The UWC Project

**There will be an informational meeting at LUNCH in room D523 on Monday, January 20th**

The UWC Project provides Grade 10 students with the opportunity to pursue our UWCSEA Mission Competency of developing Essential Literacies through the lens of an individual, student-driven research project. Additionally, students develop one other UWCSEA Mission Competency of their choice: Interpersonal and Intercultural Understanding, Peacebuilding, Sustainable Development, or Self and Community Wellbeing. Through an interdisciplinary approach, students consider how their individual passions and research findings can be used to make measurable contributions to their local community. Throughout this journey, students critically evaluate information, their project choices, and the effects of their community contributions. Formal reflections serve as evidence for growth in their targeted competencies. The course also allows students to extend, practice, and refine their communication skills in speaking and writing.

A Project Based Approach to Learning

In this course, a student entrepreneur or athlete may choose to extend their learning and passion for sustainable development through a research project that fosters interdependence with a local service partner. For such a project, a student may transform unsustainable, normed practices like making t-shirts, handing out medals, etc. during a sports tournament to a sustainable practice that involves using recycled materials that are purpose-made by one of our service partners in exchange for a donation. A project like this not only reduces UWCSEA’s carbon footprint but also redefines the way we engage with our service partners.

Each student’s individual project will stem from a current area of passion and work in our holistic UWCSEA program. A student may use their research to build on their involvement in MUN to think of the ways in which they can be a changemaker in their local community; to extend their passion for creative writing from their studies in English to effectively communicate the wellbeing issues adolescents face in their school community, or to bring awareness to the ways in which redevelopment is affecting an ecosystem in Singapore. These are only some examples of the numerous ways in which students may utilize their passions to transform their individual research into action.

FORMER PROJECTS

At the end of the project, each student will present their research findings, project plan, and individual reflections to our community. In the public presentation, a student will not only share their learned knowledge, they will also consider what the implications of their findings are for themselves and the community. The student will be asked to reflect on the ways in which the project has developed their Mission Competencies and set new goals for these competencies in the scope of their upcoming IB program.

See example projects here and below!

Course Aims

Develop an in-depth understanding of research and research methods.
Investigate an issue of local relevance in consultation with a learning coach/supervisor.
Produce a formal piece of academic writing in the form of a research paper at a mastery level.
Understand the ways in which energy for individual passions can be used to meaningfully collaborate with and contribute to local communities through project-based initiatives.
Create a project proposal that enacts change in our local community while simultaneously developing a student’s self-selected UWCSEA Mission Competency.
Enact a project that combines research findings, passions, strengths, critical thinking, and clear action steps in our local community.
Develop presentation and communication skills through preparing for and delivering a public presentation of the student’s research, project findings, and individual reflections to the wider College community.

The skills learned and developed in this course prepare students for individual IB coursework such as the Extended Essay, ToK Essay, and student-driven Internal Assessments components. It also lays a strong foundation for the research-based essays and project work students will do at university.

Course Outline

Unit 1 - Research: Learning to Write, Writing to Learn

All students in the course explicitly develop their individual mission competency in the area of “Essential Literacies” through researching an issue of local relevance that connects to one of their passions and writing a formal, academic essay on the topic. Students are also introduced to the four optional UWCSEA Mission competencies they may choose to develop: Interpersonal and Intercultural Understanding, Peace building, Sustainable Development, or Self and Community Wellbeing. From there, a student will provide a rationale and goal statement for their Mission Competency of choice.

In their research, students engage with a range of sources and approaches that draw on theory, data (quantitative), and individual experiences (qualitative). Students will present their research in a formal research paper where they expand on their digital literacy skills by presenting their findings using language and image.

“Research is seeing what everybody else has seen and thinking what nobody else has thought.”

Albert Szent-Györgyi

Unit 2 - Act: From Page to Plan - Transforming Knowledge into Action

“Knowledge is not power. It’s potential power. It only becomes power when we apply it and use it.”

