PBL Review part 3

Building a Safe Place vs. Technology Grant

The PBL about building a safe place is for 7th and 8th grade students to come up with a solution to present to the Peoria community board. The students will come up with an idea for a community center that includes a budget, educational centers, fundraiser ideas and more. This PBL includes numbers and operation, algebra, geometry, measurement and more. I think this PBL activity involves several types of math and also connects with many other subjects as well. This PBL is a great example to me of what an effective problem based learning activity would look like. The PBL about the technology grant is about a teacher that wants to apply for a $50,000 grant for the low-income school he teaches at. He assigns his 7th and 8th grade students the task of coming up with a grant proposal to present to the board. The focus of the math in this problem is budgeting, I think this activity could have and should have incorporated more math concepts into the equation.
When comparing and contrasting this two different PBL's, each has things I like and dislike. Overall, I much prefer the set up of the "Building" PBL. I think it's much more organized, easier to read and more professional looking. I also think it incorporates more math into the activity, the mini lessons are easier to follow and more detailed as well. In "Technology", I do like that there are several questions for the teacher to use to prompt the students as well as specific examples for adaptations. The strengths of the first PBL in my opinion are the mini-lessons, the assessments, and the way the activity is written in general. The strengths of the second activity are the adaptions for special needs and gifted students as well as the prompts and role of the teacher. While I think math is the main focus of both PBL's, I once again do not think there are enough math concepts in the "technology" PBL. I like that there are different layers to the "building" PBL and therefore different types of math required.