The platform is designed to play a role in a wide range of subject areas, such as research projects, scientific explorations, literacy development, and critical-thinking activities. The goal is for children to become lifelong learners with collaboration skills they need to succeed in the 21st century. By working through problems together and creating solutions, students build and enhance their skills across multiple subject areas.
“The platform empowers teachers and students to easily map out and reference what they have been working on,” said Miriam Bogler, the founder and CEO of Project Pals. “The software allows for user-friendly visualization and content creation, maximizing the students’ ability to learn and grow together.”
Before creating Project Pals, Bogler was a computer teacher and tech coordinator at various public and private schools. After 20 years, she saw a need to prepare students for a successful future with PBL. Bogler said. “By using a platform like Project Pals, teachers can easily manage and support students on their project-based journey.”
Coordinating collaborative work is just the beginning of what Project Pals can do for students. They create project assets, import media, and visualize relationships within an interactive and collaborative workspace that is updated in real time. The platform inspires students to organize their resources, structure their knowledge, and share what they’ve learned with peers, teachers, and the wider world. At the end of a project, students have more than a shareable presentation—they have a knowledge library that they have built themselves and that they can reference and re-use for future projects.
For teachers, Project Pals offers the convenience of centralizing project administration in one application. The platform features a catalog of reusable Common Core-aligned projects and assignments (such as George Washington and the Issue of Slavery) developed by other teachers and the Project Pals staff. Teachers can also create their own projects.
One of the major challenges in implementing PBL is assessing an individual’s contributions to a group project. Project Pals streamlines the process by providing teachers easy-to-read data and analytics dashboards. Teachers can also evaluate students within the platform using rubrics. When students have completed their work, projects can be shared with parents and added to a digital portfolio that serves as proof of knowledge throughout a student’s academic career.
About Project Pals
The mission at Project Pals is to inspire students and train them to become capable learners with the ability to methodically approach problem-solving situations. Since its launch in 2015, the company has offered students and teachers an easy-to-use project-based learning system. Project Pals is dedicated to real-world education that helps students develop the critical-thinking skills they need to succeed in the 21st century. To learn more, please visit ProjectPals.com.