About Us

What is PBL?

Project-based Learning (PBL) is a way of teaching and learning that frames the required content in a real-world problem, or driving question, as we say in PBL lingo.

In order to solve this problem, students are guided through lessons and learning experiences that marry the content to the driving question in a way that gives students an open-ended way to make meaning. Students synthesize this learning and work with their groups to create a solution which is then presented to an authentic audience (ie. not just the teacher!)

 

PBL is...

  • A way of learning and teaching
  • Open-ended and student-driven
  • Uniquely built by the teachers
  • Collaborative
  • Authentic to the real world

PBL is not...

  • A project at the end of a unit
  • Designed to have "one right answer"
  • A canned program of worksheets and lessons
  • Something contained to the classroom
  • Completely independent

 

 Want to learn more about Pbl?

Buck Institute of Education

 

ZQuest operates on a balanced calendar, meaning that we spread out our sessions from the beginning of August through the end of June, with the month of July off.

We typically structure our year to have 6-week blocks of instruction, followed by a week-long break. Students at ZQuest have all the same breaks as the traditional ZPS calendar except for the 3 month-long summer break.

View our current calendar.

When you step into one of our classrooms, you may not even realize that there is more than one grade level represented! At Zeeland Quest, we prefer not to think of our students as being in particular grades. Rather, we look at students as whole children and teach to the individual--regardless of their grade level. Students learn collaboration, responsibility, communication, and independence as they work with their peers. Teachers use a variety of different teaching and learning methods to reach the unique needs of each child.