How to turn a problem in your surroundings into a learning experience
A water leak at school, the traffic outside the gates, the food wasted in the canteen. All of these problems share something: they happen in front of the students. And that is why they can become much more than a situation in the surroundings: a question, that question an investigation, and that investigation a learning experience. This guide shows how to take the reverse of the usual route: starting from something happening in the world in order to build the learning.
In brief
- A real problem can be the starting point of learning, rather than only something to solve.
- A good question transforms the lesson: it invites students to investigate and to create.
- A single problem brings several subjects together naturally.
- Technology arrives after the problem and the experience, in order to strengthen them.
It all starts with something that is happening
When a teacher notices that a lot of food is wasted at their school, they can open a conversation about sustainability or they can pose a question: how much food do we really waste and what could we do to reduce it? The question changes everything, because now the students have something to find out: observe, measure, record data, compare, investigate, calculate, propose solutions and communicate their conclusions. The problem is the same, and what changes is the way of relating to it.
The problem works as a common thread: students learn through something, rather than only about something.
The secret is not to solve it too quickly
When we know the solution, we tend to explain it. An interesting experience leaves room for students to discover part of the route themselves. The same food waste topic can unfold in stages: observe and form hypotheses, gather data, organise and analyse the information, investigate the causes, design proposals and present the solutions. Each stage adds a different kind of learning.
A single problem can teach many things
A real situation rarely belongs to a single subject. Food waste can bring together mathematics with quantities, percentages and charts; science with natural resources and sustainability; language for arguing and communicating; technology for gathering and visualising data; art for designing a campaign; and social skills for working as a team and deciding. The real world integrates knowledge, and a problem in the surroundings becomes a meeting point between subjects.
From gathering information to creating something that works
A learning experience gains strength when it ends with something that did not exist before: a proposal, a report, a campaign, a prototype, a video or a recommendation addressed to the people living with the problem. That changes the student's relationship with their work, because they create something with a recipient and a purpose, beyond answering for an exam.
And then technology appears
In this kind of experience, technology plays an important part, and it arrives after the problem and the experience. A device serves to gather data, a camera to document, an artificial intelligence tool to compare information or explore perspectives, and an LMS to organise resources, activities, deliverables and follow-up. Technology widens what students can observe, create, analyse and transform. And with an offline-first approach, the project carries on even in places where connectivity is limited.
A good question can change a lesson
Perhaps the most powerful tool for turning a problem into an experience is a well-formulated question. Instead of asking what climate change is, it is better to ask how it is affecting our city. Instead of what energy consumption is, how much energy our school uses and where we could reduce it. The first formulation asks for knowledge; the second invites students to use it. The whole process fits into a simple sequence:
Problem → Question → Investigation → Creation → Sharing → Reflection.
The teacher's role grows
When the experience starts from a real problem, the teacher becomes even more important: they help formulate better questions, connect the problem with the learning objectives, step in when students get stuck, tell relevant information from superficial information and turn everything that happened into learning. Investigating a problem means designing the conditions for students to discover, build and understand.
At AVACOM we support institutions with an educational technology ecosystem, with an LMS and an offline-first approach, designed so that every problem in the surroundings becomes a memorable learning experience.
Frequently asked questions
What is a learning experience based on real problems?
It is an experience that starts from a situation in the surroundings in order to generate questions, investigate, create solutions and reflect on what was learnt.
How do you turn a real problem into a learning experience?
Identify a problem close to the students, turn it into a question and use it as the starting point for investigating, analysing information, creating a proposal and sharing the results.
Does a problem-based experience work for several subjects?
Yes. A single problem brings together learning from mathematics, science, language, technology, art and social skills within the same project.
What part does technology play in this kind of experience?
It helps gather and organise data, document, visualise information, create and collaborate. The problem and the experience are what first define which technology makes sense to use.
Next step
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