The Process Journal
Remember that you will be assessed more on how you approached your project rather than the quality of your product. Although the more organised in your approach, the more likely you are to end up with a successful project.
How you approach, organise and complete the project is shown through the Process Journal. In it you should record your ideas honestly, write about what goes wrong as well as what goes right and keep notes, diagrams and photos which create a comprehensive record of the process you are going through.It is a record of all your thoughts, decisions, and actions throughout the process or completing your personal project.
The Process Journal is monitored regularly at points trough the year to assist you.
How you approach, organise and complete the project is shown through the Process Journal. In it you should record your ideas honestly, write about what goes wrong as well as what goes right and keep notes, diagrams and photos which create a comprehensive record of the process you are going through.It is a record of all your thoughts, decisions, and actions throughout the process or completing your personal project.
The Process Journal is monitored regularly at points trough the year to assist you.
The Process Journal is...
• begun at the very start of the process and used throughout the process • a place for demonstrating and documenting your planning• a place for recording interactions with sources, for example, teachers, supervisors, external contributors • a place for storing useful information— quotes, pictures, ideas • a means of exploring ideas • a place for reflection on stages of the project • a place for evaluating work completed a place for reflecting on learning • devised by the student in a format that suits his or her needs • useful for the student when receiving formative feedback • used by the student to produce the project report. • produced using ManageBac (Process Journal see below) • Show how your ATL are improving. |
The Process Journal is not...
• used on a daily basis (unless this is useful for
the student)
• written up after the process has been completed • additional work on top of the project; it is part of and supports the project • a diary with detailed writing about what was done • a static document with only one format. |
Help with choosing ATL for each criteria
Link to full ATL list: http://iicspersonalproject.weebly.com/atl.html
How to produce the Process Journal
In the Personal Project you can up to 10 Process Journals to demonstrate skills in all four criteria. Although you can have a maximum of 10 entries, we expect you will do far more. In that way you can then select your best 10 to show the skills you have developed in each criteria.
Rules about Process Journals
1. No more than one A4 page (anything over will not be looked at)
2. Minimum of 11pt Calibri
3. Minimum of single line spacing
4 Video and audio can be used (30 secs)
Process Journals can be a mixture of written, graphics, audio and video files. We encourage you to use different formats as appropriate. So, for example you can have some parts of the Journal as written text, have outline designs (story boards, music script drafts etc), record meetings as audio, have reflective pieces as a video file.
Here are some examples of Project Journal entries.
Include which ATL you are hitting and (briefly) how you are improving it. This looks great for supervisors, moderators and will help you write the final section more easily.
Investigating (process journal entry example)
Process Journal Entry #1 ATL: Research. Access information to be informed and inform others
September 29th, 2019: Before getting into the actual creation of my project, I wanted to make sure that I fully understood how relevant the minimization of fuel usage was to the both airlines' profits and the protection of the environment. The United Nations document "AR5 Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change", especially chapter 8 focusing on aviation, was an invaluable source of information during my research on that topic.
Although it focuses mostly on the environmental effects of fuel usage, it also brought up some very important ideas such as the fact that airlines want to reduce their fuel consumption even without any legislation to force them to since any decrease in fuel usage greatly increases their profits. I organized my notes a list of all of the potentially important facts from the document that might have some impact on informing the development of my project in the future. In addition to being a great resource for finding relevant, reliable information, IPCC Assessment Report number 5 also had a 20 page long bibliography, so I found many links to other sources that expanded upon facts presented in the report and gave me a much stronger understanding of what they meant (with articles from very strong scientific journals like Futures, Atmospheric Environment, and the Journal of Air Transport Management.
Origin: This information comes from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was created by the United Nations Environment Organization and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988. As a reputable body with over 195 member states, the IPCC is held accountable to routinely provide reliable information to the international community, forcing them to always fact check before publishing and making them reliable as a source. In addition to this, the IPCC's sources were each published in a reputable scientific journal by qualified scientists, lending the information even more reliability.
Purpose: According to the IPCC's web page, their primary goal is to "provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks...". Thus, this source is made primarily for educational purposes, making it less prone to bias and more reliable.
Value: This source has a very strong value as a way of helping me understand the greater context that my project fits into by helping me understand the aviation industry's effect on the environment thanks to its trustworthiness and reputability.
Limitation: This information was originally published back in 2014, but is still the most updated in the series as the sixth Assessment Report is scheduled to be released in 2021. (There are multiple smaller IPCC reports that have been released since then, dubbed "special reports", but none of them had a wide enough scope to focus on the transport or aviation industries.) Due to this, the information from this source is likely highly reliable for the time that it was released, but it may not accurately reflect the world and its changes in the past 5 years.
