PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
PBL Simplified Podcast helps innovative principals and teachers like you bring Project Based Learning to your classrooms. PBL Simplified is in the top 5% of over 2 million global podcasts.
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PBL Simplified by Magnify Learning
Five Guaranteed Community Partners for Project Based Learning | E211
Unlock the secrets to enhancing your Project Based Learning (PBL) experience with five guaranteed community partners eager to support educators everywhere. From the bustling corridors of the Indianapolis Children's Museum to the nurturing environments of local martial arts studios, discover how these partners can transform your curriculum. We'll share how large museums and zoos are ready to provide extensive curriculum support and immersive field trip opportunities, even in a virtual format. Learn how the "Power of Children" exhibit and other service learning projects can inspire students by bringing the stories of young change-makers right into your classroom.
Our journey doesn't stop there—explore how to effectively engage with community resources that align with your educational objectives. The Department of Natural Resources (DNR) emerges as a dynamic partner, keen to educate young minds on environmental issues such as invasive species. Local businesses, with their real-world insights, and martial arts studios, focusing on character development, round out our list of innovative partners. By leveraging these diverse community resources, you'll enrich your students' learning experiences and create a vibrant educational environment that resonates beyond the classroom walls.
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Five guaranteed community partners for your project-based learning unit Guaranteed. Ryan, can you really say that they're guaranteed? It's pretty close. Right, it's pretty close. I've got a list of five and these have been go-to for the last decade. Right, they come through each and every time. Well, but, ryan, are they in my small town? You have access to them. Ryan, are they in my big city? You have access to them, ryan, are they in my big city? You have access to them. And no, they're not overburdened. And yes, they will work with you. Okay, ryan, like, give me the five, right? So now you're in, we've got five guaranteed community partners for PBL.
Speaker 1:Before we jump into that, we've got some resources for you that will help you address this exact idea of community partners. If you go to pblsimplifiedcom it's pblsimplifiedcom you get a video series. Whether you're an administrator or a teacher, we've got a different series for you based on your needs. We're going to differentiate the learning course, because that's what we believe in, and we have sessions on community partners specifically. We've got a protocol around how to look for community partners in your area and when you go through the series, you can let them come into your inbox through a process. We have them in a specific order or if you jump to the YouTube channel, you can pick what you need and address those in any kind of professional development that you need, or maybe just for you, as you're looking for a community partner. Maybe you want to skip to them, but if you want to hear me talk about the five guaranteed community partners, you've got to stay tuned.
Speaker 1:And same teaser as a couple of podcast episodes ago. But number five is a new one for me, All right. So how do I know it's guaranteed? I've got an inside scoop. I've got an inside source that says this one's going to be guaranteed. So number five's new, but I think it should still be on the list.
Speaker 1:But what's number one? Number one is large museums and zoos. In Indianapolis, you've got the largest children's museum in the world and I don't care where you're at, you can email them and they will connect with you. I don't care if you're in Kentucky or Florida or Oregon, they're big enough. They have an education department, right? They literally do their own professional development with schools. When you reach out to them, you're literally doing their job for them, right? It'd be like if you showed up at school and somebody just took one of your kids and taught them everything about compound sentences right, and unfortunately it doesn't quite work that well for us in education, right, but they have an outreach department that's literally trying to reach out to schools and have more interaction with schools. You have a large children's museum in your state, right. Maybe in your city, maybe there's a small one in your city. Honestly, that's usually better, More local the better, I think. But if you're going to do a cold outreach, this is one of my really kind of only cold outreaches I totally recommend is the large museums and large zoos, right, so go find the Louisville Zoo, the St Louis Zoo, find a STEM museum next to you. Their whole job is to interact with kids, students that are your students' ages, right, so they have a department that literally does that. They're creating curriculum for your learners to interact with their exhibits. Now, can you get a field trip there? That would obviously be ideal, right? If you can go there, you can work through the curriculum in your classroom and then you can go visit.
