ED 6143 - Story Preservation Initiative (SPI) Learning Lab: A Springboard to Project-based Learning

This innovative course provides deeper inquiry into Story Preservation Initiative Learning Lab®, an oral history-based educational resource that combines primary source audio with project-based lessons for rich, multi-disciplinary learning. Participants will experience the power of sparking student interest in content using SPI’s collection of personal recordings that capture the voices, words, and meanderings of artists, scientists, writers, poets, musicians, and eyewitnesses to history. Connecting the personal narratives of experts to content learning in the arts, sciences, humanities, and eyewitness accounts provides an exciting and unique springboard to project-based learning. Participants will learn to support students with developing orbital studies, independent investigations that “orbit” or revolve around some aspect of the content. This involves designing a question for study, developing a research plan and method for presenting their learning, and criteria to measure quality products. Through inquiry-based learning, participants will experience how rigorous and relevant personalized and differentiated instruction can increase student motivation and engagement that supports students as they develop expertise and become independent learners. Prerequisite: ED 6142 Bringing History to Life Through Story Preservation Initiative. (3 Credits)