Zombie-Based Learning: Braaaaaaains!

Zombie-Based Learning:  Braaaaaaains!

And so it begins...Zombie-Based Learning! by David Hunter

I am new to project-based learning.  As an AP teacher, I guess I never really felt that a project-based approach would work to prepare my students for a standardized test, the sole tool by which my success is measured.  Instead, I looked for other ways to be creative and incorporate technology into my instruction without sacrificing the rigor and specific content required to prepare students for the AP examination.  Until now.

I was recently accepted to a summer intensive program called iChallengeU, a project-based learning program sponsored by my county's ISD.  As a participant, I have had to participate in several days of training and implementation.  It has been eye-opening, and this blog by educational consultant Andrew Miller serves as reinforcement that school can be fun, that learning through project-based curriculum can and does include rigor, and that students can prepare for standardized testing by participating in a project-based classroom.

Using David Hunter's geography curriculum, popularized by an affiliate of NPR, Miller expands the idea of a zombie themed-project to include math, language arts, and science.  In Hunter's classroom, students complete 70 lessons which require them to consider how to duck the invasion of zombies, how to secure supplies, and how to rebuild society.  

Miller suggests that ELA classes could also study graphic texts, comics, and film.  Science classes could pursue the theory that zombies are real, the result of a virus that causes the undead to live.  And math classes could use exponential data to determine where a zombie invasion would occur and the rate at which it might spread through populated areas.  

This kind of engagement would be powerful, and Miller insists that the learning could be tied to standards and serve as an entry point to engage students in meaningful learning and discovery.  As I move forward in my pursuit of project-based ideas, the zombie apocalypse notwithstanding, I hope to come across equally stimulating ideas to engage my students while maintaining the rigor and relevance needed to succeed on the AP exams.