“That’s a story!” Over and over and over again.

This was the mantra of one of my colleagues, Connie Blue, who was the school newspaper advisor. Any time I would tell Connie about something cool that happened in the classroom or school, her response was almost always, “That’s a story!”…and she was right. She was always thinking about the news, and how a good story could be sourced.

PBL teachers take note. One of the questions that I get a lot is, “Where can I get some good project ideas?” My answer: everywhere. As long as you are paying attention, and running those big ideas of your discipline through your head, you’ll notice all sorts of opportunities to generate a project idea, so that soon, you’ll sound like Connie Blue: “That’s a Project!” Over and over and over again.

That said, one of my favorite sources for project ideas is the News. Creating a project from current events is nothing new, but a teacher’s access to news via the internet is at unprecedented levels. You can find subject-specific news sites like Sciencenews.com, or just go for the broad-based news-gathering sites like Yahoo or Google.

As an example, I went to one of my favorite story-gathering sites, took today’s stories, and started asking the sorts of questions that could lead to projects. As I start asking questions, I kept in mind that I want to eventually get to, “What will create a need to know the standards? What action can my students take?” Here are the results of looking at 4 stories:

Florida voting blocs nearly as numerous as Sunshine State's media markets
Does the creation of the party system really serve the needs of Democracy? Are two parties enough to represent the American Public? How does our system differ from a parliamentary system? Should we suggest a change to the constitution?
Occupy Wall Street in DC
What are the limits, if any, of “Freedom of Assembly”? How do we and our Gov’t define those limits? How can we interpret any of the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights? (for example – the right to bear arms vis a vis well-regulated militia) Are the “Occupy” protesters Socialists, as some claim? How do they compare to the socialists who were arrested in the early 1900’s as a result of the Sedition Act of 1918? What is socialism in the first place?
Water trucked to Texas town where wells ran dry
Do supply-and-demand economics always work? Shouldn’t the ideas of supply and demand tell us that these town ought to be abandoned? What about Phoenix, where they reroute the Colorado River to get water there, and then grow cotton? What are the conditions that make supply/demand predictions work, and what are the conditions where those predictions break down?
Volcanic origin for Little Ice Age
What was the Little Ice Age? What was the BIG Ice Age? How do we know about them? What does the information in this article tell us about the causes of global warming and cooling? To what extent can we affect global warming and cooling? Reminds me of the Nova episode, Dimming the Sun, with a transcript here. It also makes me think of the book, Physics for Future Presidents, and its excellent outline of global warming.

Want to take it a step further? The best projects include the students as designers or co-designers of the project, and allow them to create the questions that guide their inquiry. So, try carrying out this exercise with your students – open a news site, and start asking questions with them about the content of any given story. Make sure that they know about the standards that need to be addressed, so that they can focus their energies on news stories that are most relevant.

With this approach, it may end up being your students who recite the mantra, “That’s a Project!”