Getting Started and Developing a Problem-Based Learning Exercise

• First, to conduct problem-based learning sessions, it is important to develop specific cases or learning scenarios for your students. Each case or project will direct students' learning toward a certain aspect of physics education. The case should involve a scenario that leads students to learn about aspects of physics education such as scientific inquiry, force and motion, energy and matter, sound and waves, electricity and optics. For example, design a scenario in which students must "apply the principles of rotational dynamics to evaluate the stability of different bicycles during braking."
  Consulting already developed PBL course materials is an excellent way to get started. The University of Delaware has developed online resources for those using PBL in the sciences. Its website gives examples of commonly used physics-related cases for students of physics as well as links to the Problem-Based Learning Clearing House, a database of problem-based cases and supplemental materials.
  
  

Forming Groups, Figuring Things Out and Facilitating

• Once a case has been selected for students, break them into small groups. Usually groups should consist of five to eight students. Have a student from each group read the case scenario aloud to other students and assign a scribe who will record facts related to the case along with ideas that will lead to the group deciding what needs to be learned to solve the problem.
  Technically each group of five to eight students should have a facilitator. However, in a high school setting, this may not be possible. Once learning needs have been identified, it's possible for a high school teacher to lecture about the learning need topics. It is best, though, in PBL, to have students make a trip to the library to do research on their learning-need topics. For instance, "What are the principles of rotational dynamics?" This may be available in a textbook or other library resource.
  
  

Lifelong Learning

• In a 1998 issue of the National Teaching & Learning Forum, James Rehm writes: "What students learn about collaboration, different approaches to a problem, makes their learning in PBL courses multi-sided, richer and, in that way, deeper." Engaging high school physics students through problem-based learning projects will prompt them to take a proactive role in lifelong learning.