Thinking Through Project-Based Learning: Guiding Deeper Inquiry

Jane Krauss is a teacher, author and consultant who does curriculum and program development designed to increase participation of girls and other underrepresented groups in computer science. She will gladly tell you why computational thinking is the fundamental literacy of our technical age! Jane also writes and offers professional development internationally around the topic of project-based learning with technology. With Suzie Boss, she is coauthor of Reinventing Project-Based Learning: Your Field Guide to Real World Projects in the Digital Age (2nd ed., 2014, ISTE) and Thinking Through Project-Based Learning: Guiding Deeper Inquiry (2013, Corwin). In her free time, Jane enjoys dabbling in glasswork and mosaics, and keeps fit running and hiking on woodland trails just outside her door in Eugene, Oregon.

Suzie Boss 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 popular books for educators, including Bringing Innovation to School, Reinventing Project-Based Learning (co-authored with Jane Krauss), and Setting the Standard for Project Based Learning (co-authored with John Larmer and John Mergendoller). She is a regular contributor to Edutopia and the Stanford Social Innovation Review, and a member of the Buck Institute for Education National Faculty. She is collaborating with award-winning global educator Stephen Ritz on The Power of a Plant, which tells his inspiring story of creating green classrooms and healthier outcomes for children and communities across New York’s South Bronx and around the world. Inspired by teachers who push the boundaries of the traditional classroom, Suzie consults with schools internationally that are ready to shift away from tests and textbooks and engage students in real-world problem solving. She has helped project-based learning take hold at schools in India, Europe, Mexico, and South America, as well as all over the United States. Beyond the regular school day, she has developed programs that teach youth and adults how to improve their communities with innovative, sustainable solutions. Her wide-ranging interests in education were shaped by several years as a writer, editor, and field researcher for the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory (now Education Northwest), and earlier experiences as a community college instructor and journalist. She lives in Portland, Oregon, where she enjoys exploring the outdoors, playing tennis, and spending time with her husband and two grown sons.