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Ditch the Final - A Project Based End of Semester Experience

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Matt Miller recently shared some great ideas for end of semester final projects and I was inspired to ditch my traditional final do something a little different.

I’m not always very good at labeling things, but in my mind this is a blend of Project Based Learning, Passions Projects, and Guided Inquiry. I might also throw in a dash of critical thinking and creative communication to truly fall in love with setting up and assessing this type of final project.

This project is connected to National Parks and our first 4 Units of Earth Science, but I think the National Parks could be connected to a variety of different subjects/topics. The project could also be modified to create something connected to almost anything.

We used these for our selection day. These are postcards for 62 of the 63 Parks that I was able to find on Amazon. 

Project Overview

Researching a National Park and Creating a National Park Tourism and Learning Website will be our final exam and is worth 10% of the semester grade. You will be selecting a national park, researching the park, and creating a tourism website connected to essential concepts from Units 1, 2, 3, and 4. We will create and share what we learn about national parks and their connections to our learning experiences during semester one. We will also explore and evaluate additional park websites created by other students. 

Project Resources

National Parks Project OverviewGetting Started Exploring National ParksNational Parks Research and NotesNational Parks Website Visitors GuideNational Park Notes Sheet

Feel free to copy / modify any of these resources if you think you students would enjoy this learning experience.

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