Soft skills of independent learning and critical thinking are necessary in the 21st century. Independent learning trains students to have a responsible attitude when performing assigned tasks by using ideas, the innovation and creativity that students have to complete assigned tasks and hopefully it will continue to be integrated into adulthood. At the same time, critical thinking skills are needed to analyze existing knowledge and resources to solve problems that students encounter in daily life. The project-based learning (PBL) model supports students to actively participate in learning activities and project creation processes, so that learning materials become easier to understand and skills can be developed. skills such as independent learning and critical thinking. Analyze the impact of the PBL model on independent learning skills. Quantitative method with MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) analysis was used in this study. This study uses a control class of 19 students and an experimental class of 10 students. The results show that applying the PBL model has a significant impact on critical thinking skills and learning independence, as evidenced by the significance level of 0.000 < 0.05 and 0.011 < 0.05. The learning process by giving projects to fifth grade elementary students provides an opportunity to develop basic concepts of the material available to them. During the project implementation process, many problems will certainly arise that encourage students to think critically when solving problems. Independent learning occurs before analysis, where students must gather multiple references to find and support their hypotheses to come up with more effective and efficient solutions.