Age group for which this tool is beneficial:
Elementary School
Middle School
High School & Beyond

To what category does this tool belong?
No-tech tools (no power supply necessary)

Skills strengthened with the help of this tool:
Both organizational and academic

How does the tool work?
Project notebooks are a simple system for capturing all of the material related to a single academic subject or a work-related project. To create an effective project notebook, your child will need a three-ring binder, a three-hole punch, notebook paper, and some tabs. Daily notes organized by date can go in one section, readings in another, assignments in third, records of completed tasks in another. The goal is to keep everything related to the course or project together for easy access in one place.

What is the benefit to the user?
Students find project binders to be effective tools for managing all the materials associated with a course, but transporting four to six full binders between home and school can be a problem, and some school lockers won't accommodate that much material. Students who master the to and from transportation, however, rarely find themselves without essential materials. When parents and teachers team up to help the students manage and maintain the notebooks, they work very effectively even for students with lots of organizational difficulties.

Other information to consider:
Binders come in a variety of spine widths. Binders with spine widths smaller than two inches tend to fill up too quickly. Binders with spine widths larger than three inches tend to break more easily.

The three-hole punch is essential to allow binders to pass the "shake test." It should be possible to hold a binder by one cover and shake it without any papers falling out. When papers are stuck in randomly or stuffed into pockets, the binder becomes a black hole.

The above content was researched and written by Frank Sopper.