Project Based Learning (PBL): The design process in action

Our second prototypes are being constructed as we work towards our finished products.

After weeks of understanding some of the issues around sustainability and how they effect our communities, tangaroa (sea) and whenua (land) we decided to focus on the problem of food waste created at Tahuna.

When we investigated the amount of food waste in classroom bins we estimated that 17.1kgs of food waste was thrown out each day at Tahuna - that’s around 3.5 tonnes of food wasted, from Tahuna alone, going straight into landfills.

Our driving question for our project was: 'How do we as waste minimisation agents reduce the amount of waste at Tahuna and promote a more sustainable future' and decided that we would design our own types of worm farms for our busy classrooms.

After understanding the problem we switched our focus to researching solutions, providing a detailed plan for our project and designing our worm farms. Feedback was provided on these designs which students needed to act on and consider further design implications.

Students are now creating a second prototype using cardboard and cardboard construction techniques before a second round of giving and receiving feedback on our different designs.

With two weeks to go, there's still a lot to achieve and learn. Some of the designs and ideas have been really inspirational for me and other ākonga. I can't wait to see their finished products.