Project-based learning, or PBL if you're trendy (or short on time), is sweeping over our world of short attention spans and people who just can't get over the phrase "think outside the box."

And, hey, we're not complaining—learning about a topic through a project, instead of 15-odd textbook pages and a test in two weeks, can be pretty gratifying and keep that new material crammed in your students' heads.

So let's head into the kitchen and get out its key ingredients. Chances are you'll like what it serves up.

Peanut Butter and Learning

We love a good PBL, especially when our mom remembers to slice it diagonally. Delish.

Now that we're nourished by the thought of our favorite sandwich and that terrible joke, let's get into the bread and butter of project-based learning. (We'll come back to the peanuts later).

First, a definition. Project-based learning is a method of teaching that sets students loose to investigate a particular problem or challenge and culminates with a completed project involving varying degrees of research, writing, or other materials that demonstrate not only an understanding of the relevant information, but the ability to apply that knowledge.

Make total sense? Good. Still a little vague? Even better. We've got plenty more to say about it.

Project-based learning is meant to help students develop critical-thinking and problem-solving skills (as in, not just memorization). With that concept hovering in the background, let's go ahead and list some of the key ingredients of PBL. (But first, giving praise where it's due: these are a few of the examples listed by the Buck Institute for Education, a nonprofit focused on spreading the joys of PBL to schools nationwide. Check out their full list and many more resources here.)

Okay, onto those ingredients. A good batch of PBL includes…

• developing standards-based skills like teamwork, independent thinking, and a rigorous question-asking process;
• legit connections to the real world, whether that's through context, types of activities, or relevance to issues in your students' lives;
• student choice about the path they'll follow and what they'll create on the way;
• a final product that can be exhibited or presented, preferably either in or out of the classroom;
• lots and lots of peanut butter. Extra-chunky preferred. (Source)

Again, that's just a synthesis of some of the elements listed at the Buck Institute, and they've got plenty more about how and why to make this particular type of sandwich.

A couple best practices.

1. As you design your project, make sure that it will be meaningful to your students. It shouldn't just provide an excuse for them to imbibe the info that you're going to test them on anyway; it should present a challenge that will have some meaning to the students.

2. Base it on an open-ended question—one that can't be solved with a stock essay-style response—to propel your students to do research, come up with inventive solutions, and prepare work for an audience. Set up this sort of scenario and you'll be well on your way to a tasty PBL.

Examples

• Explore the consequences of a drought by coming up with a marketing campaign that explains the issue and tries to convince people to take a certain action.
• Investigate a legal battle or historical event by researching the opposing sides and then filming or performing a debate.
• Demonstrate their interpretation of Odysseus' trickery (did the Cyclops really deserve that kind of treatment?) by making a video or a cartoon highlighting a certain argument.
• Interpret a work of literature by imagining how its plot would unfold today—specifically, on social media. For example, a Frankenstein twitter role-play or something resembling The Lizzie Bennett Diaries. It doesn't have to be that intense, but hey, everyone needs a jumping-off point.

For each of those projects (and, we're hoping, any others you think of), the learning goals remain front-and-center. Sure, they're not writing an essay or memorizing historical dates, but they're still going to absorb that information from going about it in a more creative way.

Here's an idea about how to open up the entire project:

Say your goal is to have your students learn about types of pollutants. Try introducing the idea with a video of a pristine beach that gets closed to visitors because of pollution. Using a video or some questions to spark a nice lively debate can get your students motivated by a desire to know this information. It gives them a "driving question" that convinces them that this is relevant not just for the grade, but in their real lives, too.

The beach idea, and the importance of a driving question, come from the PBL page of the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. And it has plenty more ideas and tips for getting students rarin' to get their project on.

But wait, we're not done. Don't forget about…

Pinterest, Buzzfeed, and LivingSocial

In other words, insert some 21st-century (digital) reality into your projects.

Whether that means the venues they choose for undertaking research, the ways they communicate, or the meat of the project itself—e.g., a social media campaign, a video, or a podcast as the medium for sharing their work—using technology can add multiple benefits to the already super beneficial method of project-based learning.

Incorporating the universe of tools available in the great big technological cloud above (and in) our heads can do these things:

• Expand the types of resources your students use to find information or make their project.
• Develop skills that are legitimately necessary in higher grades, college, and many contemporary workplaces.
• Make a project on some stale old historical fact seem a lot more current to folks whose thumbs are already glued to a screen.
• Who knows? It could lead to a project that goes viral on YouTube or evolves into an app with a wider user base than your classroom. Seriously, it's happened before.

Why Project-Based Learning?

Really? You still don't know after all that? Okay, fine. We'll recap why it's a good idea, with some help from the Buck Institute's list on that topic and a research article from way back when PBL was born in the 1990s called "Motivating Project-Based Learning: Sustaining the Doing, Supporting the Learning."

Here goes:

• Instead of studying abstract ideas, your students perform concrete tasks and gain concrete information about something relevant to their own lives.
• The project can be something tangible and even pretty, possibly for display on a wider scale. What student wouldn't brim with pride?
• Students gain skills that can be applied in a lot of other areas, even in their future careers.
• Connections are born between your school, your communities, and even with the wider world.
• The act of "doing" can make information intake more engaging, and therefore helps that knowledge get more deeply ingrained.

That's right, deeply ingrained. Just like a handful of peanut butter smeared in someone's hair.

What better image than that to inspire stellar teaching?