Personal Project

MYP Personal Projects enable students to engage in practical explorations through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. MYP projects help students develop the attributes of the IB learner profile. It provides students with an essential opportunity to demonstrate ATL skills developed through the MYP and foster the development of independent, lifelong learners.

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. The project offers many opportunities for differentiation of learning and expression according to students’ individual needs.

The Community Project in Grade 8 / year 3 is a culminating example of inquiry because it reflects students’ ability to initiate, manage and direct their own inquiry. The inquiry process involves students in a wide range of activities to extend their knowledge and understanding and to develop their skills and attitudes. These student-planned learning activities include:

deciding what they want to learn about, identifying what they already know, and discovering what they will need to know to complete the project
creating proposals or criteria for their project, planning their time and materials, and recording developments of the project
making decisions, developing understandings and solving problems, communicating with their supervisor and others, and creating a product or developing an outcome
evaluating the product/outcome and reflecting on their project and their learning.

As students become involved in the self-initiated and self-directed learning process, they will find it easier to construct in-depth knowledge on their topic as well as to develop an understanding of themselves as learners.

Aims | Command Terms

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

As students evolve through the service learning process, they may engage in one or more types of action.

Direct service: Students have interaction that involves people, the environment or animals. Examples include one-on-one tutoring, developing a garden alongside refugees, or teaching dogs behaviours to prepare them for adoption.
Indirect service: Though students do not see the recipients during indirect service, they have verified that their actions will benefit the community or environment. Examples include redesigning an organisation’s website, writing original picture books to teach a language, or raising fish to restore a stream.
Advocacy: Students speak on behalf of a cause or concern to promote action on an issue of public interest. Examples include initiating an awareness campaign on hunger in the community, performing a play on replacing bullying with respect, or creating a video on sustainable water solutions.
Research: Students collect information through varied sources, analyse data and report on a topic of importance to influence policy or practice. Examples include conducting environmental surveys to influence their school, contributing to a study of animal migration patterns, or compiling the most effective means to reduce litter in public spaces.

The aims of the MYP personal project

Objectives

The learning outcomes listed below identify the substance of students’ self-reflection on service as action. All of these learning outcomes are closely associated with IB learner profile attributes and ATL skills. Through their participation in service, students can become more confident, self-regulated learners.

A

Investigating

Define a goal to address a need within a community, based on personal interests
Identify prior learning and subject-specific knowledge relevant to the project
Demonstrate research skills

B

Planning

Develop a proposal for action to serve the need in the community
Plan and record the development process of the project
Demonstrate self-management skills

C

Taking action

Demonstrate service as action as a result of the project
Demonstrate thinking skills
Demonstrate communication and social skills

D

Reflecting

Evaluate the quality of the service as action against the proposal
Reflect on how completing the project has extended their knowledge and understanding of service learning
Reflect on their development of ATL skills

The Process Journal, Assessment Criteria and Strands & Assessment Levels and Descriptors

The Process Journal

The process journal is a generic term used to refer to the record of progress maintained by the student throughout the project. However, the media for documenting the process can vary depending on student preferences. It can be written, visual, audio or a combination of these, and it may include both paper and electronic formats. The process journal is personal to the student, in the sense that he or she is also exploring ways of recording his or her process. Students are not restricted to any single model of recording their process journals. However, the student is responsible, through his or her use of the process journal, for producing evidence of addressing the four objectives to demonstrate achievement at the highest levels of the criteria.

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