can ask themselves: how do mosquitoes reproduce? Are they typical of the area? Has there been torrential rain? stagnant water? What insecticides are usually used in the town?
From here they can develop an action plan to reduce the number of insects in addition to considering how to teach the inhabitants to deal with the problem for the future.
3. Security: Evacuation of an institute
An institute has suffered a fire and the evacuation plan has been a disaster: the emergency doors were blocked there was pushing and the students breathed in a lot of smoke.
It is proposed to rework the evacuation plan to prevent this from happening again. Students may wonder what went wrong last time, if the emergency signs were well placed, if the educational staff had clear roles in case of evacuation…
The students themselves can investigate what their center’s evacuation plan is. Find out where the emergency exits are and learn the safety signs. They can contact firefighters and police to explain what to do in an emergency and how not to act.
4. Chemistry: Heartburn
To understand concepts such as acidity/basicity, the example of heartburn is quite recurrent
In the stomach there are acids that digest food, which are affected by the type of diet. Students can indicate when they have felt this pain, and what they had eaten when it happened to them.
They can learn about how antacids work, make a model of a stomach and add different foods to them to see how the acids react…
Based on this example, not only learn chemical concepts, but also about appropriate eating habits to avoid heartburn.
Why is trying to kill a fly with your hand less effective than trying to kill it with a fly swatter? This question can be asked to introduce the concept of aerodynamics.
Students can try to explain why this is done in a practical way, making their own fly swatters and seeing how to make them as effective as possible.
Although it may seem like a very simple example of problem-based learning, having to make a fly swatter is not an easy task if the reason for its design is unknown, allowing students to experiment and participate in their own learning.
6. Psychology: Selection of personnel for a hospital
A new hospital has been built and new staff are being sought The idea is to select new employees by administering batteries of questionnaires.
Students must investigate which tests are most appropriate for the selection of healthcare personnel. They must classify these questionnaires for themselves and determine which ones they should use for the assigned task.
By doing this, instead of having to memorize lists of questionnaires, students become part of their own learning, and carry out in-depth research that allows them to become familiar with different assessment tools.
7. Mathematics: Play with triangles
Instead of teaching formulas for each type of triangle, Primary school children can be familiarized with concepts such as area and perimeter by playing tangram
Different figures are presented on the board and each child has a tangram game. Children have to imitate the figures.
Once they have learned the different types of triangles, they can introduce mathematical concepts by looking for real-life triangular shapes and forming groups to measure the sides of each triangle. Thus, students learn in a group and interactive way.
Instead of teaching the classic and heavy trigonometric formulas, you can propose to go to the street and calculate the height of the buildings
The students are separated into groups, and each of them must measure the shadow of the buildings and the degree of inclination. From this information you can calculate the heights, in addition to relating the new learning with real-life objects and relating it to concepts learned in previous courses: Pythagorean theorem, inclination, distance…
9. Water shortage
In a town there are problems with drinking water The faucet usually brings air, and if it brings water it does not come out with much pressure. There are those who suggest that it is because a local farmer has diverted the river to irrigate his crops, others suggest that it is due to lack of water and some because it is wasted.
Knowing the problem situation, students can wonder if the pipes are broken, if the water source is drying up…
You may also wonder if the diverted river is really the same source of drinking water, how the sources can be improved, what to do to increase vegetation in the area.
10. History of art: film about Ancient Greece
A director wants to make a movie about Ancient Greece. Although the script is completely invented, he wants the setting and traditions represented to be as realistic as possible.
Students act as if they were fine arts consultants They must document what the buildings were like in the classical era. Read the script and find out what would be the most appropriate places to represent the scenes of the film.
