What is Project-Based Learning?

Project-Based Learning (PBL) is a learning method in which students are actively engaging in real-world and personally meaningful projects. Three days a week, Maharishi School students are given 70 minutes to work on a passion project. They problem-solve, experiment, falter and keep striving. Each project addresses an authentic, engaging and complex question or challenge. The students exercise real-life skills in their areas of interest while being supported by teachers. Often a community expert or leader on that subject is brought in to match the students’ interests.

What about bringing back the yearbook? 

Maharishi School had a yearbook in the past and the desire to reinstate a yearbook was something that Ms. Blitz proposed to her students. “The yearbook, on top of building STEM and design skills, has served as a social bonding agent in our students as they’ve worked together creating, collaging, and reliving memories,” explained Ms. Blitz. The students included in this project period are; Vaisnavii Mohanraj, Jeremy Goodale, Lily Fenton and Ryan Buhre.

What did they learn in this project-based learning project?

During this process of creating a yearbook Ms. Blitz taught the students how to write HTML and CSS code. Throughout the project they had to problem solve and address challenges that arose. Programming requires an increased attention to

detail, as one student reflected, “I found that doing the task was challenging because I made some small errors in my code (e.g. forgetting to close a tag, forgetting to use a ‘;’ after CSS properties, and so forth). These mistakes have taught me that looking over your code is a crucial step in coding.” The students also experienced working within company design standards, a typical industry practice. The yearbook was created to fit preset color palettes and fonts as set by Maharishi School’s branding guidelines. Exposure to industry standard practices such as this is one of the benefits of having PBL at Maharishi School because of the customization of the curriculum to any specific project.

What can the students do with this knowledge?

In the bigger picture of working with computers, knowing how to insert pictures, use CSS properties, and HTML basics will be important in web development. Because of project-based learning, these students will be able to use the concepts to create posters, webpages, or further help design within the school. They’re learning skills that can be used for design projects of any company that they choose to work with in the future. PBL is important because the students become directors and managers of their learning process, mentored by a skilled teacher.

If you are interested in purchasing a yearbook or if you have any additional inquiries about the yearbook, please contact Sophia Blitz, sblitz@maharishischool.org. Please note that there is a limited supply of yearbook. The yearbook project team would like to apologize for the mix-up on senior quotes. You will find the quotes of George and Jurina have been switched on the final page of the printed book. Our online version which will be released shortly will have the correct quotes.

The Maharishi School 2020 yearbook was created using Printing Center USA printing services. To create your own print product, checkout www.printingcenterusa.com