PBL using Google Digital Skills


Our students are introduced to Microsoft software (i.e. Word, Excel and PowerPoint) and their Google cousins (Docs, Sheets and Slides) in elementary and middle school. However, they may need to reinforce those skills at CHS which is why the Google Digital Skills curriculum and classroom resources is an awesome set of free lessons!  

Google Applied Digital Skills is a free online curriculum that can be accessed by individual learners or used in a classroom setting. Project-based units help students practice basic digital skills using Google's G Suite for Education applications (Gmail, Docs, Sheets, etc.). Lesson activities range from creating a budget spreadsheet to planning a trip to conducting research and writing a report. Some coding concepts are also integrated into the curriculum, such as programming a script to look for overused words. As you can see from the image below, teachers can even filter the nearly 200 lessons by grade-level and/or by the Google Suite tool you want to use

Plus, each task has a comprehensive step-by-step lesson plan and even gives you a timeframe of how long the lesson should take, ranging from one hour to 10 hours of content.  

Even better in today's world of online learning, the curriculum comes replete with ready-made step-by-step video tutorials, allowing students to pause to better understand the directions or Google tools so they can complete the activities. (See image below.)

One of my favorite lessons is Pick the Next Box Office Hit, in which students adopt the role of a movie producer. The students will use video lessons to learn Google Apps Script, Docs, Drawings, and Sheets to complete an assignment that fosters data analysis and data visualization skills. That is just one of the great lessons you can access for free! 

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