Rules about Process Journals
1. No more than one A4 page (anything over will not be looked at)
2. Minimum of 11pt Calibri
3. Minimum of single line spacing
4 Video and audio can be used (30 secs)
Process Journals can be a mixture of written, graphics, audio and video files. We encourage you to use different formats as appropriate. So, for example you can have some parts of the Journal as written text, have outline designs (story boards, music script drafts etc), record meetings as audio, have reflective pieces as a video file.
Here are some examples of Project Journal entries.
Include which ATL you are hitting and (briefly) how you are improving it. This looks great for supervisors, moderators and will help you write the final section more easily.
Investigating (process journal entry example)
Process Journal Entry #1 ATL: Research. Access information to be informed and inform others
September 29th, 2019: Before getting into the actual creation of my project, I wanted to make sure that I fully understood how relevant the minimization of fuel usage was to the both airlines' profits and the protection of the environment. The United Nations document "AR5 Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change", especially chapter 8 focusing on aviation, was an invaluable source of information during my research on that topic.
Although it focuses mostly on the environmental effects of fuel usage, it also brought up some very important ideas such as the fact that airlines want to reduce their fuel consumption even without any legislation to force them to since any decrease in fuel usage greatly increases their profits. I organized my notes a list of all of the potentially important facts from the document that might have some impact on informing the development of my project in the future. In addition to being a great resource for finding relevant, reliable information, IPCC Assessment Report number 5 also had a 20 page long bibliography, so I found many links to other sources that expanded upon facts presented in the report and gave me a much stronger understanding of what they meant (with articles from very strong scientific journals like Futures, Atmospheric Environment, and the Journal of Air Transport Management.
Origin: This information comes from the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was created by the United Nations Environment Organization and the World Meteorological Organization in 1988. As a reputable body with over 195 member states, the IPCC is held accountable to routinely provide reliable information to the international community, forcing them to always fact check before publishing and making them reliable as a source. In addition to this, the IPCC's sources were each published in a reputable scientific journal by qualified scientists, lending the information even more reliability.
Purpose: According to the IPCC's web page, their primary goal is to "provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on climate change, its implications and potential future risks...". Thus, this source is made primarily for educational purposes, making it less prone to bias and more reliable.
Value: This source has a very strong value as a way of helping me understand the greater context that my project fits into by helping me understand the aviation industry's effect on the environment thanks to its trustworthiness and reputability.
Limitation: This information was originally published back in 2014, but is still the most updated in the series as the sixth Assessment Report is scheduled to be released in 2021. (There are multiple smaller IPCC reports that have been released since then, dubbed "special reports", but none of them had a wide enough scope to focus on the transport or aviation industries.) Due to this, the information from this source is likely highly reliable for the time that it was released, but it may not accurately reflect the world and its changes in the past 5 years.
Planning (process journal entry example)
Process Journal Entry #5 ATL: Self-management: Plan short and long-term assignments; meet deadlines
Self-management: Keep and use a weekly planner to keep track of assignments
20 February 2020: As Personal Project is carried out over the course of 5+ months, it is imperative that one stays organized and focused in order to be able to produce a high quality product within the allotted time frame. One of the ways I was able to do so was filling out 2 planners. One with long term dates that, once set, were unchangeable and final, and the other was a monthly calendar that had a rough idea on how I would divide my time over the course of the project.
Example of Short-term Dates: Long Term Dates: Example of Todoist Reminders
Process Journal Entry #5 ATL: Self-management: Plan short and long-term assignments; meet deadlines
Self-management: Keep and use a weekly planner to keep track of assignments
20 February 2020: As Personal Project is carried out over the course of 5+ months, it is imperative that one stays organized and focused in order to be able to produce a high quality product within the allotted time frame. One of the ways I was able to do so was filling out 2 planners. One with long term dates that, once set, were unchangeable and final, and the other was a monthly calendar that had a rough idea on how I would divide my time over the course of the project.
Example of Short-term Dates: Long Term Dates: Example of Todoist Reminders
In addition to this, to keep reminding me of my tasks and to have a quick and easy way of marking and checking things off I used a planner app called Todoist synced between my calendar, phone, and laptop so to ensure easy access no matter where I am. I would write down tasks I needed to complete, the date, and any extra information.
Having a flexible monthly planner was one of the things that worked best to my advantage, as because my Environmental Expert Mr. Guetat is a very busy man, he is not able to reply to my emails very quickly. I learnt this very quickly after our first exchanges, especially when I began to write my law. I had shared a link to the document I was writing my law on so that my expert could leave comments directly onto the content and I would be able to change it in real time, however because of his professional duties he was not able to reply until I had finished the law. Originally, once a month had passed with no feedback from either of my experts I had decided that it would be best to finish a law than wait for feedback and have half of a product for exhibition. I did not however stop from trying to contact my expert, sending him multiple emails and asking if my father could contact him as well sometime in early January [ As they are friends ], however that soon seemed futile as he had not been online since the 19th December 2019. After that failed attempt my mother resorted to calling his wife, asking if he could even give it a brief look over as the deadline for my product was approaching quicker and quicker and it was vital that I received some feedback from a qualified and experienced expert.
