Five Years Ago I started the Falconium Science Journal at TPHS. We renamed it JOURNYS http://journys.org to be inclusive of schools with other mascots. In this club, students write articles, illustrate them, edit them, and send them out to a practicing STEM worker for feedback. The work is published online and on paper several times a year. In order to perform this task the students build communication and collaboration skills.
The skills built here aren't tested but they are more applicable to 21st century jobs than the skills that are tested. The students have employed google docs and dropbox to help them process the large number of articles.
If one looks at what kids today can do, it's pretty amazing. However, it seems that they do their best work when working on a task they care about with as few rules as possible. I think that extracurricular activities offer tremendous opportunity for true project based learning. Evidently, these people agree: www.usfirst.org
