“Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” ~ William Butler Yeats

Problem-based learning is not a new idea in education.  If we (teachers) present new concepts in the form of a problem that begs to be solved, then learning takes place in its most natural form.  It is magical, really, the way that students can grasp hold of an idea, pursue it, flesh it out, and create their own meaning.

As I develop my curriculum piece for eMammal, this idea of giving students real-world problems to solve is what I have in mind.  So far, I’ve created a scenario of a group of students who are using data from camera traps to explore what the data means.  One of the problems requires my students to find the mode of how many of each mammal has been photographed in particular location.  In one set of data, there is no mode since there are no duplicates (an interesting debate can occur here where some students will argue that all numbers are the mode), where in another location the mode is 6 captures, because three of the animals are captured 6 times each.  What does this mean to a scientist who is using camera trap data?  Nothing…literally.  It isn’t useful at all.  I could just tell my students that finding the mode in a set of data is meaningless, but the act of them coming up with their own conclusion is where the learning happens and the fire is ignited.  If mode isn’t useful, then what measure of center or measure of variability is?  Well, now, you’re stomping all over my standard and chomping at the bit to explore further.  Amazing how that happens.

Too often, teachers who exhaust themselves with the filling of pails, find the pails have many holes.  Rather, ignite a fire and watch new knowledge consume the student and ignite yet other fires.  Yes, that is how real learning takes place.