What's the difference between doing projects and doing project-based learning?

In traditional projects, students learn content first and then apply it to a project at the end of a unit — the project is a culminating activity. In genuine project-based learning, students learn content and standards through the project from the beginning. The project isn't the dessert after the vegetables — it's the entire meal.

This distinction matters because most of what schools call "PBL" is actually projects bolted onto traditional instruction. When teachers say "I already do that," they usually mean they assign projects. The shift to authentic PBL — where the project drives the learning — is a fundamentally different instructional design that requires different planning, different classroom culture, and different assessment approaches.