Project Based Learning
Fostering students' future skills
Would you like to foster your students’ future skills, whilst also making use of their intrinsic motivation to engage actively in learning? Using a project-based learning approach in your course achieves these goals and more. This Refresh Teaching event on the topic of “project-based education” features ETH faculty members who will share their ideas and experiences on this way of teaching. The event will also take place in the new PBLabs space (RZ D8), a room designed for project-based teaching and learning. We invite you to join the ongoing discussion about Project-based learning at ETH!
Impressions of the in-person event at PBLabs
PBLabs RZ is located on the D-Floor of the RZ building.
Project Based Learning - Dr. Florian Rittiner
Florian Rittiner gave an outline of the Project Based Lab (PBL) by introducing the team members, the mission and vision and the core principles of Project Based Education (PBE). A central function of PBLabs is to provide expertise, support, and inspiration for lecturers, educational developers, and department representatives who develop and implement PBE formats.
Project Based Learning - Dr. Andreas Eggenberger, PPlus Lab Course, D-PHYS
Andreas Eggenberger outlined the PPlus Lab courses in D-PHYS. Here, small groups of students are supported to create, design, test and analyse the results of their own lab projects. Andreas recounts the development process from 2023 and the subsequent further development of this project-based teaching design with the help of an Innovedum grant in 2024. Now the small teaching team is supported by six student assistants who are alumni of this innovative lab course. The slides show in detail the methods, results and evaluations of this inspiring project.
Project Based Learning - Jantina van der Meer, D-BAUG
Jantina van der Meer outlined the course in Environmental Engineering with a focus on river restoration. This project based course is based around real-life examples, where students focus on a stretch of local river and the aim is to design and discover methods to restore that part of the river. A group 20 – 25 students work in small groups composed of students from environmental engineering, but also different disciplines. The teaching methods using active learning, field work tasks, and the students are coached by a teaching team from academia, industry and the professions. A range of assessments are used in this dynamic project-based course.
