1 pbl handbook en 2019 1-rs01-ka101-000635

1
Introduction
In 2019 small group of teachers from Gimnazija Zajecar was enrolled in project called School of
tomorrow. Projects was cofounded with the support of Erasmus+ program of the European Union under
project number 2019-1-RS01-KA101-000635 .
More about the project can be found on its blog https://schooloftomorrowsoft.blogspot.com/
In this eBook with gathered short lesson plans and ideas for project based learning (PBL) that were
written during the project. Some of this PBL have been already performed, other will have to wait for
better time due corona outbreak.
We tried to give you an idea on how to start PBL by giving you some background and guiding
questions. We kept main part of lesson plans short because we believe that each teacher has its own style
in classroom and we have faith you will find even better ways to work with your students.
We hope you enjoy this, as much as we did when writing. In case of any need please feel free to
contact us on gimza@ptt.rs .
We also like to thank Erasmus+ for giving us a chance to do this wonderful project.
Mladen Sljivovic
Coordinator of projects

3
Driving questions:
1. How can we teach physics to six year olds?
2. Can we understand physics without math?
Products: Videos with experiments, Preparation for science fairs, Posters
Lesson plan for project based learning
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics
Topic: Thermodynamics and fluids
Class: second year
Short description:
In his book Cat’s Cradle Kurt Vonnegut had one of his characters said that if you can’t explain your job to a six-
year-old you don’t understand it. This sentence was the base of this project.
We worked on eTwinning platform with kindergarten from Subotica, exchanging ideas, videos, and pictures.
Students of second year were given challenge to try to explain what they are currently learning in physics to six
year olds kindergarten students in Subotica.
Pre-schoolers would post challenges to our students, with experiment they performed at kindergarten, and
after that they would vote on best explanation from our students.
Our students prepared STEM experiments that are easy to repeat and include explanation that would help
understand STEM better, focusing on science rather than phenomenon.
During this teacher followed students and evaluated how did they understood the lessons.

4
Materials needed: depends from experiment, access to internet, camera, computer
TIMELAPSE OF ACTIVITIES
Introduction
Activity Description Time (min)
Introduction Student were given driving questions 5
Discussion Brainstorming was organized with students in order to find
out their ideas, proposal, identify problems. Note that 6 year
olds do not know much of math and everything must be
explained without use od equations.
30
Finalization eTwinning account were opened for students and they were
split in groups
10
Work
Experiment Student in teams work on their experiments proposed for
kindergarten partners.
They consult teacher and kindergarten teach in order to help
them prepare best experiments.
Students film the videos with explanations.
NA
Testing Teacher takes notes on its student’s work NA
Product
Sharing Videos with experiment are shared on eTwinning platform. NA

6
Driving questions:
1. How can math help us stay fit and enjoy our meals?
2. Do we really need to pay for our meal plan?
Products: Individual meal plan
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: Sports and health, mathematic
Topic: Food and nutritione
Class: first year students
Short description:
In three steps students had to
1. Determine their basal metabolism rate (BMR)
2. Calculate how much calories should they take in considering their activities
3. Create individual daily menu based on their need and goals (six meals specifically set up to gram
and calorie)

7
Materials needed: Basal metabolic rate calculator Food calorie table
Introduction
Discussion Students were asked to tell us what do they think on their
eating habits and what would healthy meal be. Students with
teacher analyzed their answers.
35
Setting up a
driving question
Student were asked a driving question How can math help us
stay fit and enjoy our meals? Brainstorming session was
started
30
Example An example of calculating BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)for the
teacher was given.
20
Setting up next
step
Students were given following tasks
1. Calculate their own BMR
2. Keep a written journal on every meal during following week
3. Determine their own goals (getting more weight, staying in
shape etc.)
5
Work
Calculating BMR Each student calculated their won BMR NA
Keeping meal
journal
Each student kept written meal journal for a week NA
Introduction 2
Calculating
calories in a meal
An example on how to use Food Calorie Tables was given.
A workshop was organized on how to create individual meal
plans
80
Setting up next
step
Students were given following tasks:
Create their own 7 day meal plan that includes following
1. six meals a day
2. each meal calculated to a gram and to a single calorie
3. meals must include various dishes
4. meals must be realistic and easy to find
10
Work 2
Creating 7 days
meal plan
Each student worked on its own individual meal plan NA

8
Product
Presenting
results
Each student presented his own meal plan. Short discussion
was followed to see if the plan was realistic, well calculated
and achievable.
90

9
1
1
This PBL was partially financed by Center for Promotion of Science as part of our project Science paparaco.

