Navigating PBL with AI tools by 5 E's promoting CPS (Creative Problem-Solving)

Navigating PBL (Project/Problem/Place Based Learning) can be very confusing these days. This article will help you outline lesson plans, facilitating learning in class.

Please take a look at the three levels of this article's infographic (You might need to right-click in order to open the image in a new tab, then enlarge the screen):

• Top: This is how to apply PBL.
• Middle: This is how to outline the lesson by 5 E's.
• Bottom: This is how to weave in CPS (Creative Problem-Solving).

Combining the 3 levels you can raise creative thinkers that solve world problems, bringing value and well-being into their lives and others', as envisioned by OECD's Learning Compass 2030.

To illustrate such teaching, here is a question from the Fact or Opinion Trivia Game in my practical teaching inspiration book: Michelangelo in the 21st Century :

Jane went with her family to tour a forest full of trees. She said: 'The air smells better than in the city. It is easier to breath'.

Is what Jane said a fact or an opinion?

What if we'd ask children to answer that?

Based on the 5 E's, they would need to:

1. Explore - Clarify their challenge. Specifically, identify the phenomenon that is in question. Find reliable information about it.
2. Experience - Play with the information they gathered, possible with AI. Draw on ideas on how to respond to their challenge.
3. Examine - Check their ideas, choose a solution best responding to their challenge.
4. Elevate - Develop their selected solution and apply it as an educational product. For example, an AI generated visual that illustrates the phenomenon and its solution.
5. Express - Present their products to class for social-constructivist learning.

Here is how this project may evolve. The students will discover that "during the process of photosynthesis happening in the green leaves, carbon dioxide (CO2) is converted to oxygen (O2). Sunlight plays a major role in this process. The tree produces its food, and in the meantime releases vital oxygen. What’s important is that carbon dioxide is eliminated in the process. There is too much of this gas in cities, polluting the air. What’s more It is a greenhouse gas"(Michelangelo in the 21st Century , p. 212).

Students' products may illustrate that we'd better plant more trees in cities for less carbon dioxide and more oxygen. I am quite curious about more solutions they would come up with.

Finally you can go back to asking them: Was what Jane said a fact or an opinion?That would be an interesting conversation. It seems her observation that the air in the forest feels better is based on solid facts. I wonder what the students would say. What's important is that such a conversation will help them better choose reliable information in the web or engaging with AI during PBL. So, we've gained information literacy as well as solving world problems and encouraging agency.

In Matt Bromely's book Intent Implementation Impact , the education leader offers a framework to fully clarify an intended education innovation. What I like is that it goes further than implementation, as is the final stage in Creative Problem-Solving (CPS), into educational impact. I hope that by implementing the PBL lesson idea suggested here, you will feel your uplifting impact on students, and elevated teaching professionalism dignity.

The final stage in the 5 E's is expression. When students do tasks alone, never sharing, learning is incomplete. When we dryly outline a phenomenon in the beginning of a lesson, we drain intrinsic motivation. What if we'd started with a curious question, ignite learning. When students present their products at the end of the PBL, they will gain that broad vision of the phenomenon, and much more. That also, is impact.

Thank you Shruti Verma Isaac ?? for empowering educators for the future of education via #SELINClub. Efraim Lerner - Thank you for guiding educators toward safe and efficient use of AI. Thank you Danna T. and Mick Walsh for stressing that education is holistic, offering not only academics and creativity, but also well-being. And thank you Phillip Alcock for being a creativity education role-model. Let's raise children that enrich the world with value.

Creatively yours,

Michelle Korenfeld

Author, painter, poet, lifelong educator, creativity researcher, and developer of creativity education teaching-learning methods. Check out tools and resources book :

Achievement Heights Academy and STUDIO Scott Kemple, Ed.D Dagan Bernstein Keri Borzello Byron King Joanne Green Strawberry-Blue Olive, PhD Barbara Anna Zielonka #creativelearning #futureoflearning #professionaldevelopment #teacherempowerment #teaching #learning #teachertraining #teacherbooks #studentagency #PBL #socialemotionallearning #projectbasedlearning #teachers #learnerengagement #educationinnovation Thomas Gold Uri Ron Matt Bromley Melissa Pierce Karen Dempster Al Kingsley Rebekah Shoaf Jenny Grant Rankin, Ph.D. Clara Lin Hawking Dr. Lindsay Prendergast Iram Siraj Ana Lucia Marques Britto John Thomas Kelly Nimrod Ben Noah Jennifer McCormick Pravin Kaipa M.Ed Megan Jacobs David E. Johnson, Ed.D. Jean Tracy, MSS Lindsey Conner Lynn Wood Joshua Faden Bob Heath Stephanie G. Ziman Linda William Colasanti Justin Reynolds Ed.D. Amanda Rebeiro Adebayo Alomaja Maylien Herm Jessica Parsons Kelly Doyle Sabrina Bhojani Bosede Bada Tenisha Allen José Jiménez Kristen MacConnell, Ph.D Kenisha L. Spears Richardson, M.Ed Steve Figurelli Heather Parsons Simon Sinek Robin Sharma Adam Grant Deepak Chopra MD (official) Laura Christmann Deborah Pruneau Dan Goldin Ilan Cohn ???? ??? Yehudit Judy Dori Connor Eck Lucinda Halpern Mick Walsh Maya Wizel, Ph.D Ana Lucia Marques Britto Linda William Colasanti Nehal Sardana Arora Megan Jacobs Arnon Hershkovitz Kristi Reyes #EducationalLeaders