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by John Larmer, John Mergendoller and Suzie Boss
Table of Contents
The Buck Institute for Education (BIE) is a mission-driven not-for-profit 501(c)3 organization based in Novato, California, and is beneficiary of the Leonard and Beryl Buck Trust. Since 1998, BIE has focused its work exclusively on project based learning and is considered the world's leading provider of PBL resources and professional development. Its publications have been translated into nine languages. Across the United States and around the world, BIE provides PBL workshops and coaching to well over 10,000 K–12 teachers per year and provides systemic long-term support to partner schools and districts. BIE also hosts annual PBL World conferences and offers online resources at its website and online courses at PBLU.org.
John Larmer is editor in chief at the Buck Institute for Education. He authored and/or edited BIE's project based curriculum units for high school government and economics and was a contributing author of the Project Based Learning Handbook. He is a writer and editor of BIE's PBL Toolkit Series, including the PBL Starter Kit for Middle and High School Teachers, PBL in the Elementary Grades, and PBL for 21st Century Success: Teaching Critical Thinking, Collaboration, Communication, and Creativity. He codevelops professional development workshops and materials for teachers, including 21st century skills rubrics and project exemplars. John presents at conferences and has consulted on PBL curriculum development for the National Academy Foundation, the Oracle Education Foundation, and Pearson Education.
Prior to joining BIE, John was a senior program associate at WestEd in San Francisco. For ten years John taught high school social studies and English. He was a founding teacher at a restructured small high school, and a member of the National School Reform Faculty and school coach for the Coalition of Essential Schools. John received MA degrees in Educational Technology and in Educational Administration from San Francisco State University, and a BA in Political Science from Stanford University.
John Mergendoller joined the Buck Institute for Education in 1989 as its founding research director and was named executive director in 2000. An international advocate for project based learning, he has worked with educators throughout the United States and in China, Taiwan, Brazil, Greece, Romania, the United Kingdom, and many other countries to help them learn about and implement high-quality PBL.
Before joining BIE, he was a senior program director at the Far West Laboratory (now WestEd), a federally funded regional educational laboratory. At Far West, he also established and managed the At-Risk Student Program and the Secondary School Improvement Program. His publications span educational technology, science education, middle grades reform, and project based learning.
John holds an MA and a PhD in Psychology and Education from the University of Michigan, an EdM from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a BA in Letters from Wesleyan University in Middletown, CT. He was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to study cognitive development at the University of Geneva.
Suzie Boss is a member of the Buck Institute for Education's National Faculty. She is a writer and educational consultant who focuses on the power of teaching and learning to improve lives and transform communities. She is the author of several books on education and innovation, including Bringing Innovation to School: Empowering Students to Thrive in a Changing World and Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real-World Projects in the Digital Age. She is a regular contributor to Edutopia and the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Her work has appeared in a wide range of publications, including Educational Leadership, Principal Leadership, the New York Times, Education Week, and Huffington Post. She is a frequent conference presenter and consults internationally with schools interested in shifting from traditional instruction to technology-rich, project based learning.
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