1.1.

What are the PBL Projects?

The PBL Projects are a series of STEM problem-based learning curriculum and professional development projects funded by the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program of the National Science Foundation (NSF) [1]. Each of the PBL Projects has developed a collection of authentic real world multimedia case studies called “Challenges” with industry and research university partners in the areas of optics and photonics, sustainable technologies, and advanced manufacturing.

Students engaged in the PBL Projects are charged with solving an open-ended real world industry-based problem. Students work in teams, have an opportunity to develop and test a prototype (if appropriate in their course of study), present their solutions to their peers, and learn how the industry partner solved the same authentic problem. This process allows students to connect STEM concepts to the real world, get a feel for industry and new career fields, and compare and contrast their solution with that of an actual company.

Additionally, the PBL Projects provide professional development activities for secondary and post-secondary STEM educators and teacher educators. The projects train instructors by hosting “learn by doing” workshops in which instructors experience the PBL process as a student. Participating instructors gain access to an archive of teachers’ resources and are introduced to implementation and assessment strategies for PBL. The PBL Challenges have been aligned to U.S. national science, math and technological literacy standards and the Common Core, and are available on the Internet at no cost.

1.2.

The Problem-Based Learning in Advanced Photonics Manufacturing (APM-PBL) Project

Funded by a grant from the Advanced Technological Education program of the National Science Foundation (NSF-ATE; DUE #1801115) to Springfield Technical Community College in 2018, this three-year curriculum and faculty professional development project builds upon the successful NSF-ATE PHOTON PBL, STEM PBL and AM-PBL projects of the New England Board of Higher Education to increase the STEM pipeline of high school and community college students prepared and motivated to pursue careers in photonics technology through the use of PBL focused on advanced photonics manufacturing. Working in partnership with advanced photonics manufacturing industry partners across New England, the project is developing a comprehensive series of interdisciplinary multimedia PBL Challenges, focused on real-world problems in advanced photonics manufacturing faced by industry. The project is also providing professional development to STEM educators in their use in the classroom [2].

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, however, the first 4-day professional development summer workshop scheduled to take place on the campus of Springfield Technical Community College in July 2020 was postponed to July 2021. Initially, we had anticipated that the pandemic would have ended by spring 2021 and we would be able to host an in-person workshop in summer 2021. Unfortunately, the pandemic still persists and the format of the summer 2021 workshop has been changed to a virtual format to be delivered via Zoom®. One silver lining of having to transition the PBL workshop to an online format is that we are now able to include participants from countries outside of the United States.

3.1.

Webinar Topics

One of the challenges of postponing a summer workshop for one year is keeping the original participants engaged and connected with the project. After evaluating participant applications to the project, we learned that most of the participants had little or no formal background in optics and photonics. Given that we had a one-year postponement, the authors decided to develop and offer a series of five webinars focused on introductory optics and photonics concepts as well as PBL methodology in preparation for the summer 2021 virtual PBL workshop. The Optical Society (OSA) offered to host these webinars as part of the “We Are On” series.

Each one-hour live webinar (45 minutes of content material, 15 minutes for questions) was conducted mainly at the algebra/trig level suitable for teachers of students in high school and community colleges. Students were also encouraged to participate. Webinar content was based on the textbook by professors Donnelly and Massa, LIGHT: An Introduction to Optics and Photonics, ed. 2 [3]. Each webinar was developed into a page of additional teaching resources such as applications and hands-on activities. These resources along with recordings of the webinars can be found on the PBL Projects website https://www.pblprojects.org/resources-from-pbl-osa-webinars/. The webinar topics are shown in Table 1.

Table 1.

The APM-PBL Webinars

3.2.

Webinar Attendees

The PBL Project Webinars attracted a total of 206 educators and students from 20 countries. A breakdown of participants is shown in Table 2. Several attendees, including international educators, have been added to the participants of the July virtual PBL workshop.

Table 2.

APM-PBL Webinar Attendees