Faculty earn Advancing Equity and Inclusion Grant for project-based learning

SHARON, Pa. - A pair of multidisciplinary faculty members at Penn State Shenango received an Advancing Equity and Inclusion Grant from the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence to help fund a series of four online workshops focused on project-based learning.

Angela Pettitt, associate teaching professor of English, and Kathy Shaffer, teaching professor of chemistry, have organized the workshops, which will be hosted by Kristin Wobbe, co-director of the Center for Project-Based Learning at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts. Fourteen faculty members from five of Penn State's Commonwealth Campuses (Beaver, DuBois, Greater Allegheny, Fayette and Shenango) have registered for the workshops, which take place each month throughout the fall semester, with a goal of incorporating project-based learning into one of their courses in either spring or fall of 2025.

Project-based learning uses multi-week projects, initiated by the student, and includes activities and assessments while the faculty member guides and advises rather than dictates the student's learning.

"We want to enable faculty to identify projects that will work in their context, and select appropriate strategies for their courses and students that employ culturally responsive project ideas," said Shaffer.

"The emphasis on self-direction and self-discovery enable students to draw on their own prior knowledge and allow them to address the course content in an authentic context," said Pettitt, who adds that traditionally underserved student populations find this teaching practice to be particularly beneficial.

"We see project-based learning's potential for igniting student interest by connecting course material to real-world, socially conscious problems they can work toward solving," Pettitt said.

The workshops include an online discussion of Wobbe's book "Project-Based Learning in the First-Year" co-authored with Elisabeth A. Stoddard.