What type of public products can students create during PBL? 50+ ideas

Season 2 Episodes

EP1: What are the steps to becoming an impactful PBL educator?

EP2: How can we use portfolios to enhance our teaching practice?

EP3: How can we elevate our PBL unit with community partners?

EP4: How can we create a memorable experience via project-based learning?

EP5: How can we teach standards and implement project-based learning?

EP6: What role does reflection play in the PBL process?

EP7: How can we create a dynamic group culture during project-based learning?

EP8: How can students support a cause via project-based learning?

EP9: How can we promote STEM education via project-based learning?

EP10: How can we get students excited about the project-based learning topic?

EP11: What type of creative artifacts/public products can students create via project-based learning?

EP12: How can we write a project-based learning unit?

EP13: How can we write a compelling scenario for a PBL unit?

An essential part of the project-based learning experience is producing a public product or artifact to showcase knowledge for an authentic audience. Depending on the PBL topic and driving questions, the audience could be peers, parents, or community members.

Teachers often wonder what students can create for projects besides designing a poster or presentation. Students may also struggle to come up with ideas without seeing examples or without being given a list of example public products. This article will explore how to utilize the driving question to help students brainstorm public products to share their knowledge. The goal is to create learning experiences that apply to the real world by connecting what students are taught in school to real-world issues, challenges, or problems.

Are you struggling with brainstorming how students can show what they know during a project-based learning unit?

During phase 2 of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™, teachers write an engaging quality question for students to explore during the project-based learning unit. During phase 9 of the Impactful PBL Roadmap™, teachers plan how students will demonstrate mastery by producing a public product. However, it can be challenging to determine which type of public products students can create to share with an authentic audience.

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The key to solving this problem is designing a solid driving question for the PBL unit. If you follow Tony Vincent's (2014) idea of drafting your driving question based on the project's purpose, it's easier to brainstorm example public products that students can design.

For example, during the project-based learning unit, you may want students to:

• Solve a problem or challenge

• Persuade an audience to do something

• Teach others something

• Create a specific product to tackle a big idea

After writing the driving question and examining the learning objectives, it’s time to brainstorm how students can demonstrate what they know. Some teachers struggle with whether or not to allow students to choose how they will share their knowledge. Even if some students can think of creative ways to showcase their knowledge, you want to have some ideas to share in advance. 

While you want to promote student voice and choice during the PBL experience, you also want to consider the component of tracking students' progress. The last thing you want to deal with is groups of students consistently changing what they are producing over the course of the PBL unit. For example, when you check in with a group, they state that they will create a video, but during the next check-in, they change their minds and will create a newsletter. Therefore, they are not moving forward because they are starting over multiple times. It's also more challenging for you to track their progress or provide support. 

Students can create many public products during a PBL unit, which can cause decision fatigue and confusion, stalling their progress. I often suggest that teachers have three to four options for students to choose from regarding what they produce as a learning artifact. This will help students from feeling overwhelmed with too many choices. You could also provide an option for students to suggest a public product idea that is not on the list of ideas you offered. The goal is to provide students with choices and provide an adequate level of support.

Do you need examples of possible public products that students can create? Here is a compilation of ideas for end products.

In the past, I have provided educators with a list of over 50 ideas for public products. Based on feedback, I learned that a list of ideas without context is insufficient. For example, you can probably search online for ideas and see suggestions such as a video, presentation, speech, game, magazine, etc. However, you and your students may still find it difficult to connect those product ideas to your PBL unit, depending on the topic. As a result, I've created some example driving questions and product ideas that students can make to demonstrate their knowledge. To clarify, when I use the term "public products" or "solutions," I'm referring to the avenue in which students will demonstrate what they learned during the PBL unit.

Let's separate the example driving questions based on what you want students to do during the PBL experience. I will list 50 solutions that students can create to showcase their knowledge. Hopefully, you can adapt some of these ideas to fit your upcoming project-based learning unit.

If you want students to solve a problem or challenge, some examples of driving questions and public products could be:

If you want students to persuade someone to take action, some examples of driving questions and public products could be:

If you want students to teach someone something or inform someone about an important topic, some examples of driving questions and public products could be:

If you want students to solve a problem by creating a specific product, the driving question will most likely state what type of solution to design. Examine the following driving questions:

• How can we plan a field trip that all students in our class will enjoy while staying within budget?

• How can we as advocates plan a profitable event to benefit a cause we care about?

• How can we grow edible plants that would provide a nutritious snack for our class?

• How can we help an architect design a 3D model for a new community?

• How can we design a museum exhibit to teach other kids about the Civil War?

Notice how the driving question tells students what to produce. However, the process to craft their solution and the final product details may vary. 

Instead of giving students a list of 50 ideas, share solutions relevant to their driving question and intended learning outcomes. Determine if you want students to solve a problem or challenge, persuade an audience to do something, teach others something, or create a specific product to tackle a big idea during the project-based learning experience. After deciding the purpose of the PBL unit, help students confirm how they will share what they learned with an authentic audience.

Take action: 

Review your driving question for an upcoming project-based learning unit, make a list of four public products that students can create, and share with an authentic audience.