Project-based learning in a descriptive acoustics class

Project-based learning (PBL) is where a class is structured around learning the subject through a significant project that serves a community need. PBL fosters collaborative, creative, communication, and problem-solving skills. It also helps them be more excited to learn acoustics because they are required to apply it to help others. One example of PBL implementation I will share was the students were tasked to present a public creative, innovative, and substantive performance where they united with an orchestra or band to explain to the audience how different kinds of musical instruments work and the orchestra/band then performed pieces to demonstrate these instruments. Each team was responsible for one type of instrument (strings, brass, woodwinds, percussion.) This event benefitted the music students, their families and friends, and the public who attended. The audience saw how simple principles of physics apply to musical instruments. Both technically inclined and artistically inclined individuals were enriched by seeing the overlap between the two fields. As there is no specified direction on how this project is to be completed, the ownership of the project was up to the student teams. I will elaborate on how I implemented PBL in an introductory, general education descriptive acoustics course.