Modern Constructivism

Modern Constructivism: How does the teacher use modern constructivist techniques (e.g., discovery learning, inquiry-based learning, problem-based learning, etc.) to promote student learning? Be thorough in your coverage of the theory, addressing multiple concepts to demonstrate your understanding. Cite specific examples and be sure to include a reference in your response. 

In the class I've been observing, the teacher is really good about using technology in a constructivist way as opposed to the behaviorist way I always used it in school. She uses computer games that really teach the students the concepts, and explains why they are right or why they are wrong.The technology I used in school was usually just online flashcards type of thing. One of the websites she used is called learngenetics.com and has tons of these really cool games that the students enjoy, and that really help them to solidify their understanding of the topics. Another one the students are crazy about is called CellCraft. She has been using it since the beginning of the year, and lets the kids play it sometimes when they have finished what they are supposed to do for the day. I'm not totally sure how it works, it seemed to be pretty complicated to me, but they are crazy about it! That's such a cool integration of technology into the classroom. The only technology thing that got me excited in school was a Bill Nye video, or Oregon Trail. And neither of those are as engaging and educational as the games I've observed in this classroom.
She also uses Problem Based Learning techniques pretty often. At first it even kind of bothered me because she would give them a problem and let them try to figure it out, without really giving them any background information. I didn't see how they would be able to figure it out, but they did!
Jigsaw is another technique I have seen used frequently, it's a fairly simple one. But, whenever I've been a student in a class that uses Jigsaw, I do become the "expert" on my topic, but then don't really learn from the other kids in my "learning group". I've always felt like it was high-pressure to become an expert, and then after that it didn't really matter because I couldn't be held accountable for the rest of the information because how is the teacher supposed to know if they taught it to me accurately? (I was apparently a pill in highschool).
Service Learning is the model that I find most compelling to use in my future biology class. There is so much that could be done in the community that relates to biology. Any sort of conservation, or animal-related service, or growing vegetables like in that video, would be awesome things to have my students use! This article (http://www.uwec.edu/SL/students/examples.htm) lists ideas for service learning projects in various content areas, it gives a few examples for biology, but there are so many other options that are available too. I could have students go volunteer some time at the animal shelter, or go help the conservation corps get rid of some Russian Olive Trees. There are so many videos of kids doing service learning activities on YouTube. Some of them are full blown organizations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRfE3CpTLUA), others are just kids doing something they would be doing anyway, but attributing it to service learning (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXmE9yLSN2I). There is just so much that could be done with this! I'm really excited to apply it to my real classroom. I don't know if it would be more feasible to only make them do it once, as like an end-of-year final project, or throughout the whole year. Maybe use it as an alternative to regular homework or something. I don't know, but it's really exciting to me!