Speaker 1:I used to do this really great service learning slash PBL unit around the power of children. And again, this is the Indianapolis Children's Museum largest in the world and they have this power of children exhibit around Ruby Bridges, anne Frank and Ryan White and it's these teenagers that did amazing things to change the world. And they have a power of children award winner every year and it's some young learner that's done amazing things and they have a whole curriculum that you can do in your classroom to study some of these kids and then create your own service learning project. And all these award winners have some kind of a YouTube video that you can watch and it's super relatable for kids of a whole lot of ages and it's a great way to launch your service learning project. They actually give you kind of a whole lot of ages and it's a great way to launch your service learning project. They actually give you kind of a framework for it. And then, because I was local, we could take the kids to the museum and they actually got to go through the museum and see all the things the different kids did and we got to go see the other exhibits so they could learn that Some of our learners that are 10 minutes away had never been in the children's museum before. So it's a big deal for your kids.
Speaker 1:Now what if you can't do the field trip? If you can't do the field trip, you can still do the curriculum. You can still interact with the YouTube channel that they have. You can still interact with a lot of the exhibits online. And again, it doesn't have to be the children's museum of Indianapolis that's just my favorite example, because they're big and they've got a great education department. I love them and. But you have a children's museum close to you, so find the one that's close to you and tell them that you're a school in their state and their ears perk up. Oh, this is exactly what we were hoping. Thank you so much for emailing. Here's what we have, and they'll give you five options of different curriculum that they have or different exhibits that they currently have that your learners can interact with virtually. So another great reason to be an educator right now is there's so many virtual options in case you can't get that field trip out there.
Speaker 1:Now let me give a little sidebar on field trips. I understand that your district says no field trips, but when you say we are going to be working with the largest children's museum in the world and we're going to be creating curriculum for them, for every visitor to use on these new iPads that they have, it's a brand new exhibit. Our kids are going to be creating that for the museum and that's what they're actually going to use. Suddenly field trips pop up. Right, if you just submit the form and put it into your principal's mailbox, yes, it's very easy for them to bring out the no stamp and stamp it. Right, I get that, that's the policy.
Speaker 1:But when you take that same field trip form, or even before you get to the form, hey, mr Anderson, I've got this crazy idea. It probably doesn't make sense, because I know we don't do field trips. Here's what I'm thinking. And you lay out your idea and suddenly they're thinking well, I mean, I know there's no field trips, but gosh, this is a great PBL unit and it would be really great for the school and for the learners. I think we can probably make this work. Let me see what I can do. And now suddenly they're starting to figure out how to get your field trip done. There is an art to that. There's a right way and a wrong way to go.
Speaker 1:Ask for a field trip. Don't just fill out the form and leave it in the box. The no stamp will come out. Have all your ducks in a row. Have a good speech, start with that same prompt. I just gave you that. I know this is a crazy idea and it probably won't work, but and then lay your spiel out there and then they're going to start working with you and for you. All right, that was a side tangent. But large museums and zoos these places have full-time outreach folks, right, their whole job is to reach out to you as an educator. So when you contact them, you're helping them fulfill their mission just as much as yours. They're good people.
Speaker 1:Number two guaranteed community partners for project-based learning local nonprofits, nonprofits in your area. If you just go call Goodwill or the American Cancer Society main office, I can't guarantee that one. But if you've got somebody local that's connected to a local nonprofit, maybe it's an executive director of a small nonprofit. One of their main jobs is awareness. They want people to be aware of the issues that they're trying to solve and the solutions that their nonprofit is bringing. So they love talking to people about this. They want to be out talking to your learners. They'd love to talk to your parents. They're looking for volunteers. They're talking to your learners. They'd love to talk to your parents. They're looking for volunteers. They're happy to come in. They're passionate about their work and they're super easy to work with because of those same things. So they're happy to work into your PBL unit to be an entry event, to be really somebody that will work in a workshop or be in a presentation as an authentic audience member. And they typically have some flexibility in their schedule as well, because they're not working a 9-to-5. It's a little bit different, so they will try to work you in. So number two guaranteed community partner is a local nonprofit. That is a relationship that you want to form and then hold on to.
