MYP Personal Project Exhibition
On Wednesday 4 February, our Grade 10 students had the opportunity to exhibit their IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) Personal Projects for the community. The MYP Personal Project is a student-centred practical exploration through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. It provides students with an opportunity to practise and strengthen the skills developed through the programme, and the presentation of their projects represents the culmination of their time in the MYP (Grades 6-10).
For their projects, students chose an area of interest, set both Learning and Product goals, and devoted over 6 months to reaching those goals. Early in the Personal Project process, students identified Approaches to Learning (ATL) skills that would help them reach their goals. Along with the products, students took time to explain their learning and the application of these ATL skills. Examples of ATL skills students are encouraged to utilize are Thinking, Communication, Social, Self-management, and Research.
Grade 10 student Chauntelle Mann said of the experience, "Through my Personal Project, I learned how to turn research into real-life application by carefully testing, refining, and branding my own coffee product and website. It helped me grow as an IB student by strengthening my independence, time management, and ability to reflect critically on my work."
Throughout the process, students were supported by teacher mentors from across the school. The unique interests and skills of our Grade 10 students was on full display through the variety of products and projects exhibited. Younger MYP students also had the opportunity to view the exhibition and ask questions, which provided great insight into what would be required of them in the future.
MYP Exhibition Co-ordinator Leslie Smallwood commented: “The Personal Project Exhibition was a great moment for our MYP 5 / Grade 10 students. After months of hard work, we got the chance to celebrate their work as a community. Every single 10th Grader presented their products and described their process; the wide variety of things they worked on shows how unique they are. It made me really proud to be part of this community, and it's part of why I love the MYP. We spend all this time teaching ATL skills and trying to help students be better at communicating and self-management, and research and such. Personal Project is such a great chance for them to show all of that off. Hopefully, some of them found or deepened a passion that will continue to bring them joy (or spark an entrepreneurial enterprise!) long into the future. It was also great for the younger students to be there, to see our 10th Graders as their role models, wondering how they themselves could ever achieve something like that.”
The MYP at LCIS is a rigorous framework that encourages students to make connections between their studies and the real world. It empowers students to inquire into a wide range of issues and ideas of significance locally, nationally and globally. The result is young people who are creative, critical and reflective thinkers. Skills and concepts taught in this manner help students make connections with their knowledge, evaluate information critically and apply knowledge in complex, unfamiliar situations. For more information on the Middle Years Programme, click here.
