Project-Based Learning

How can I motivate children? How can I get children to think about what they are doing, not just focus on getting it done? How can I get children to really understand the material, not just pass tests?

Answering age-old questions like these requires fostering the development of students' minds by engaging them in substantial opportunities for deep understanding of content, through active engagement and persistence.

The project-based learning model is a comprehensive approach to classroom teaching and learning that is designed to engage students in investigation of authentic problems. Project-based learning requires the incorporation of "projects": relatively long-term, problem-focused, and meaningful units of instruction that integrate concepts from across the curriculum.

The curricular approach at New Media focuses on the combination of classroom learning and real-world investigation. New Media has developed an integrated curriculum, called the Experience Curriculum. Our curriculum fosters cross-curricular connections, so each subject evolves under unifying themes. At New Media, important skills and habits that students develop to be highly effective in school and in a changing global community are not taught in isolation.

Under a project-based learning model, New Media sustains what students do to support what they learn.

To simply know is not enough.