10
Driving questions:
1. Can we learn STEM through games?
2. How can we reach out to more students to make them more STEM interested?
Products: Peer workshops, new activities in classroom
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics
Topic: Games
Class: fisrt year high school
Short description:
Our students of first year were asked a question how to make STEM more game-oriented.
They came up with idea of creating a peer workshop through which they interacted with other
students, helping them learn STEM concepts through games.

11
Materials needed: games proposed by students, material for experiments proposed by students, Jenga,
Dr Eureka, Terraforming Mars etc.
Introduction
Activity Description Time
Introduction Students were asked a question Can we learn STEM through games?
After that a discussion has been organized to see ideas
10
Introduction Another question was asked How can we help younger students
become more STEM oriented?
10
Brainstorming Brainstorming was organized to see ideas, and pros and cons of them. 20
Conclusion Students were sent home to do a research about STEM games and
fun STEM activities they would like to do.
5
Work
Research Students researched on games that could be used as part of this project. NA
Preselecting
process
Teachers preselected activities proposed by students by their education NA
Workshop Students create peer workshops for other students NA
Product
Workshops Students visitед other students and held workshops 40

12
2
2
This PBL was organized with financial help from Center for Promotion of Science as part of a project Paparazzo
Science financed in their public call

13
Driving questions:
1. Do scientists lead normal life?
2. Who are most popular people right now and how can we use this to promote STEM?
Products: 10 videos with experiments, 15 scripts prepared for shooting
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics, biology, chemistry, IT
Class: multiple classes
Short description:
This activity consists of shooting short films with comic elements from the life of scientists with the goal of
showing them as everyday people with all their virtues and defects instead of as like giants whicc is how they
are usually portrait in books and textbooks.
Students filmed scenarios for imaginary reality TV show called Science paparazzo which instead of celebrities
spies on scientist. In each show one experiment was shown.
The idea is to find a “gossip” about scientist then connect it to their scientific contribution and finally make a
video about it.

14
Materials needed: camera, microphone, access to internet, computer, software for editing
Introduction
Introduction Students were asked a guiding questions after which
brainstorming was started
20
Examples Students were given examples of famous scientist in everyday
life (Einstein and violin, Schrödinger and his lovers, Pupin and
his love for horses…)
20
Tasks Students were given task to discover more about everyday life
of scientist and at same time their contribution to science
5
Work
Training Workshop for filming and video editing were organized NA
Student’s
scenarios
Students worked on their own scenarios NA
Training Workshop in speech were organized NA
Scenarios Students practiced their roles in given scenarios NA
Filming Scenarios were filmed NA
Editing Vides were edited NA
Publishing All vides were published on YouTube channel NA
Products (note all videos are on Serbian)
No Description Time
1 Alexander Fleming https://youtu.be/h3_Ok9ubMyU
2 Galileo https://youtu.be/a3q5B-XnYtQ
3 Volta https://youtu.be/_2vsDTYZJ4k
4 Om https://youtu.be/n2nlw8XnpS4
5 Pascal https://youtu.be/SgqDS7TNs2w
6 Faust https://youtu.be/XJsI6gOBngs
7 Brown https://youtu.be/Ed6VhpwYlms
8 Fibonacci https://youtu.be/SszKwDSCMA4
9 Maria Curie https://youtu.be/6NsBdeYNh4c
10 Santa Claus and Fermi https://youtu.be/X5LXspBgEmE