Jim Kwik

In this unit, students consider the relevancy of their research in their local context. They then use this knowledge to critically think through the ways in which they might use their interests, passions, and strengths to make clear, actionable contributions to their community. Contributions might be concrete, such as collaborating with a service partner to produce culturally representative and inclusive graphic art for the parnter's marketing materials; or they might be abstract, such as working with a member from the counseling team to develop a student-led workshop that brings awareness to the challenges new students face when trying to integrate into our school community. Each student develops a project proposal that is presented to the group for formal feedback and tuning before enacting the steps of their project. Time is given in class for students to consult with their learning coach, carry out action steps, manage correspondence, create, and evaluate their progress.

Unit 3 - Present and Reflect: Establishing Significance for your Work

In the last unit, students organize their research, project details, findings, and reflections in a multi-modal presentation to the UWCSEA College community. Presentation and communication skills are further developed from the UWCSEA Core classes to instruct students how to effectively use language and image in their visual presentations and speech to communicate the significance of their work to an audience. Furthermore, students will be asked to share their individual reflections of how they have developed in their chosen Mission Competency and what implications this has for the future. Each student will document their research paper, project outcomes, and reflections on our UWCSEA Project site so that future students can learn from their work.

“If you have knowledge,
let others light their candles in it.”

Margaret Fuller

Skills Developed

Primary and secondary research with a focus on citation methods, evaluating bias, and developing cultural competency
Communication Skills
Formal academic writing, including using graphics
Composing emails and written correspondence
Formal presentation skills, including how to use language and visuals effectively
Project planning
Critical thinking
Personal reflection

Assessment

Students will document their progress and reflections in a process journal that will be formatively assessed. Summative assessment tasks include the research paper, project proposal, and formal presentation which will be used to determine a student’s final mark in the course.

Questions?

Interested in taking the UWC Project Course? Email Jen Brooke at jbr@uwcsea.edu.sg to find out more!

Former Projects

Advay

Reflection

The whole process was an incredible journey, and I gained a lot of knowledge along the way. I learned how to conduct research in a more effective and appropriate manner, I learned how to present my information through different media; and I learned how to transform a plan into an action. I gained insight into the migrant worker community in Singapore through different perspectives and gained a passion for a new angle on sustainable finance. I am grateful that the course allowed me the freedom to experiment with my resources and allowed me to bounce back after a setback.

Sophie

Self Portraits from our Art Therapy Workshops

Secondary Research: Review of Literature

I choose this topic because there is an alarming rate of self-harmed due to depression, and I have found that this is a very serious problem for both teenagers and middle-aged people. Moreover, a news about the economic decline caused by mental illness in Singapore every year makes me understand that this problem will not only bring troubles to the patients, but also inhibit the economic development of the city. It is important to solve this serious social issue and exploring the true link between mental illness and the economy would be a fundamental and important step.

Primary Research: Qualitative Study

To further validate many of the ideas and arguments in the study, I conducted ascending interviews with five adults from various industries who have been in the industry for many years, hoping to gain a professional perspective from different perspectives. The five gave me comprehensive and specific answers and their own experiences from the perspectives of various industries, which are of great help to the research.

Brandon

I care about creating positive change about food waste because it is a common resource that everyone at some point wastes, and it should be valued more due to the effects food waste has on the environment. Food waste is an important issue because our consumption habits in our everyday behaviors are the reason why this issue exists, this means that we have the power to solve this issue.

Qualitative Research

For my qualitative research, I investigated how consumer behavior influences food wastage. I did this through conducting on-the-spot in-person questionnaires with 20 participants aged 14-17. These questionnaires consisted of 17 short questions that collected data on consumers' behaviors and perceptions regarding food waste.

Based on my secondary and qualitative research, I knew that the underlying issues included consumer behavior and consumer awareness and concern for food waste, food disposal practices, purchasing and consumption habits, and waste reduction behaviors. I needed to spread awareness about the issue, change people's behavior, and allow people to understand how they can be more sustainable and avoid food wastage. I also wanted people to understand why food waste is an environmental and economic issue. As a result, I wanted to raise awareness by creating a magazine article on food waste and have it published online.

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