CAPS-rooted, globally influenced

Project-Based Learning Designs for Grade 4–7

We design structured Learning Labs and tailored projects for schools, learning centres and education organisations. Families can explore individual Labs and see how learners investigate, build and explain their thinking.

For schools & partners Explore Learning Labs

The studio

Education Design

We are a South African studio designing Learning Labs, curricula and learning systems.

Alongside our CAPS-rooted Learning Labs, we partner with schools and organisations to design bespoke project-based learning experiences for a wide range of curricula and educational contexts.

Every Learning Lab is carefully designed to develop knowledge, curiosity and the confidence to explain, create and present meaningful work.

Designed by Werner Guderian, drawing on his experience teaching in international schools in Asia.

Work with PPL Explore Labs
Planning a project: the sequence, prompts and support behind the Lab.

The studio

Selected work

Designed by Werner Guderian

A Grade 4 Project Lab in the Wennan’s World Portal: Session 1 of 20 and the four-week path from Look and learn to Make it

Learning Labs

From a project brief to guided investigation, a build and reflection.

Explore the Labs ↗

The Portal

Wennan’s World

Choose a Lab, follow its activities and keep your work together in the Portal.

Learners investigate, design, build and explain. Their saved responses show how their thinking develops.

Learning Labs complement schoolwork by putting subject knowledge into practice.

How our Labs work

What learners experience

Each Lab connects guided activities with a practical project. Learners save their work as they go.

Learners can type their responses or use speech input on supported browsers.

Explore the five Discovery Labs Read any Lab before you buy Already have access? Sign in to the Portal →
A short look inside the Portal, from choosing a Lab to starting Day 1.
  • Each family signs in with its own private email
  • Work saves automatically as learners go
  • Parents are emailed once when a Lab is finished
  • Designed by a teacher with 18 years of international experience

Grade pathway

Grades 4–7

Each grade has eight planned Project Labs. A Project Lab takes learners through 20 sessions over four weeks; the five stand-alone Discovery Labs are a separate way to begin.

Explore each grade’s projects, then see which Labs are available to preview in the Portal.

Preview a LabExplore the shop
View the shop

Who it's for

Who we work with

PPL gives homeschool families, schools and after-school programmes structured Learning Labs with clear missions, guided learning and visible project outcomes.

  • A model ecosystem used as a homeschool project framework

    Homeschool Families

    What they need
    Families who want purposeful project-based learning without planning every prompt, task and reflection question themselves.
    What we give
    A clear mission, guided steps, facilitator notes and a final project learners can show, explain and reflect on.
  • A telescope and inquiry station representing school-level academic enrichment

    Schools

    What they need
    Schools that need credible project-based learning without adding another planning burden.
    What we give
    Ready-to-guide Learning Labs with facilitator notes, flexible levels, reflection tasks and visible evidence of learner thinking.
  • An after-school project table with models, plans and tools

    After-School Programmes

    What they need
    Tutors, centres and enrichment programmes that want purposeful project sessions where learners make decisions, build ideas and explain their thinking.
    What we give
    Complete project blocks with clear tasks, discussion prompts, guided activities and a final build learners can present.

Insights

Design Notes

Short reflections on learning, curriculum design and how PPL is built.

  • Grade 4

    The Careful Observer

    Notice, record and compare — where careful observation becomes confident project work.

    Download the Arc ↓

    PDF · one page · A4

  • Grade 5

    The System Explorer

    Classify, connect, test and explain — where learners begin to understand connected systems.

    Download the Arc ↓

    PDF · one page · A4

  • Grade 6

    The Evidence-Based Designer

    Evidence, constraints and trade-offs — where stronger reasoning shapes better solutions.

    Download the Arc ↓

    PDF · one page · A4

  • Grade 7

    The Strategic Defender

    Synthesise, cost, challenge and defend — where learners justify accountable decisions.

    Download the Arc ↓

    PDF · one page · A4

Connect

Get in touch

Tell us about your learners and what you would like to develop.

We work with families, schools and education organisations on Learning Labs, curricula and learning systems.

We will discuss your context and suggest a next step.

Enquiry form

Send an enquiry

Tell us what you have in mind. We will reply by email.

Open the enquiry form

Opens securely in Google Forms.

The founder

The teacher behind the Labs.

I am Werner Guderian — a teacher, a curriculum designer and a father — and Primary Project Labs is the work I have wanted to do for most of my career.

I have spent my career in international classrooms, most of it with learners in the years just before high school. The work they remembered was never the worksheet. It was the project they had to investigate, build, and then explain to somebody else.

Primary Project Labs is that idea written down properly and made repeatable: a real problem, a clear path through it, and something of the learner's own to show at the end. Every Lab is reviewed and signed off before a child ever sees it.

Werner Guderian — Founder of Primary Project Labs, teacher and curriculum designer.

Meet the Founder
In the classroom: the work every Learning Lab is built from.