Personal Project

The Personal Project is a significant body of work produced over an extended period of time. It is a product of the student’s own initiative and should reflect his/her experience of the

MYP. The personal project holds a very important place in the programme. It provides

an excellent opportunity for students to produce a truly creative piece of work of their

choice and to demonstrate the skills they have developed in approaches to learning (IBO guide 2004), such as time management, planning, research, analysing, reflecting, essay writing, bibliography, recording, self-criticism, meeting deadlines, presentation etc.

The personal project may take many forms, for example:

• an original work of art (visual, dramatic, or performance)

• a written piece of work on a special topic (literary, social, psychological, or

anthropological, photography, film documentary etc.)

• a piece of literary fiction (creative writing)

• an original science experiment

• an invention or specially designed object or system

• the presentation of a developed business, management, or organisational plan of

a special event, or the development of a new student or community organisation

At the AICS we consider the personal project in MYP 5 to be a huge challenge for the students in many aspects. After years of schooling, this is the moment they can show the skills and understanding they have developed over the years. Also, they can obtain an enormous amount of enjoyment from doing their own project, and great pride when it is completed and all the obstacles they have met during the process have been overcome. The PP follows 7 stages: finding the topic, the outline and planning, research, developing the product, the structured piece of writing about the process, an interview session in order to  ‘defend’  the project and finally the staged presentation to parents and other students. A personal supervisor is allocated to every student. The mentor/personal project coordinator guides the students through the process of the project. However, the personal engagement of the students is extremely important; he/she is expected to work independently, asking for help and guidance if necessary. The PP will be assessed under seven criteria and needs to receive a grade of at least a 3 in order to have access towards the DP programme.

An interesting aspect of the PP is the fact that the ‘making of’ process is more important than the final result of the product itself. Scientific experiments can fail, however the important thing is to find out what went wrong! This is where the analysis and reflection comes in, and this requirement makes the students aware of the active role they must play in the process of the PP. It is their own work.

During the process, that takes almost one year, the students must keep a journal. This helps the student to constantly reflect on the process, and also will be the evidence of the rate and direction of the progress the student makes.

Examples of Personal Project at the AICS over the last 2 years:

-          a movie trailer

-          designing a website

-          a business plan for skateboard park

-          basketball lessons for primary students

-          the making of a gothic dress

-          a cook book

-          breeding frogs

-          animation

-          a small novel

-          research on the influence of music on teenagers

-          a painting (pointillism)

-          designing a studio for students

-          the street ball phenomenon

-          a personal study of photography

-          a salsa dance performance

-          etc.

 Read about Development of talent

Example of Personal Project