INVESTIGATING

Objectives

In this part of the project, you should be able to:

Define a clear and highly challenging goal to address a need within a community, based on personal interest.
Identify prior learning and subject-specific knowledge that is consistently highly relevant to the project.
Demonstrate excellent research skills.

I. Define a Goal

Your goal should be highly challenging, and specific. The process outlined below will help you create an appropriate goal.

ACTIVITY 1: WHAT INTERESTS YOU?

On paper or using your a digital mind mapping tool (MindMup, Mind Meister, or Canva are all helpful tools), brainstorm the following questions:

What am I interested in?
What am I passionate about?
What communities am I interested in learning about?
What communities am I interested in serving?
What could I commit to over a long period of time that will keep me engaged and interested?

Take a screen shot/picture or download as a document and upload it to your process journal!

What's a need? What's a community?

Before you start to a goal to address a need with a community, let's think about the terminology we will be using.

A Need

A situation where something is required or wanted to help a community to grow
A duty
Something that is desirable or useful

A Community

"Communities are groups that exist in proximity defined by space, time or relationship. Communities include, for example, groups of people sharing particular characteristics, beliefs or values as well as groups of interdependent organisms living together in a specific habitat. "

MYP: From principles into practice (May, 2014)

Examples of various types of communities:

When considering a community to serve, think carefully about how you might address needs within the community.

WITH YOUR COMMUNITY IN MIND, NOW THINK...

Do I have access to the resources I would need to serve the community effectively?
Is there a sufficient amount of information available regarding this community so I can truly learn about them?
Can I acquire enough knowledge to serve the community within the time frame allotted and to the best of my ability?

Thinking About Your Community

ACTIVITY 2: SWOT ANALYSIS

It's good to think more deeply about the community you have chosen. Create and fill out a SWOT chart that looks like the one here while considering these questions:

Strengths - what are the strengths of this community?

Weaknesses - what are the weaknesses of this community?

Opportunities - what are the opportunities that are available for you to serve this community?

Threats - what external or internal obstacles will you face in serving this community?

ACTIVITY 3: SOAR ANALYSIS

Next, you should create a SOAR chart. The SOAR chart will help you become much more focused on setting a clear goal. Create and fill out a SOAR chart that looks like the one here while considering these questions:

Strengths - what is already underway to meet the need you have chosen? What is already working well to meet the need within this community?

Opportunities - what opportunities are there for you to meet this need? Is anything not working well to meet the need within this community?

Aspirations - what would you like to achieve through meeting this need?

Results - what results will you look for to know your service has been successful?

What Type of Service will you Provide?

There are four types of service, each type of service will allow you to consider how you can meet the authentic need in your chosen community. Read through each type of service (below), and when confident in your choice, answer these two questions in your process journal.

What type of service do you plan to engage in?
Why is this type of service a necessity to you meeting the need within the community?

Remember to consider your personal strengths and interests when deciding on the type of service you wish to engage in.

Direct service

In this service type, you would physically get involved with helping people, animals or the environment.
For example: walking dogs and cleaning their cages for a shelter.

Indirect service

You do not see the community you are serving; but, you can verify that your actions will still benefit them.
For example: redesigning the website for a non-profit organization to generate more online traffic.

Advocacy

You speak on behalf of a cause or concern to promote action on an issue of public interest.
For example: creating a short anti-bullying film and educating fellow students about the effects of bullying.

Research

You collect information through varied sources, analyse data and report on a topic of importance to influence policy or practice.
For example: conducting a study of food wastage within your school, and suggesting means to reduce waste, and recycle.

Establish the Goal

Now that you have chosen a community to serve, identified a need, and considered the type of service that you will provide, it's time to establish a goal. Your goal should be:

achievable
rewarding
highly-challenging

Types of Goals

Some examples of goals may be:

to raise awareness
to participate actively
to research
to inform others
to create/innovate
to change behaviours
to advocate

Is your goal challenging enough?

You should make an evaluation of how you might address the need and whether you can reasonably achieve your goal in the suggested time frame of the project. Whether a project is appropriately challenging is determined by YOU, but should be guided by the supervisor.

In the project proposal, you need to explain how and why this goal would be highly challenging for you as an individual or group.

Here is a table to demonstrate how a challenging goal could be adapted to be highly challenging.

ACTIVITY 4: EXTENSION SCAFFOLD

In your process journal, create an Extension Scaffold that can help you extend the features of a challenging goal into a highly challenging goal.

Complete this Extension Scaffold

Once you have decided on a goal for your project, you should easily be able to answer the following questions:

What do you want to achieve through your community project?
What do you want others to understand through your work?
What impact do you want your project to have?

Choosing a Global Context

The Global Context (GC) gives your project a lens and also shows how your project goal can connect to all global citizens. Take some time to read through each GC to get a deeper understanding.

