ISLAND VOICES
Insist on project-based learning

John Uno is an associate professor at Kapi'olani Community College.

In a recent newspaper article, a local crystal meth user said: "School is boring, home is boring, ice is exciting." In a recent commencement address, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David McCullough stated, "... We must insist on drastic changes and improvement in the textbooks we subject our children to. So many textbooks are extremely dreary. It is almost as though some were designed intentionally to kill any desire for learning."

I agree that the textbooks and lecture format used for many courses are often boring, especially when courses involve rote memorization in subjects that are treated as separate areas with little relationship to each other and little meaningful connection to the real world. I believe that education can become more exciting and meaningful if we create "active learning" courses in which students contribute to the solution of meaningful problems and participate in real-world activities such as the creation of real businesses, while learning English, math, arts, humanities and sciences.

There are project-based learning activities being presented in the schools. However, I have not heard of any school (or college) that has developed an integrated active-learning curriculum.

Here's some possible active-learning courses:

1. Poverty, hunger and homelessness in Hawai'i. Students would be required to volunteer at a homeless shelter or community outreach program; produce a legislative bill to reduce poverty in Hawai'i; develop an economically viable solution to eliminate hunger in Hawai'i using available technology.

2. Community health-promotion program in Hawai'i. Students would analyze the nutrient content of fast foods, propose ways to improve the nutritional value of the food and submit letters to the company and the school newspaper with their suggestions; examine the economics of the medical insurance and hospital industry in Hawai'i, and develop a proposal for universal medical care; participate in a peer-counseling program to prevent drug abuse or suicide; give school or community workshops involving diet and body-fat analysis, strength training and preventive nutrition; grow plants for food and prepare those foods in a nutritious meal; develop a community outreach program to provide day care for the elderly, children or disabled; learn the anatomy and physiology of medical emergencies and first aid; examine case studies of people who have died from preventable diseases.

3. Environment and urban redevelopment. Students would create a redevelopment plan for a local neighborhood; develop an environmental restoration project; design a house that would be self-sufficient in terms of food and energy use; develop a mass transit plan for O'ahu; develop a plan in which Hawai'i would be self-sufficient in food and energy.

4. Science in everyday life. Courses could include how cars, computers and household appliances work; science of ocean safety; sports and exercise science and technology, including sports nutrition and injuries and analysis of the latest sports gear; creation of a community Web site, newsletter or cable-access TV news show; science of music, acoustics and video recording.

5. Cultural tolerance. Students would contact a native of a developing nation by e-mail, learn about the local culture and social problems, prepare and participate in a development plan; teach English to immigrants and children; prepare a multimedia report on the traditions of a local religion or ethnic group (not their own); develop a program to educate visitors regarding the local culture.

6. Entrepreneurial skills, finances, government. Students would set up and operate a business; set up a retirement or investment account, including analysis of corporate financial statements; do volunteer work in each branch of state government, and write suggestions for improvements.