Agency at the Center: Where Middle School Learning Comes to Life

Friends Seminary’s Middle School educators are stepping boldly into a two-year professional learning journey focused on interdisciplinary teaching through a Project Based Learning (PBL) lens. Building on the division’s work in differentiated instruction, this initiative supports teachers as they continue to design learning experiences that are rigorous, collaborative, and deeply connected to the world beyond the classroom.

PBL empowers students to make choices, pursue their intellectual passions, and connect classroom learning to authentic contexts. It pushes educators beyond “covering content” toward helping students uncover ideas through student-driven inquiry. According to PBLWorks, Project Based Learning is “A teaching method in which students gain knowledge and skills by working for an extended period of time to investigate and respond to an authentic, engaging and complex question, problem, or challenge, and make their work public.”