When you hear the words “research projects”? What’s your first reaction?
Do you shiver in fear?
Do you completely shut the idea down?
Do you say, “No Way! My kids could never do that?”
Honestly, you are not alone. Those were all actual reactions from teachers that I worked with over the years. You see, project-based learning was something that I always loved… before it even became a “thing”.
Yes, using the Reading Basal or worksheets are totally easy to assign and grade. Students will comply, they will complete the work, turn it in and receive a grade in the gradebook.
But are your students really engaged? Are they excited about learning? When they finish the assignment, are they begging for another worksheet? Probably not.
That’s where this easy foldable project comes in. Last year, I had a group of students who were eager to learn, but just not so willing to produce something that showed their knowledge. I needed to grab their attention.
So the Exploding Box Project was born. I had seen the project done before for family gifts and thought, why not make this into a research project?
After I created my first Exploding Box Research Project, my kids were literally begging for me to come up with more topics that they could research. Other teachers were visiting my classroom and asking me to create specific topics for their classes, administrators were popping in my class to view the boxes, and it even went viral on Pinterest!
Before I knew it, I had a whole collection of Exploding Box Research projects on so many topics.
Now how did I make it easy for my students to complete on their own without needing to monitor them throughout the entire process.
First, I created step by step instructions.
Second, the research portion of the projects contained specific, guiding questions.
Third, I created a rubric for easy assessment. It was essential for the students to know how I would be grading the project. Afterall, I needed to assess their understanding of the topic.
To assist teachers even further, I decided a visual was important. I create the video below that could be played for students so that they would understand how to create the project on their own.