Project Citizen has been a big part of our school year. Since MP1 we have built up and put together research, supporting arguments, and finally, the website, to present our solution to a problem that is prevalent today.
This whole process has had a lot of ups and downs but overall, its impact has been quite positive. I had fun here and there and although I didn't learn any substantial new skills, Project Citizen presented a great opportunity to hone the skills I already had. For example, the 2nd step, which had us compile heaps of research that support our solution to the problem as well as a detailed explanation of what the problem is are skills that are important to develop for college and in general. The third step, which had us condense the 84 page document to a third of that, got me to understand how to make sentences concise, and capture the meaning of the texts with fewer words.
The problem we chose to research brought me awareness. I didn't know that access to higher education was a large issue in the USA before this project. Researching and compiling supporting arguments helped drive home the fact that there is still a lot that needs fixing in the education system(especially at the higher levels).
Some aspects of the project that I was not too fond of were actually finding various sources to get research from. The page requirement for how many notes I should have was hard to meet at a certain point and harder to stay within after a certain point. Another challenge I faced was using the time we were given effectively. I found that at more than one instance I would leave work for the last week rather than work progressively. Another problem I think Project Citizen had was the criteria for choosing the problem that we would try to solve. I felt that having the option to pick much bigger topics that often come with a lot of controversy would nullify the idea of the project because these are problems that can't actually be fully solved - this is just a general problem.
Overall, this project has been fun and I think it should be implemented in the future as well. It presents opportunities to learn new things and improve on things you already know.