Having a flexible monthly planner was one of the things that worked best to my advantage, as because my Environmental Expert Mr. Guetat is a very busy man, he is not able to reply to my emails very quickly. I learnt this very quickly after our first exchanges, especially when I began to write my law. I had shared a link to the document I was writing my law on so that my expert could leave comments directly onto the content and I would be able to change it in real time, however because of his professional duties he was not able to reply until I had finished the law. Originally, once a month had passed with no feedback from either of my experts I had decided that it would be best to finish a law than wait for feedback and have half of a product for exhibition. I did not however stop from trying to contact my expert, sending him multiple emails and asking if my father could contact him as well sometime in early January [ As they are friends ], however that soon seemed futile as he had not been online since the 19th December 2019. After that failed attempt my mother resorted to calling his wife, asking if he could even give it a brief look over as the deadline for my product was approaching quicker and quicker and it was vital that I received some feedback from a qualified and experienced expert.
Taking Action (process journal example)
Context: Creating a emergency shelter, student at a meeting with engineers to produce the prototype.
Context: Creating a emergency shelter, student at a meeting with engineers to produce the prototype.
Process Journal Entry #7 ATL: Thinking (Combine knowledge, understanding and skills to create products or solution)
I returned to the model maker mentor’s workshop to start cutting out and assembling a 1:3 model of the shelter made from 60 gram Greenboard (a hollow core double sided recycled plastic board) for the outer sleeve, and 6mm normal cardboard for the inner tent.
Although in general the process went very well with no major surprises or difficulties, while working we made some discoveries and noted the need for adjustments in a second prototype or the final product. These included:
Surprisingly, we found that the inner triangular prism was much stronger if we folded the final tab inside the triangle rather than outside. The lip being on the inside seemed to make the sloping tent wall less likely to buckle under pressure.
I returned to the model maker mentor’s workshop to start cutting out and assembling a 1:3 model of the shelter made from 60 gram Greenboard (a hollow core double sided recycled plastic board) for the outer sleeve, and 6mm normal cardboard for the inner tent.
Although in general the process went very well with no major surprises or difficulties, while working we made some discoveries and noted the need for adjustments in a second prototype or the final product. These included:
Surprisingly, we found that the inner triangular prism was much stronger if we folded the final tab inside the triangle rather than outside. The lip being on the inside seemed to make the sloping tent wall less likely to buckle under pressure.
- The preferred sequence of assembly is to form the triangular tent, raise the outer sleeve, then slide the tent into the sleeve and engage the four tabs into the corresponding slots in the sides of the sleeves. However, the tabs are a bit too long and it is not possible to slide the tent into the sleeve at the moment. So we will leave the final taping of the sleeve until after the tent is in place. However, in the next prototype, we will make the tabs much less prominent - perhaps only 1 or 2 mm more than the thickness of the Green Board - and that should enable us to engage the tabs without distorting the sleeve.
- We are not sure that the 60gm Greenboard will be thick and/or strong enough for a two-person tent. We will try to get the heaviest grade - 90 gm - but if not, may have to consider reducing the size of the shelter to be for just one person.
The pictures below show part of the work session, as well as the completed ‘flat pack’ package.
(Left) Inner tent (showing ‘lip’ folded outside, and excessively long ‘tabs’)
(Centre) Assembled shelter (without entry flap) showing tabs protruding too far
(Right) Flat pack with protective wrapping (1.2 Kg)
(Centre) Assembled shelter (without entry flap) showing tabs protruding too far
(Right) Flat pack with protective wrapping (1.2 Kg)
Reflecting (process journal example)
Citations
Image top of page:
Dutton, Lenny. "How to prosper with MYP personal projects: documenting the
project." IBO Blog, https://blogs.ibo.org/, 8 Mar. 2015, blogs.ibo.org/blog/
2018/03/15/how-to-prosper-with-myp-personal-projects-documenting-the-project/.
Accessed 5 Sept. 2020.
Dutton, Lenny. "How to prosper with MYP personal projects: documenting the
project." IBO Blog, https://blogs.ibo.org/, 8 Mar. 2015, blogs.ibo.org/blog/
2018/03/15/how-to-prosper-with-myp-personal-projects-documenting-the-project/.
Accessed 5 Sept. 2020.