Roaring Results: Classroom-Ready Zoo PBL Boosts Academics, Careers, and Confidence

Outline

Content and Engagement:
- This interactive, hands-on STEM poster session invites educators to explore a project-based learning challenge where students tackle real-world problems using the design thinking process. Participants will see how PBL integrates math, science, literacy, and technology while fostering curiosity, empathy, collaboration, and 21st-century skills. Attendees will engage directly with physical models, recycled materials, and digital tools, experimenting with the design process and exploring how students research animal habitats, engineer enclosures, and communicate solutions through multimedia storytelling. The poster emphasizes cross-curricular strategies, culturally responsive perspectives, scaffolding for diverse learners, and ways to integrate global perspectives, sustainability, and student voice. Audience members actively participate through peer-to-peer discussions, hands-on prototyping, interactive challenges, and exploration of QR-linked student work. Participants leave with practical curriculum guides, guided videos, assessment tools, and resources to confidently implement high-impact, technology-enhanced STEM learning that builds digital literacy, problem-solving, and future-ready skills.

Time:
- Poster Session (5 minutes per participant): Each participant will have dedicated time to explore hands-on materials, physical models, multimedia examples, and photographic displays of student projects. Attendees can ask questions about the zoo design process, investigate strategies for integrating core subjects like math, science, language arts, and technology, and consider ways to scaffold learning for diverse learners. The session highlights practical approaches for adapting projects to different grade levels, extending them with digital tools, and incorporating culturally responsive and cross-curricular perspectives to maximize student engagement and growth.
- Converted Session Format: Idea Lab / Interactive Session (varies based on format): Participants collaborate to design, prototype, and test zoo models, experiment with digital tools, and adapt projects for their classrooms. The session emphasizes hands-on exploration, iteration, and integration of cross-curricular content, supporting student-led research, multimedia storytelling, and equitable, inclusive learning experiences using accessible materials.

Process:
- Peer-to-Peer Interaction: Throughout the poster session, attendees share strategies for implementing student-driven zoo design projects in short, structured discussion rounds. They exchange ideas on scaffolding, cross-curricular integration, culturally responsive learning, and adapting challenges for different grade levels, fostering collaborative problem-solving and idea generation.
Hands-On Activities: Participants will explore physical zoo models on display, showcasing how students combined craft materials, recycled items, and digital tools to develop their design solutions. They will also have the chance to experiment with materials themselves and brainstorm their own creative ideas and solutions. In extended formats, they collaboratively design, prototype, and play test projects, experiencing the full design thinking and PBL process firsthand, including iteration, testing, and reflection.
- Multimedia Engagement: QR-linked student work, videos, and photographic displays showcase hands-on and technology-enhanced learning. Attendees will be encouraged to explore examples, discuss classroom adaptation, and draw inspiration for integrating student-led research, multimedia storytelling, and cross-subject projects.
- Interactive Tactics: The session incorporates brief contests, “design challenges,” and audience polls to encourage participation, spark creativity, and deepen engagement with the materials and concepts.

Outcomes

After this session, participants will be able to:
- Implement a hands-on, interdisciplinary STEM challenge that integrates language arts, life science, physical science, math, and technology through authentic, project-based learning experiences designed for K–5 students.
- Apply scaffolding and differentiation strategies that support diverse learners and actively foster critical 21st-century skills such as creativity, collaboration, communication, and critical thinking.
- Incorporate digital literacy and research skills into project-based learning activities, including student presentations and multimedia storytelling.
- Gain practical resources, techniques, and confidence to design engaging, student-centered learning experiences that connect real-world environmental challenges to classroom practice by using recycled and craft materials to build motorized simple machines, inspiring innovation and environmental awareness.
- Adapt and implement this project (or a similar one) in their classrooms, with full access to all necessary resources and materials, while reflecting on and customizing the project to fit varied contexts such as different age groups, subject areas, and class sizes for flexible, locally aligned implementation.

Supporting research

Buck Institute for Education. Project-Based Learning (PBL) and School-Wide Initiatives. PBLWorks, 2023, https://www.pblworks.org/blog/creating-schoolwide-pbl-timeline.
- Provides research and practical guidance on implementing PBL effectively, which is central to this session. Supports student engagement, collaboration, and real-world problem-solving.

Frontiers in Psychology. “Meta-Analysis Study on the Impact of PBL on Learning Effects.” Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 14, 2023, https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1202728/full.-
- Offers evidence of PBL’s effectiveness in improving learning outcomes and engagement, reinforcing the value of this project-based learning design challenge.

Bevan, Bronwyn, et al. “Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom: Supporting STEM Learning through Playful Design and Hands-On Engagement.” Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research, vol. 9, no. 1, 2019, https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/jpeer/vol9/iss1/5/.
- Aligns directly with the hands-on, iterative design and prototyping aspects of this session, including engineering and tinkering activities

Edutopia. “Project-Based Learning (PBL) Research Review.” Edutopia, 2023, https://www.edutopia.org/pbl-research-learning-outcomes.
- Summarizes research evidence on PBL, reinforcing why hands-on, interdisciplinary, and student-centered design challenge effectively develops critical 21st-century skills.

Josh, J. M., Gaudreau, C., Golinkoff, R. M., & Hirsh-Pasek, K. (2022). The power of playful learning in the early childhood setting. Young Children, 77(2). https://www.naeyc.org/resources/pubs/yc/summer2022/power-playful-learning
- This article supports the session’s emphasis on hands-on, playful, and exploratory learning. This design challenge engages students in playful problem-solving, tinkering, and prototyping, which promotes curiosity, creativity, and collaboration, core aspects of playful learning. It reinforces how engaging, experiential approaches help students construct knowledge and develop 21st-century skills.

Li, T., & Zhan, Z. (2022). A systematic review on design thinking integrated learning in K–12 education. Applied Sciences, 12(16), 8077. https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/12/16/8077
- This resource directly supports the session’s use of design thinking. It validates that integrating design thinking into classroom projects fosters problem-solving, critical thinking, innovation, and student-centered learning. The design challenge exemplifies this approach, as students iterate on solutions, test ideas, and use computational thinking to design animal enclosures.

Ma, Y., & Zhang, L. (2023). A study of the impact of project-based learning on student learning effects: A meta-analysis study. Frontiers in Psychology, 14, 1202728. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1202728/full
- This meta-analysis supports the session’s foundation in project-based learning. It provides evidence that PBL improves academic outcomes, engagement, collaboration, and problem-solving. This session uses PBL to integrate STEM, literacy, arts, and cultural studies, showing measurable learning gains and reinforcing the research-backed effectiveness of hands-on, real-world projects.