Exhibitions facilitate community engagement as partners or users in student learning. PBL exhibition designs and methods are relevant to that of the professional world. And, exhibitions motivate learning because students know from the beginning that their work is for real people.
[AUDIO LOGO] PAT HOLDER: I’d say when you have an audience for your work, it gives your work a purpose.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
BRITTANY PERRO: When kids are showing off their work, they want to know that their work is going to be either utilized in a real world space, or making a positive impact on a real end user of sorts.
MATT LEADER: When I think of exhibition, I think community partners are the place we start with it. Since the community partner is such a big part of a project in terms of finding meaning, I always work towards, how does this exhibition work with them or work for them, and how can they play a part in it?
KERI SHELTON: I think just what’s so special about this project is that we have this real, authentic partnership, and their work is going to stay here forever.
JAMELLE JONES: When we were walking in and they saw their work already displayed on the projectors here at Sea Life aquarium, it just connected. They’re like, oh my gosh, that is the video.
PAT HOLDER: And it’s not just audience for people to see your work like an exhibition to come view it, but audience for people to use your work and have your work and whatever it was that you created. As the student works through the process, it gives them direction and ownership over delivering something to someone that’s authentic.
KISHI: I think it for sure gives me a lot of encouragement and pride in my work, and made me really excited to know I was showing people who were out of our school community.
MICHELLE JACONETTE: Some people think about exhibition as the one night where everyone comes and sees the work, but we were exhibiting along the way. And when we were getting feedback on writing and art, and having the kids know that their book was going to be published and available online to anyone who wanted to order it–
ALEX: When I first got to the high tech middle school, I was really worried about getting things correct and doing everything right. But throughout all these years, the opportunity to learn from my mistakes has been really prevalent in all of the education. I deeply care about the quality of work that I do, but now I’m paying more attention to the content of the work instead of all the little things. And that’s how I’ve grown since doing so many exhibitions.
MATT LEADER: Community partners can play a part in actually being within the exhibition. We’ve done that before to where they have a role just like a student might, or it could be a way that it gives the students time for reflection and feedback to share their work to that community partner.
MIMI PETROVICH: When the kids find out that they’re exhibiting off campus at Cabrillo, they definitely show a little bit more excitement over it. Their work is elevated right away. They find more of a purpose in spreading the message.
AJ: There is a little bit of a higher expectation for us. These people are going to be here, so we definitely have to step up our game, and make sure everything looks nice, make sure we’re prepared.
PAT HOLDER: Students will get into the details that really push something beyond being either done or good enough to being great because they have this sense of ownership over what it is they’re going to deliver to the person that is going to receive it, or see it, or use it.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