16
3
Driving questions:
1. What should our stance be on building a nuclear power plant in our neighborhood?
2. How can we make more people aware of energy problems?
Driving questions:
1. Local community has been given an offer from multinational energy producing company to
build a nuclear power plant in their municipality. Public debate has been organized and our school
has been called to give its opinion. What should our stance be?
Products: debate, posters, reports (An oxford style debate competition was planned but canceled)
3
This PBL was dine online and was awarded as one the best examples during STEM discovery week and Magic is in
the hand of teachers contest
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics
Topic: nuclear energy
Class: fourt year (final year)
Teachers: Mladen Sljivovic
Short description: Sometimes it’s hard to motivate students of last year to do their own research
and experiments, especially when they have final exams approaching, and entrance exams for
faculties. In order to solve that problem we started with following imagined situation: Local
community has been given an offer from multinational energy producing company to build a
nuclear power plant in their municipality. Public debate has been organized and our school has
been called to give its opinion. What should our stance be?
We found a great game called Nuclear INC 2 in which player runs the nuclear power plant. But
before we let our students play we organized a brainstorming on what would pro and cons of
nuclear energy be and what we need to learn before we are able to give accurate opinion.
We originally planned this activity as regular teaching activity in classroom but changed it to online
with Covid epidemic. The first part (brainstorming and introduction to nuclear physics) was done
in classroom, but epidemic prevented us from finishing it.
We then decided to do this activity online in Google classroom with one or two assignments each
weak. We started with another brainstorming activity, followed by few simulations (α and β decay
and chain reaction) and finally ended with a game Nuclear INC 2. Debating competition was
unfortunately cancelled, but we had our students give their opinion in another form.

17
Materials needed: access to internet, computer, Phet simulations (1, 2 and 3) , Nuclear INC 2 game
Expected outcomes:
1. Students are more familiar with work of nuclear power plant
2. Students learn about radioactivity
Introduction
Brainstorming Using mentimeter.com app we asked our students to tell us
first association when work nuclear energy is mentioned
NA
Problem Students were given situation to think about Local community
has been given an offer from multinational energy producing
company to build a nuclear power plant in their municipality.
Public debate has been organized and our school has been
called to give its opinion. What should our stance be?
NA
Work
Experiments Using Phet Colorado applications we prepared two
experimental setup for our students (α and β decay)
NA
Chain reaction Student were given simulation of chain reaction, a process
that occurs in nuclear power plants and nuclear weapon
NA
Game Nuclear INC 2 Android game was given to student with the set
of questions to answer during the game.
NA
Products
Feedback Once again mentimeter poll was organized with question
Should we allow building of nuclear power plant in our town
NA

19
Driving questions:
1. How can we earn money using science
2. How does chemistry and fruits go hand by hand?
3. How much science is needed to make jam?
4. How can we make profit out of jam?
Products: jams, business plans
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics, chemistry
Topic: Thermodynamics and fluids
Class: second year
Short description:
In collaboration with Junior Achievement our students each year take part in best student’s company contest.
To prepare for the contest they have to think of a product, create a way to promote it, distribute it and determine
the price. In this report we will focus more on STEM skills needed for this instead of economy and
entrepreneurship skills that are need in order to be successful at this kind of competition.
During one of class our students created jam as part of chemistry and physics correlation.
During this process our student got an idea to create a company that will produce jams of unusual flavor such
as banana, carrot, kiwi etc. These flavors are not the usual one you think when you think of jam.

20
Materials needed: access to internet, computer, Phet simulations, Nucler INC 2 game
Expected outcomes:
1. Students are more familiar with use of technology in food
2. Students learn about economic
Introduction
Brainstorming Students were given guiding questions followed by
brainstorm
NA
Work
Research Students are gathering information about jam making NA
Experiments Students create jams with different fruits and test their
recipes
NA
Science Science behind jam making is explained (pectin, sugar,
vacuum)
Voting Student choose best jam NA
Company Students are split in groups and organize themselves as
company
Business Students create business plan (marketing mix, logo, packing
etc.)
NA
Final Students create company stand and report for their company NA
Products
Fair Students sell jam and earn money NA

22
Driving questions:
1. How can we make our school greener?
2. What benefits will we have from this?
Products: models, plans and ideas for future projects
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics, chemistry, biology, natural sciences
Topic: Thermodynamics, greenhouse effect, carbon emission
Class: third year
Short description:
Students are asked to measure temperature in school yard for three weeks. This does not have to be the only
entering experiment. We can ask them to measure temperature in school yard and park, or to measure and
compare temperature outside and in a classroom without air-condition, or to measure and compare
temperature in shade made by plant and by other sources.
After results were shown they were asked how to make the school yard greener. After that students would
work on their ideas, creating models with their proposals for the solution.