Speaker 1:Number three, local DNR Department of Natural Resources. If you're looking at invasive species or you're looking at clean water, your local DNR. Same idea they want to work with the community. They're trying to solve problems in your community and if they can start with youth, they're in. They are in and they have schedules that are not a straight 9 to 5. So it's not hard for them to say hey, you know what? On Wednesday at one o'clock I'm going to go visit the local elementary school because I'm going to go give a talk, or they're going to come, they're going to walk from the school down to the park and I'm going to give them a talk about invasive species and maybe they bring some gear, maybe they bring a truck right. They can. They can bring any of their stuff and they can give you a talk. That's one of the things that they do. So every time I've had somebody jump into a PBL unit with local DNR, it's been a success. So that's on the guaranteed list, right? Because they want to be with you.
Speaker 1:Number four local businesses. Local businesses and you know the ones where, like your learners, like their parents, are the ones that own that pizza shop and they're always, you know, buying pizza for the volleyball team or the football team, right? Or they're selling things cheap what you know for high school events, whatever that is. They're sponsoring things. Those are people that are invested in the school system. They're invested in your kids and they want to help out. Now, are they busy entrepreneurs? 100% they are, but they're also super active and passionate about the work, and if they're putting in this extra work to support your school system, they would love the opportunity to do some meaningful work in your classroom. They probably don't want to give up some of their time to make copies for you, right, or to get things organized in your room, but if you want them to come in and talk about how to create a business plan or to be part of an authentic audience to give feedback on professionalism.
Speaker 1:They hire and fire people and maybe, like in the pizza shop example, a lot of times they're hiring your high school kids, right? So wouldn't it be great if your high school kids could hear what it is they're looking for in that interview, right? And if you can develop a really great relationship? Sometimes their resume goes right to the top and they're like oh, you've been a PBL environment. Obviously, because you can talk to customers, they get hired quickly. And for those that are not going to work at the pizza shop, right, they're still learning these valuable employability skills.
Speaker 1:So look for local businesses, again, you're going to notice, and maybe I should do a top five non-guaranteed community partners. But if you just call Apple and say, hey, apple, I've got a computer project that I want to do, would you send somebody, right? Or hey, ibm, or hey, disney, I don't know, I've never actually called Disney, but when you look at the big organizations, it's a different scenario, right, you're looking for when I say big I the reason I go to large museums and zoos, because they have school outreach programs. So if you know that Disney, for instance, has a school outreach program, you know, go for it, right. But when you're calling these big organizations, this big mortgage company, it's pretty difficult to get somebody to come out and help. So, local businesses.
Speaker 1:Now what is number five? Number five is a new one for me. And number five is a new one because I have an interview coming up next week with Matt Eiler, master Eiler from a martial arts studio, and it was a fascinating interview because you start to hear that martial arts is way more than kicks and punches, way more than jump, kicks and knees, way more than, yeah, like, trying to break a board. It's about character development, it's about yelling affirmations, it's about confidence and how you hold yourself. And it was a great conversation. So I'm adding any place like a martial arts studio, maybe even music lessons, or even the fire department that maybe has like a junior ranger kind of program, but martial arts studios, why? Because it's a business. It's a local business, right? So it's going to hit that area as well.
Speaker 1:If you also have people that are trying to influence youth for good, right, that's their whole mission. Like they don't really need people to kick and break more boards, right, like we're not. Like, oh, you know what our country really needs? We need more boards broken, like that's not the mission that they're trying to accomplish. They're trying to create strong young men and women that have strong character, values and integrity. Well, it sounds a lot like what we're trying to do, doesn't it? In a project-based learning environment. That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to create leaders. We're trying to empower learners.
