Project-based learning is inquiry-based and it centers on working to solve a real-life challenge. With your guidance, students generate inquiry questions they believe need to be answered in order to solve the challenge. To elicit an inquiry mindset from the start, frame the project around a challenge question, which serves as the project’s overall focus.
Challenge questions should be open enough, so that there is no one right solution.
Within the lists of challenge-solving projects listed here, and linked below, you will find several challenge questions that can be used, or adapted for use, with undergrad and graduate students. For example, “How can we diagnose this patient’s illness?” is used in medical schools, and can be used in college biology classes to further and solidify students’ understandings of body systems.
Higher Education Challenge-Solving Questions – Examples
As sociologists, what recommendations do we have to community leaders and lawmakers to mitigate negative effects of gentrification (in our city, town, neighborhood)?
As a team of sociologists, what policies on the macro and micro level do you recommend to lawmakers to help solve the twin challenge of hunger and obesity?One of the inquiry questions might be what are sociological relationships among poverty, hunger, and obesity?
As sociologist consultants to a social media company, how can cyberbullying be combatted without violating free speech rights? (sociology, law, education, communications)
Adapted from: Daina S. Eglitis, D.S., Buntman F.L. & Alexander, D.V. (2016). Social issues and problem-based learning in sociology: Opportunities and challenges in the undergraduate classroom Teaching Sociology, 44 (3). American Sociological Association.
How can we provide helpful information to classmates and others on campus who have experienced insomnia or troubling dreams? (Psychology)
In a classroom of students with X diverse characteristics, needs, and strengths how would we effectively teach X lesson? (Education)
How can we plan quality project-based learning ? (Education)
How can we create a theatrical production to raise awareness of a social issue and possible solutions? (theater, sociology, social work)
In a short information leaflet or other format, how could you present to community leaders and the general public, in a clear and balanced way, the safety pros and cons of a new controversial PVC recycling facility in their community?
As consultants to “X” manufacturing company, how can the company integrate sustainability practices within a given budget?
How could “X” state or nation/homeland develop transitional accommodation (housing, schools, clinics, etc.) to prepare for a possible natural disaster?
As energy consultants to a business or governmental agency, what should we do to provide a cost-benefit analysis of social, financial, and environmental impacts of energy sources, such as, wind-turbines, solar water heating, geothermal heat pump, and photovoltaic cells, to determine their viability?
As consultants to a particular supermarket chain, given the current characteristics and actions of the chain and corporate social responsibility standards, what recommendations will you make to the chain’s corporate headquarters to align itself with corporate social responsibility standards?
Adapted from:
Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences. (2009).Educating engineers for sustainable development. Final Report of a Royal Academy of Engineering Sponsored Pilot Study. University of Manchester. https://osier.ac.uk/164/ and https://osier.ac.uk/165/
How can we design human habitats that are sustainable and resistant in the face of change (Architecture)
How could we design mechanisms that would reduce drag on a ship? (Fluid Mechanics)
How could we design submarines to compensate for a wide range of underwater pressures? (Fluid Mechanics)
How may we develop a model, to share with political commentators, that predicts the political results of the growing interface between two major social changes in our lifetime: globalization and democratizing? (Political Science)
How can we create an actual, functioning machine, designed to perform a useful purpose? (Mechanical Engineering)
As psychologists or social workers, what advice would we give to a family in response to X developmental crises their child is experiencing? (Psychology)
Adapted from Covington, M.V., von Hoene, L.M. & Voge, D.J. (2017). Life Beyond Grades: Designing college courses to promote intrinsic motivation. Cambridge University Press.
As an interpretive historian, using the primary source readings that are provided in this problem, how do you define Jim Crow?
As an interpretive historian, what are some of the possible motives for the 9/11 attack?
Possible inquiry questions:
What was the relationship of the United States and the Middle East region prior to 9/11?
What events between the United States and the Middle East region occurred prior to 9/11?
Adapted from
(n.d). Poch, R.K. & Yousuf, E. Teaching undergraduate history: A problem-based approach. In I. D. Alexander & R. K. Poch (Eds.), Innovative Learning and Teaching: Experiments Across the Disciplines. University of Minnesota. https://open.lib.umn.edu/innovativeteaching/chapter/teaching-undergraduate-history-a-problem-based-approach/
More Challenge-Solving Questions – Examples
Social Studies, Humanities, Political Science, and Social Sciences
Math
Science and Engineering
50+ Real Life Challenge-Solving Questions
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