ACTIVITY 5: GLOBAL CONTEXT PERSPECTIVES LENS

With your group, fill out the GC perspectives lens scaffold in order to structure your thinking about the various perspectives each part of the GC provide your community project goal.

Discuss:

How might a certain GC give your community project a wider sphere of influence?
How might a certain GC help others understand how important it is to meet the need in the community?
How might a certain GC cause others to care about the need in the community?

Global Context Scaffold

Global contexts in the CP.pdf

CHOOSE YOUR GLOBAL CONTEXT

As a group, select the global context that you believe best suits your CP goal and allows others to understand just how important your service is.

Project Proposal Form

Project Proposal Form - Putting all the Pieces Together

Now that you've established:

A need within a community
A highly challenging goal
A global context perspective for your project

It's time add it to add all of this information to your Project Proposal Form and set up Supervisor Check In #1.

SUPERVISOR CHECK IN #1

It's now time to schedule your first meeting with your supervisor. Be sure to consider the following when composing your email.

Start your e-mail with "Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs.,"
Introduce your group members and outline your topic of your project as well as your highly challenging goal
Request a time for a meeting
Use formal language
Finish your e-mail with "Kind Regards," and list all group members' names

AGENDA FOR MEETING #1

Please use the following agenda for your meeting.

Discuss the following:

your project topic/main idea, the community, the authentic need, the type of service, the global context

Show the following:

your SWOT and SOAR charts, your Extension Scaffold, your Global Context Scaffold, your Project Proposal Form completed (with goal, community, need, global context, type of service)

Ask for feedback on your goal - what do they think you could change or improve upon to ensure it's a highly challenging goal?

Post a summary of your meeting once it is complete in your process journal.

Respond to Feedback

Act on any feedback that you received from your supervisor. If necessary, check in with your them again to make sure you are on track.

When you are confident that your project is progressing as it should be, move on to the next stage of the process.

II. IDENTIFY PRIOR LEARNING & SUBJECT SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE

ACTIVITY 1: PRIOR LEARNING REFLECTION

Think about the skills and knowledge that you already have from clubs, training, independent learning, family hobbies, skills you have learned outside of school, and any/all other forms of learning that you have engaged in that will help you achieve your goal.

If you're working in a group, this means you'll have multiple elements of prior learning that will help you achieve your goal.

Make a copy of the reflection document. List the clubs, training, online courses, programs, etc. that you have prior learning in. For each item, respond to the following prompts:

How will this prior learning help you achieve your community project goal?
What additional learning do you need to acquire in order to achieve your goal?

Add the document to your process journal.

Identify Prior Learning & Subject-Specific Knowledge Reflection

ACTIVITY 2: SUBJECT-SPECIFIC KNOWLEDGE REFLECTION

Think about the skills, attitudes, and knowledge you have developed, attained, and acquired in your MYP subjects. As before, list these skills with the subject first (Ex - Design: application of design principles). For each skill/attitude/knowledge listed, answer the following question:

How will these skills/knowledge help you achieve your goal?

You can use the template from Activity 1 or create your own.

III. DEMONSTRATE RESEARCH SKILLS

ACTIVITY 1: KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Using the template opposite, outline the knowledge you need to acquire and skills you need to gain in order to complete this project.

TIPS:

Ensure that you document all your sources in your process journal, as well as record your research.

Make sure you have both primary and secondary sources.

Knowledge and Skills Research Template

Conduct the Research

The next step is to conduct your research. Research is about connecting with sources in order to gather specific information. Make sure you gather information from both primary and secondary sources.

Primary sources - interviews, surveys, experiments, fieldwork
Secondary sources - books, websites, journals, published media

Employ your communication and social skills, take risks, and connect with primary sources in the community.

Your goal is to find out as much as you can about the community you wish to serve, the need within the community, what is already being done to address the need, and the steps you must take to achieve your goal.

REMEMBER

Be principled
Be respectful in all your interactions
Be academically honest

It is a good idea to create your bibliography continuously as you progress through your community project. Create a document in your process journal to record sources. Use MLA8.

compass_points_template.pdf

ACTIVITY 2: COMPASS POINTS REFLECTION

At this point you should be clear on the your community project and you should be ready to move into the planning phase.

Using the Compass Point visible thinking routine, answer the questions as a group. This process should help you to establish just how ready you are. You can create your own compass point document or use the template provided. When done, take a picture and upload it to your process journal.

Worries - what concerns do you have about the community project?

Steps - what should your next step be?

Needs - what else do you need to find out?

Excitements - what excites you about the goal that you have chosen?

Template from: https://thinkingpathwayz.weebly.com/compasspoints.html

SUPERVISOR CHECK IN #2

Request your second meeting with your supervisor.

Start your e-mail with "Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs.,"
Introduce your group members and outline your topic of your project as well as your highly challenging goal
Request a time for a meeting
Use formal language
Finish your e-mail with "Kind Regards," and list all group members' names

AGENDA FOR MEETING #2