Overview

As a culminating project for the Middle Years Program, students will engage in an independent exploration where they will inquire, act, and reflect on a goal of their developing. Students will demonstrate important Approaches to Learning skills (ATL) as they explore an area that motivates them. Students create their own success criteria in which to measure their success on and reflect on at the end of the experience. 

See IB's presentation introducing the Personal Project. or Mrs. MacFarland's Brochure

What is the Personal Project?

The personal project is a student-driven, inquiry-based project that takes place over an extended period of time. When it is complete, it should represent a significant body of work and should showcase the skills students have developed over the past several years. 

So, what does that mean?

• • • Student Driven: students get to choose the topic of their personal project, and they get to decide what they want the outcome to be. This project should be 100% based on their interests. Teachers may guide students in narrowing the focus of their projects, but students are the ones responsible for their own progress.

    • Inquiry-based: there is a research requirement to the personal project. Students must select a variety of sources and evaluate them to ensure their validity. Teachers may help direct students toward certain resources, and may help students understand what makes a source appropriate or not, but the research is ultimately student driven.

    • Extended Period of Time: this project stretches across students’ entire sophomore year. There will be grades associated with it (applied to the advisory class) in each semester. Teachers may remind students of deadlines; however, students are responsible for managing their time.

    • Significant Body of Work: because so much time is devoted to the personal project, the expectation is that the outcome will be ambitious, and of superior quality. Teachers should encourage students to push their boundaries, though the students themselves must take the initiative on this project.

What do students actually have to produce for this project?

There are four main components to the personal project:

• The Process Journal is where students document their work as they do it. In their process journal, they should record their ideas, planning, discussions, clippings of readings and concepts, photographs, diary excerpts, meeting schedules and outcomes with their supervisor – whatever they do that is part of the process should be kept in this document.

• The Product is the actual project students produce. It is how they show other people what they have investigated. They need to have some way of showing what they produced or achieved for their goal. This might be an actual product (model, electronic article, artwork), or it might be visuals of the outcome (such as photographs of an event they organized).

• The Paper is a technical report students produce following the completion of their project. It is a detailed analysis of their entire project and the process of development. It explains how, why, and what they did, in a well-structured and organized manner. 

• The Presentation is a display of students’ projects, along with anoral explanation. Students must come up with a way of visually presenting their project (think about tri-folds, photographs, models, etc.) and students must prepare a brief talk about their goals and process. 

*This presentation/exhibition will take place in the Thursday before spring break. 

Aims

• • Inquire (Investigating and Planning) WHAT THE PROJECT WILL ENTAIL

    • Explore an interest  or passion that is personally meaningful to you

    • Take ownership of your learning through a self-selected, long-term project

  • Act (Taking Action) HOW ATL SKILLS CONTRIBUTE TO LEARNING AND PRODUCT

    • Transfer and apply skills in pursuit of a learning goal and the creation of a product

    • Develop a deeper understanding

    • Develop self-management skills

    • Develop communication skills

  • Reflect (Demonstrating) WHY THEY DID THEIR PROJECT

    • Recognize and produce evidence of personal growth and development

    • Appreciate the learning process

    • Take pride in your accomplishments

Objectives

Students will accomplish three primary objectives during the course of the Personal Project:

• • Planning

    • State a learning goal for the project and explain how a personal interest led to that goal

    • State an intended product and develop appropriate success criteria for the product

    • Present a clear, detailed plan for achieving the product and its associated success criteria

  • Applying Skills

    • Explain how the ATL skills was applied to help achieve  the learning  GOAL 

    • Explain how the ATL skills was applied to help achieve  the PRODUCT

  • Reflecting

    • Explain the impact of the project on themselves  or their learning 

    • Evaluate the product based on the criteria

Support

• Advisory: Announcements and introductions

• College Readiness: Roll out, Check ins, Checklist and Timelines

• Librarian: Consult for sources and investigating and planning

• Supervisors: Periodic meetings

• Celebration: Showcase event with the Exhibition on the Thursday before Spring Break!

