How can we plan a project showcase without feeling overwhelmed?
Launch PBL Series
EP1: How can we create an impactful PBL experience?
EP2:What is project-based learning?
EP3: What are the benefits of project-based learning?
EP4: How can we write a quality driving question for a PBL unit?
EP5: How can we foster academic risk-taking during PBL?
EP6: How can we assess students during project-based learning?
EP7: How can we use milestones to track students’ progress during PBL?
EP8: How can we choose an engaging project-based learning topic?
EP9: What is the teachers’ role during project-based learning?
EP10: How can we plan a project showcase without feeling overwhelmed?
EP11: How can we use effective feedback strategies to enhance students’ public products?
EP 12: How can teachers improve their PBL experience through reflection?
EP 13: How can we shift students from presentations to presentations of learning?
Let’s discuss how to plan a showcase that allows students to share their knowledge with an authentic audience. There are nine phases to the Impactful PBL Roadmap™, a guide I created to help educators craft memorable learning experiences that empower students to tackle challenges in school and their community through project-based learning.
In this article, we’ll focus on phase 7 by exploring how teachers can plan a showcase without feeling overwhelmed by the process. An audience can be students’ peers, parents, or community members, depending on your project topic, but the important part is to make sure that students' products are shared with an audience beyond their teachers and classmates.
Remember, students sharing their knowledge with an authentic audience is a key difference between doing projects and project-based learning. Before you begin to second guess whether students must share their knowledge publicly, let's review some of the benefits of this process.
🎧 Do you prefer to listen to this article instead?
Benefits of hosting a project-based learning showcase
Students develop oral presentation, public speaking, communication, and leadership skills.
Students can share what they're learning at school.
Showcases can also serve as an accountability measure for students, parents, and community members.
Teachers can celebrate students’ work, which promotes the idea that their work is valuable and shifts the focus to the learning process versus focusing on earning a grade.
Students hone their 21st-century skills, preparing them for life beyond school.
Hosting a showcase also helps build parent and community engagement by inviting them to the event to display the great things happening at your school.
If you teach virtually and are unsure of how students can share their knowledge publicly, check out this article, where I share how to plan an online showcase.
Determine the “what” and the “how” of the showcase
The product for the showcase is what students create to share their solution to the driving question. As an example, I led an entrepreneurship summer camp a few years ago for middle school students where students engaged in a project-based learning experience. The project’s driving question was, “How can we create an environmentally friendly product to meet our peers' personal needs?”
Students applied math to a real-life situation to develop financial literacy skills. The goal was for them to understand the main components of financial planning in order to create a business strategy. They used math skills aligned to Common Core State Standards to price products or services and calculate profits. They used their knowledge of the community to identify a product or service in demand, and they fostered social skills by working in collaborative groups.
Students created a variety of products including eco-friendly deodorants, a brand of clothing made from recycled materials, and personalized notebooks made out of recycled paper, and sold them in a pop-up shop, which served as their showcase. Once you have determined what type of product students will create and how they will share their knowledge with an authentic audience, you can focus on planning the logistics of the showcase.
Keys to planning a showcase
It's always exciting to think about throwing a party until you realize you have to plan it. Members of the Impactful PBL Network have access to a planning template: you don’t need a complicated document to plan a successful event.
In terms of the showcase planning template, keep it simple by using tools that you already have to document your planning process. You can utilize a traditional project management tool such as Trello, or Asana, but you can also use a simple spreadsheet to make a timeline of the tasks that need to be completed to launch a successful showcase.
How to create a showcase planning document
Open a new spreadsheet (ex: Google Sheets or Microsoft Excel) and make two tabs. One tab will be the timeline tab and the other will be the run of show tab. Start by recording key details about the project at the top of the spreadsheet, including the driving question, showcase date, and project overview.
To create the timeline, backward plan from your showcase date. Let's assume that you're going to start preparing for your showcase five weeks in advance. On the first column of the spreadsheet, list your timeline in weeks: five weeks out, four weeks out, three weeks out, two weeks out, one week out, and the week of the showcase. Label the top of the other columns using the following headings: task(s) to complete, the date that the task will be completed, who will do the task, what's going to happen, and updates.
To track your progress, under the updates column, note whether you have started on the task listed. I typically make a dropdown menu to show whether the task was started, in progress or already done. To make it easier to read, you can also color code the document as follows: red = task not started, yellow = task in progress, and green = task completed. By color-coding, it’s easy to see an overview of your progress with just a glance. It’s also useful to have an extra column labeled notes to record reminders for yourself or the person who is completing that task.
In the earlier example, we wanted entrepreneurs to serve as guest speakers. Therefore, we decided who would invite the speakers and by what date. The assigned person recorded updates of the conversations they had with potential speakers. We also had volunteers to help manage the event. Therefore, we had to lead an orientation to discuss their roles and responsibilities before the event.
The type of showcase you have will dictate what tasks need to be completed. After you brain dump the tasks, plug them into the timeline based on the estimated time for completion.
After you complete the showcase timeline, it's time to create the run of show. Some people may call it a show flow, but it's basically the sequence of actions that will happen before, during, and after the event. Think of it as a detailed agenda, but it's for you, not the attendees. List what's happening behind the scenes at each phase of the event, from setup to breakdown.
Let's explore what to include in a run of show document. What's happening first, second, third? Who is leading each part of the program? What time should each person expect to be ready? For example, using the entrepreneurship project showcase as an example, students knew the order in which they would present. Volunteers knew when to set up the ice cream bar and greeters knew when and where to seat the guests. When thinking about the event flow, it's essential to include a buffer for transitions or a plan for if someone exceeds their allotted time.
If you are hosting a virtual showcase, you may not need to set up furniture or food, but there are still tasks to complete. For example, will you record the event? If so, who is responsible for recording? Who is responsible for setting up the streaming platform or letting the audience into the virtual space? Who will check the audio and visuals before the virtual event begins? Who will monitor the chat during the event? What will it take to close out the event?
In the planning spreadsheet, on the run of show tab, split it into three sections: pre-event, during the event, and post-event. Here is a snippet of the run of show document for the example entrepreneurship showcase:
To recap, the timeline page is what's happening leading up to the event and all the tasks that need to be done before the showcase. The run of show page is what's happening the day of the event and who's responsible for doing it. Every adult involved in the showcase should have a copy of the run of show document to ensure they understand expectations during the event. Students should also be prepared to execute their part of the showcase and therefore should have information from the run of show document.
Take action:
Create a timeline and a run of show planning document for your students’ upcoming project-based learning showcase.