# @edutopia on Instagram

- **Type:** Video
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CMYMawfAVXj
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20303905-edutopia-instagram
- **Posted:** 2021-03-13T23:52:33.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Edutopia (@edutopia) — https://gondola.cc/edutopia

## Caption

Does studying soil erosion in the classroom beat out visiting a local farm to figure it out yourself? A new study put that very question to the test, observing thousands of Advanced Placement students as they tackled challenging curricula through experiential project-based learning (PBL) or more traditional instruction.

In a national study conducted independently by the University of Southern California—and funded by Lucas Education Research, a sister division of Edutopia—researchers randomly assigned teachers responsible for over 3,600 AP students to one of two groups.

In the first group, teachers used a PBL approach centered around essential questions, collaborative learning, group research, and simulations that mirror real-world activities—participating in a mock Supreme Court trial, for example, or calculating their family’s ecological footprint. Meanwhile, teachers in the second group taught their classes in a more traditional format, emphasizing lectures, lots of independent reading and discussion, and AP exam prep.

For Gil Leal, now an environmental science major at UCLA, the difference was eye-opening. “In other classes, it was lecture, readings, and test, but in AP Environmental Science we worked on projects with other students, discussed our ideas, considered different perspectives—and I learned so much more this way,” said Leal, who took the course in his junior year of high school.

The study results, which were published in February of 2021, showed that 45% of students in PBL classrooms passed their AP tests, outperforming students in traditional classrooms by 8 percentage points. A closer look at the data revealed that students from low-income households saw similar gains when compared to wealthier peers, making a strong case that PBL raises all boats—and might be a key strategy for schools seeking to make their AP courses more equitable by opening them to more students.

#PBL #ProjectBasedLearning #StudentEngagment #EducationResearch #EducationEquity #TeachersOfInstagram

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## Tags

pbl, studentengagment, educationequity, teachersofinstagram, educationresearch, projectbasedlearning

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