Expectations of Students

• 25 hours minimum 

• Meet with supervisors as needed, advocate for help

• Establish learning and product goals

• Develop action plan

• Independent learning through research, planning, development, and completion of the project

• Reporting the project

• Maintain process journal to document and collect evidence of ATL skills

• Evaluate your success on achieving their goal and impact of their project

• Students prepare and submit report

Expectations of Supervisors

• Provide guidance to students in the process

• Appropriate legal and ethical standards

• Timetable with deadlines

• Review of assessment criteria

• Advice to curate evidence of process

• Emphasize reflection

• Provide formative feedback

• Ensure academic integrity

• Assessing the project

• Participating in standardization of the assessment process

Role of the Library and Community

• The librarian can be a key resource for students to assist with research skills and locating and sourcing resources and completing the referencing and bibliographies (Works Cited page). 

• Students can seek out specialists within the community that connect to their interests in order to research or learn skills about a particular topic. 

  1. A community member can guide and support the student throughout the process, but cannot assess the project. 

  2. Students are still required to work with a supervisor at school through all stages of the process. 

  3. Specific policies apply for student safety. 

Connection to Approaches to Learning (ATL) Skills

• Reflection: reflect on the learning process

• Social: collaborating with others

• Communication: speaking and listening, reading and writing

• Research: information and media literacy

• Transfer: ability to transfer learning across disciplines

• Thinking

  • creative thinking

  • critical thinking

• Self Management

  • Organization

  • Affective skills (mindfulness, perseverance, emotional management, self-motivation, resilience)

See https://www.mrsmacfarland.com/skills for more information.

Evidence

• Students are expected to document their process.

  • Gather evidence throughout the development

  • Record intents, processes, accomplishments

  • Collection of initial thoughts and developments, brainstorming, possible lines of inquiry and further questions raised

  • Record of interactions with sources e.g. teachers, supervisors, external contributors

  • Record of selected, annotated and/or edited research and to maintain a bibliography (Works Cited)

  • Collection of information e.g. quotations, pictures, ideas, photographs, drawings, etc.

  • Documentation of ideas and solutions

  • A place to evaluate work completed

  • Reflection on the learning

Setting a Goal

• Connect to a global context that is compelling

• Continue building on  an action of service

• A unit of inquiry that they want to explore further

Action Plan and Applying ATL Skills

• Collect evidence applying ATL skills

  • Visual thinking diagrams

  • Bulleted lists

  • Charts

  • Short paragraphs

  • Notes

  • Timelines, action plans

  • Annotated illustrations

  • Annotated research

  • Artificats from inspirational visits to museums, performances, galleries, etc.

  • Pictures, photographs, sketches

  • Up to 30 seconds of visual or audio material

  • Screenshots of a blog or website

  • Self- and peer- feedback

• At least one piece of evidence must support their analysis of how ATL skills were applied to extend the learning goal and how they were used to achieve the product

Explaining the Impact of the Personal Project

• Learning goal impacts

  • Develops specific ATL skills

  • Extends knowledge about an area of interest

  • Gains confidence by completing an independent project

• Product impacts

  • Meets the need in the community

  • Showcases the student’s skill or abilities 

Maximum Length of Student Submission

Document File Types: .doc, .pdf. rtf

Recording File Types: .mp3, .m4a., .mp4, .mov, .m4v

• 15 pages, No recording

• 14 pages, 1 minute recording

• 13 pages, 2 minutes recording

• 12 pages, 3 minutes recording

• 11  pages, 4 minutes recording

• 10 pages, 5 minutes recording

• 9 pages, 6 minutes recording

• 8  pages, 7 minutes recording

• 7 pages, 8 minutes recording

• 6 pages, 9 minutes recording

Specifications

• Written work should be 11 point font size

• 2cm margins, roughly .78 inches

• Visuals need to be clearly visual

• Audio and video must be recorded and submitted in real time

• Visual aids may be used to support spoken reports. However, evidence and examples presented in the visual aids should be submitted as documents. 

• Visual aids presented only in video format will not be considered for assessment. 

• The bibliography is uploaded separately and is not included in the page limit. 

• DO NOT include a title page; if included, it will count towards the page limit. 

