What do you want to be when you grow up? How many times during your childhood were you asked that question? It was fun to name all that you wanted to be, but at some point in your teenage years you were expected to land on a career path. On what was your decision based as a 16 or 17 year old? Most likely, your answer may have been based on a slight understanding of that career.

What if you took the question and turned it upside down? What if you were asked, “What problem do you want to solve?” Maybe, more importantly, “What are you passionate about?”

At St. Mary on the Hill Catholic School (SMCS), we are educating our students (Saints) to be problem solvers and critical thinkers. Our Saints tackle real-world scenarios through Project-Based Learning (PBL) using collaborative discussions, research, enrichment, and more.

For example, our kindergarten Saints were going to learn about the importance of worms and composting. They could have read a story or had a group lesson to cover the material. How effective is that approach? What if they incorporated PBL?

Mrs. Graham’s kindergarten (KC) Saints are wrapping up their PBL project, “Worms and Waste: A Winning Combination”.  To learn about the importance of worms and compost, they added red wiggle worms into a small worm bin. Each student then had a job (e.g. driller, compost filler, food gatherer, etc.). They learned how worm castings made the soil rich. They look forward to adding their compost to our larger compost bin at school.  

At the conclusion of their project, our KC Saints will write a book on how to create a worm bin. How exciting is that for a five-year old learner? Could there now be future scientists, farmers, environmentalists, horticulturists, or writers/authors in our midst?

Our fifth-grade Saints embarked on a classroom newspaper project. Each student had a job such as editor, sports writer, breaking news reporter, photographer, etc. Interestingly, each job was assigned a saint. For example, St. Sebastian is the patron saint of sports. So, students who were sports writers wrote articles from the perspective of St. Sebastian. Each student first researched their saint so they had a better understanding of how to write their articles.

Our Saints experienced the process of publishing a newspaper. They also learned about the challenges. In the end, they enjoyed the experience. Who knows, we may have future journalists, reporters, publishers, communication specialists, or professional photographers in our fifth-grade classrooms. Some may even start their very own news organizations.

Through PBL, our Saints are embracing real-world scenarios and learning how to problem solve and think critically now and into the future.  Just ask them, “What problem do you want to solve?” They will be happy to tell you.