In each Project Based Learning (PBL) unit, PlayThrive students and teachers take on a challenge together by exchanging observations and asking questions. Through active exploring and hands-on making, we learn, share, feel, support, and present using the targeted Mandarin language.
Below are a few examples of how our students have learned valuable lessons through PBL.
- We ask: How can we make a haunted house with flying ghosts and moving bugs?
- We construct: A Halloween STEAM haunted house
- We learn: Simple machines, Mandarin nouns with the “bug 虫” radical, and verbs about movements.
- We ask: What is a museum and how can we create one?
- We construct: A Spring art museum
- We learn: The process of setting up an exhibition, Mandarin nouns with the “grass 草” radical, and adjectives describing growth and feelings in Spring.
- We ask: What do you want to know about viruses?
- We construct: Booklets about viruses and health
- We learn: Steps of the Scientific Method. Mandarin vocabulary relating to disease and health.
- We ask: How did people celebrate Chinese New Year 200 years ago, compared to now?
- We construct: Now and Long Ago Market
- We learn: Old ways of life, Chinese traditions, Mandarin language about materials, craft making now vs. long ago, and Chinese New Year customs.
- We ask: How do robots move?
- We construct: Hand-cranked Automata
- We learn: Cam, levers, motion, and humor. Mandarin vocabulary about insects and movements .