Moderation

Project is assessed and internally standardized by the supervisors

IB will require so many projects to check how closely they meet the standards

Assessment Criteria

24 marks

Criterion A:  Planning,  8 marks

Criterion B: Applying Skills, 8 marks

Criterion C: Reflecting, 8 marks

One page rubric of personal project

Global Contexts

• Science, Technology, & Innovation

Students will explore the natural world and its laws; the interaction between people and the natural world; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on communities and environments; the impact of environments on human activity; how humans adapt environments to their needs.Students will explore the natural world and its laws; the interaction between people and the natural world; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on communities and environments; the impact of environments on human activity; how humans adapt environments to their needs.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

1. What exercises help with what physical and mental medical issues?

2. What are some important things to consider for building a reliable kayak or canoe?

3. What are the different major configurations of remote control planes, and what techniques are necessary to be able to build them?

4. How can a robot be built and programmed to avoid obstacles using distance readings from an ultrasonic sensor?

5. What traits /tendencies do advanced AI systems, basic AI systems, and people have in common?

6. How can maker spaces that promote hands on learning influence the way people learn through their senses?

• Identities and relationships

Students will explore identity; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities and cultures; what it means to be human.Students will explore identity; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities and cultures; what it means to be human.Students will explore identity; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities and cultures; what it means to be human.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

• Will calisthenics increase my coordination with my body and help me control my movements through muscle mass and coordination exercises?

• How did Norse mythology shape the lives and culture of the Vikings?

• How can learning how to swim different strokes help contribute to my overall physical health? What changes will occur in my body through learning new skills?

• How can I create a workout video that really focuses on building my upper strength  using household items?

• Orientation in space and time

Students will explore personal histories; homes and journeys; turning points in humankind; discoveries; explorations and migrations of humankind; the relationships between, and the interconnectedness of, individuals and civilizations, from personal, local and global perspectives.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

• How can I create an accessible, informational platform about languages that will serve its purpose of educating of those who read it and will gain a large following?

• What is the value of documenting migrations of immigrants? How can immigrating reveal different perspectives of cultures?

• Personal and cultural expression

Students will explore the ways in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values; the ways in which we reflect on, extend and enjoy our creativity; our appreciation of the aesthetic.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

• What are the best techniques for assembling a Work Desk with a size that suits your client’s needs for everyday use at their jobs?

• Where can I find inspiration for a song and how can I improve my guitar playing and singing?

• How has the innovation and culture of the sport of basketball developed into becoming such a common form of personal expression?

• How did Indian cuisine come to be and connect to the country’s culture?

• How do modern/social media artists express themselves and their mental health through their art in these different and troubled times?

• How does the cadence of different instruments correlate with one another to provide one with a cohesive music piece?

• Globalization and sustainability

Students will explore the interconnectedness of human-made systems and communities; the relationship between local and global processes; how local experiences mediate the global; the opportunities and tensions provided by world-interconnectedness; the impact of decision-making on humankind and the environment.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

• What is a creative way to reduce the amount of plastic grocery bags in the environment so that they can be reused?

• Can a teen make enough money to live and sustain themselves?

• How can creating a sustainable and environmentally friendly way to be protected from this pandemic affect my community, and help decrease the amount of unsustainable disposable PPE?

• Fairness and development

Students will explore rights and responsibilities; the relationship between communities; sharing finite resources with other people and with other living things; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.Students will explore rights and responsibilities; the relationship between communities; sharing finite resources with other people and with other living things; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.Students will explore rights and responsibilities; the relationship between communities; sharing finite resources with other people and with other living things; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

Sample Lines of Inquiry:

• How can I help patients through an online platform?

• How can sales from local handicraft businesses in India help to solve poverty in the Austin area?

• Can a business be successful without damaging the environment?

Helpful Links

• Personal Project Sessions: Know the IB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaQmegus5NE&list=PLrjp-MlSnYhYxqQHx2V8doq0L-dZlRPwd&index=1

• PP Setting the Goal

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXCXma0BZzw

• PP Criteria

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP5smG8wTiU

• Step By Step Guide

https://misslauraengland.blog/2015/04/10/a-guide-to-completing-your-ib-myp-personal-project/