Speaker 1:So it turns out that maybe, if you don't kick a lot of things like I don't really kick a lot of things, I did a kickboxing workout last week for my HIIT workout, but that's about as much as I've done. I don't really break boards, but when I talk with Matt Eiler next week, you're going to hear me really connect with him around this idea of empowering our learners. So the number five guaranteed community partner for PBL is actually Martial Arts Studios and I've got to say I've never said that out loud before, right, never said that one out loud, but when I talked to Matt again you'll hear it next week, make sure you tune in but the outreach is so easy and for Matt it's because he's a former educator. But it's so easy because our values and our goals are so aligned, which is really what you're looking for in a community partner. If you can find a large children's museum or any children's museum for that matter that's trying to create a new exhibit, they would love for that exhibit to have student voice in it. They would love to be able to say that the local school helped create this exhibit. So you can create a win-win. And when you create a win-win for any community partner, those are the best community partner relationships. So whether it's your local fire department or the local nonprofit or DNR or local business, you're really looking for a win-win. And sometimes it's hard to see and I don't think you even have to go into the relationship knowing what it is yet.
Speaker 1:I think it's okay for you to reach out and say hey, it would be great for my learners if you could come in and talk about employability skills, especially right before presentations. It'd be a big deal for us in a practice presentation scenario. That would be so good. Is there something that we could do to help you and just ask the question? You don't have to have it all figured out yet. We don't ask our learners to have it all figured out. We don't even tell our learners that we have it all figured out. We're all learners. So you can go to your community partner and say I can totally see how my learners would benefit from you coming in. How can we help you? And they just might have an idea. And it might not be this PBL, it might be the next one. You might say you know what? This has been awesome, but I've got a geometry unit coming up that also has persuasive writing connected to it. You know, do you know any landscapers? Do you do landscaping? Right, and you can reach out like that. But you're looking for the win-win.
Speaker 1:Let me give you one more example. The Benjamin Harrison home had programming for elementary, middle school and high school. They would go into schools and one of their folks would run this programming so that schools didn't have to come to them. Schools could, but we know that field trips are hard. We've talked about that. So the elementary program awesome. High school program great discussions. Middle school program not so great. On the lower end that's like a one or a two. It was not getting good reviews. People didn't even ask for it. And so benjamin harrison home connected with us and said hey, what if your eighth graders created the curriculum? Well, that would be awesome because they would obviously pick things that eighth graders like and other eighth graders would probably like the same things. So they gave us some parameters it has to to be under $500. It has to be able to be done with no wifi, because you can't always count on the wifi. And we got those parameters and our eighth graders created those possible scenarios. The Benjamin Harrison home took different parts of that and created this new curriculum for middle schoolers, written by middle schoolers. How cool is that, again for Benjamin Harrison Home. How cool is it for our learners to know that other schools are literally buying this curriculum that they helped make and it's actually being implemented. That's super real world. It's win-win.
Speaker 1:When you're talking about community partners, community partners are a game changer. You know they're a cornerstone. They bring the authenticity to our PBL. We want to make sure that we're taking care of those relationships because they are helping us so much in bringing the real world problems to our classrooms. So those are five guaranteed community partners for your PBL unit and all the work that you do. Again, go to pblsimplifiedcom if you want some more YouTube resources around community partners and around PBL in general. We'll go through driving questions entry events, group contracts. We go through a whole slew of things for teachers to see how it works in your classroom, and administrators we have a track for you as well to say. How do you start to plan out your vision, how do you implement that vision, how do you get a grassroots movement going? And they're just a lot of fun. We've got really great response from those resources, so we keep them out there free for you. Pblsimplifiedcom. All right, you've got five guaranteed community partners. Get out there, go, contact them with confidence, knowing they want to partner with you and you want to partner with them. Go out and lead inspired.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the PBL Simplified Podcast. I appreciate you and honor that you tune in each week. Would you please take two minutes to leave a rating and a review? When you leave a review, it lets the next person know that this is a podcast worth listening to. When they go into their player and search project-based learning and PBL Simplified popped up, when they see those reviews, they know that high quality, visionary leaders are listening. So they tune in too and they can find their way into the PBL journey. Thank you so much for leaving a review. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate you.
