Article #5 Summary & Response

This article is about challenged-based learning and provides information for anyone to be able to “take action and make a difference.” This author, as well as the Apple in Education website, describes each of the steps in challenged-based learning. Step 1 is “The Big Idea”. This is where you come up with a broad topic that has importance to students and their community. I like that the big idea can be broad and then just fine-tuned to what needs to be done. I also like that anyone can come up with something in the community that is important to them, like homelessness or campus parking. The examples of broad big ideas that the website gave were democracy, the environment, sustainability, or food. These big ideas certainly are broad. Step 2 is “Essential Questions”.  This is where you can get more specific with your idea by asking questions reflecting your area of interest or community need. Step 3 is “The Challenge.” In this step is where we can guide more towards a real-world solution. For example, instead of the solution for homelessness being give all homeless people a house, we can find a Laundromat who will wash clothes for free for job interviews. Step 4 is “Guiding Questions and Activities”. In this step, we can find some answers, collect data, and conduct interviews. For example, we can ask local companies what the number one reason is for not hiring a homeless person is. Step 5 is “Guiding Resources”. This step must be so simple because of the ease of access in finding resources. Through the internet, we can easily find all local homeless shelters or Laundromats in the area. Then we can easily find a ton of information on homelessness and even specifically in Bellingham. Step 6, the last step, is “Solutions, Implementation, and Reflections”. This is where we develop our solution and implement it in the real world.

Like I said in the beginning, these big ideas can easily become more specific and easy through this challenged-based learning process. The example on the Apple in Education website went from a big idea of food, to coming up with a solution of creating a school garden. The process makes it so easy, and the solution can benefit your school or community in a huge way.