MYP Personal Project: Independent Inquiry and Creative Product

1. Middle Years Program (MYP) Personal Project N.Tenzin Personal Project Coordinator NESISM

2. Personal Project: What is it? •A creative, independent product of the student’s own initiative as the culmination of the MYP • The personal project encourages students to practise and strengthen their approaches to learning (ATL) skills, to consolidate prior and subject-specific learning, and to develop an area of personal interest. • The personal project provides an excellent opportunity for students to produce a truly personal and often creative product/outcome and to demonstrate a consolidation of their learning in the MYP.

3. Aim • The aims of the MYP projects are to encourage and enable students to: • participate in a sustained, self-directed inquiry within a global context • generate creative new insights and develop deeper understandings through in-depth investigation • demonstrate the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to complete a project over an extended period of time • communicate effectively in a variety of situations • demonstrate responsible action through, or as a result of, learning • appreciate the process of learning and take pride in their accomplishments.

4. Assessment Criteria

6. Mandatory • In schools in which the MYP finishes with year 5 of the programme, all students must complete the personal project, with the majority of their work undertaken in the final MYP year. Students are expected to spend approximately 25 hours on their personal project. • Schools must register all students in MYP year 5 for external moderation of the personal project.

7. When organizing the project, schools should consider: the number of supervisors required the selection and training of supervisors informing students about the project timelines for supervisors and students scheduling time for supervisors to meet with students individually or in groups documentation for managing the project library or information and communication technology resources for the project internal standardization of the project informing parents of the objectives and characteristics of the project showcasing of the project at its conclusion.

8. The supervisors’ responsibilities are to: • ensure the chosen MYP project topic satisfies appropriate legal and ethical standards with regard to health and safety, confidentiality, human rights, animal welfare and environmental issues • provide guidance to students in the process and completion of the project • confirm the authenticity of the work submitted • assess the MYP project using the criteria in this guide • participate in the standardization of assessment process established by the school • provide personal project grades to the MYP coordinator to enter in IBIS (from 2016).

9. What does the personal project consist of? • Process Journal • Product • Written Report/Oral recording/Vedio

10. Presenting The Personal Project • The personal project cover sheet • the completed academic honesty form • process journal extracts • bibliography/sources • any supporting visual aids used during the presentation, if applicable

11. Component of Personal project

12. Reporting the personal project Written Electronic (website, blog, slideshow) Oral (podcast, radio broadcast, recorded) Visual (film)

13. Possible formats for the MYP PP report

14. Global Context Students must identify one of these global contexts for their MYP project, to establish the relevance of their inquiry (why it matters)and to establish the purpose • What do I want to achieve through my project? • What do I want others to understand through my work? • What impact do I want my project to have? • How can a specific context give greater purpose to my project?

17. Topic and Global Contexts Topic Global contexts Objective Product outcome Method /Techniques

18. Developing the Project • Select the topic • Choose supervisor • Define guiding question • Planning • Gathering the necessary information • Organization and production • Presentation • Evaluation

19. What forms may it take? •An original work of art (eg. visual or performance) •A written piece of work on a specific topic (essay) •A piece of literary fiction (creative writing) •An original science experiment •An invention or specially designed object •The presentation of a plan for a business or community-based organization •A special event or development of a student or community organization

20. Examples of Successful Projects • Creating a picture book for young children • AIDS information for teenagers and young adults • Writing a vegetarian recipe book • Choreographing a dance performance • Creating a travel guide • Designing and making clothes and accessories • Creating books and games for the visually impaired • Designing a website for a zoo

21. ATL & the Projects • ATL skills work in articulation across all stages of MYP projects, sustaining and often overlapping throughout the projects • Students are expected to communicate clearly, accurately and appropriately, utilizing communication, organization and reflection as ATL skills • Criterion D – Reflecting asks students to reflect on their development of ATL skills

23. Personal Project Process Journal •Throughout the development of the project, students are required to keep a Process Journal. •This should be updated regularly, each time the student works on or does research for their project. •It should be used to record progress, containing thoughts, ideas, decisions, feelings and reflections. • Student can maintain PJ in different format(Blog Diary etc)

25. Selecting process journal extracts For the personal project, students should carefully select evidence from their process journals to demonstrate development in all criteria. These extracts are submitted as appendices of the report or presentation at the conclusion of the project. Students working individually should select a maximum of 10 individual extracts to represent the key developments of the project

26. The student should select extracts that demonstrate how he or she has addressed each of the objectives, or annotate extracts to highlight this information. An extract may include: visual thinking diagrams , bulleted lists , charts ,short paragraphs, notes,timelines, action plans, annotated illustrations , annotated research, artifacts from inspirational, visits to museums, performances, galleries, pictures, photographs, sketches ,up to 30 seconds of visual or audio material , screenshots of a blog or website, self and peer assessment feedback.

27. Final Structure of the Personal Project • All personal projects must include a structured piece of writing, whatever the overall plan. • This piece of writing must include: • Title page • Table of contents • Introduction: defining the goal of the personal project, describing explicit foci on the areas of interaction and providing and outline of how to achieve the goal • Description of the process: production steps, characteristics, aspects / components of the work • Analysis: research and influences guiding the work, the findings and decisions made, resulting product and process in terms of the goal and focus on the areas of interaction • Conclusion: reflection on the impact on the project and new perspectives that could be considered • Bibliography/Reference • Appendices - where appropriate

28. Exhibition • As a form of celebration, the school organizes an exhibition of all the projects. • The Personal Project exhibition demonstrates the success of the MYP program where the projects represent the culmination of the MYP years. • An opportunity for students to pursue and share a personal interest. • Invite the School community

29. Take away thought What one has not experienced, one will never understand in print. Isadora Duncan