23
Materials needed: access to internet, computer, Phet simulations, Nucler INC 2 game
Introduction
Temperature Ove three weeks students measured temperature in school
yard
3 weeks
brainstorming to see their dieas
NA
Work
Research Students research on their ideas NA
Models Students created models of school yard and created
presentation of their ideas
Products
Presentation Students presented their ideas NA

25
Driving questions:
1. How far are we from colonising other planets?
2. Do we need to leave the Earth in future?
Products: various
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: physics, chemistry, natural science,
Topic: space, astronomy, biology, physics
Class: applicable to all years
Short description:
Students are given guiding questions about colonising other planets.
It’s up to them to lead the projects whether they will try to find out more about the way we search for
extrasolar planets, the predictions of future space traveling, the sci-fi novels that deal with human
encountering extra-terrestrial life, create models of future cities on other planets...
The whole PBL is inspired by the game Terraforming Mars.

26
Materials needed: access to internet, computer, various things depending from students’ decisions
Expected outcomes:
1. Students learn more about space, energy, forming of life, building cities
2. Students learn about future of our planet
Introduction
brainstorm
45
Work
Research Students are gathering information on space, earth, extra-
solar planet hunt, etc.
NA
Science Students report to each other about their ideas
Voting Student choose best ideas and future actions NA
Final Students work on their ideas NA
Products
Fair Students organise exhibit presenting their ideas NA
NOTE: This PBL is so wide it can be use numerous time with different results. Students could decide to
make movie about their findings, or to organise role-play simulation of future space traveling, or to create
models of fully functional cities on Mars or other planets…

28
Driving questions:
1. What locations in our city can we use to film our version of The Lord of the Rings?
2. What variety of landscapes is there in our municipality?
Products: various
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: geography literature
Topic: local enviroment
Teachers: Jelena Dimovic
Short description:
Students are given guiding questions about LOTR. They need to read book, then think of all the ideas and
locations that can be used for filming scenes for that book.
Students visit location, take picture, mark them on google map.
For final product students can choose to make a film, presentation, poster or whatever they have idea for.

29
Expected outcomes:
1. Students read book and find similarities between real world and world of LOTR
2. Students learn to use navigation
Introduction
brainstorm
45
Work
Research Students are gathering information from local guides, scouts,
hiking lovers
NA
Planning Students choose possible location for places from the book NA
Hiking Teachers and students organise hiking tours to visit the
locations
NA
Voting Student choose best locations NA
Final Students work on their product NA
Products
Presentation Students organise exhibit presenting their idea NA
NOTE: This PBL is so wide it can be use numerous time with different results. Students could decide to
make movie about their findings, or to organise role-play or costume ball with scenes from LOTR…

31
Driving questions:
1. Is it so hard to write poetry?
2. can you write as good as…?
Products: book with students’ poems
Gimnazija Zajecar
Subject: literature
Topic: literature
Teachers: Jelena Dimovic
Short description:
Teacher chooses one of the authors. In our case it was Vasko Popa, a well know Serbian poet, but you can
choose anyone you want.
Teacher and students analyse poems and try to find what is so unique about his style.
Students then try to write poems. During the class each student read his poem.
Finally, students need to learn what needs to be done in order to publish a book. Students need to find a book
printer, prepare book for printing, design and choose book cover and all other thing need for publishing a book.

32
Expected outcomes:
1. Students learn more about publishing
2. Students learn about poems of chosen author and what makes him unique
Introduction
brainstorm
45
Work
Writing Students write their own poems NA
Sharing Students share their poems, analyse them, try to improve the,
Preparing for
publishing
Students and teacher work on preparing book for publishing.
They need to find book printer, choose tittle, design and
choose book cover and other things needed before printing.
NA
Final Book is print NA
Products
Promotion Students work on promotion of their book (Poetry reading,
online promotion etc.)
NA

33
Contents
How does this work...................................................................................................................................2
How can math help us stay fit and enjoy our meals?...............................................................................5
FROM GAME TO STEM..............................................................................................................................9
ARE SCIENTIST SUPERHUMANS ..............................................................................................................12
Do we really need nuclear power plants? ..............................................................................................15
Jam Gang.................................................................................................................................................18
Green School...........................................................................................................................................21
Space colonisation ..................................................................................................................................24
The Lord of the Rings in our town...........................................................................................................27
Can you write as good as… .....................................................................................................................30

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