What is the Personal Project? Revised for 2021
The Personal Project in the MYP is similar to the PYP Exhibition and leads onto the Extended Essay in grades 11 and 12 Diploma. These are all long-term and open-ended projects where you are in charge of handling all stages yourself.
Some important points:-
- The personal project is a project where you choose the learning goal and product goal
- The project write up is up to a max15 pages in length
- The personal project is a long term project (you will start in September and finish in March).
- The personal project is a way your teachers can assess the way you approach learning, your problem solving, reflection and other skills you have developed throughout the MYP. In short, how well you have picked up the key ideas of learning and how well you can use them.
- The personal project is about developing and strengthening your “Approaches to Learning”
- The personal project is your responsibility from beginning to end.
- Personal Project appears on your report card and official transcript and is given a credit just like another course.
But remember!
- It is a personal project, you should choose something that gives you a buzz and that you will enjoy. It could change your view of life, people and yourself. It may offer a chance to help others but does not have to be.
- It's a chance to be creative and develop a new area of learning or take an existing area of learning to a new level.
- There are people who will be support and help you throughout- your supervisor and the Personal Project Advisors and Personal Project Coordinator.
- Experts that you find are an essential part of the process (not necessarily your Supervisor)
and some official stuff.......
- The final report must follow the required structure
- While working on the project, you must keep a process journal. This should be updated regularly as the project develops and you should record decisions, thoughts, feelings and ideas as well as records of your interviews and meetings, evaluations of research and development of your product. This will be an invaluable resource when the time comes to write the structured piece of writing.
Examples of Personal Projects from last year's Grade 10 can be found here, although from 2021 we use a new set of criteria and the projects write ups will look different to these.
What kinds of projects can we do?
In 2013, we had a large variety of projects including:
Project:
Creating an original song tackling the issue of racism Creating a high quality website to market a professional teacher's services Directing and producing a sort film Designing an new campus for IICS Creating a documentary to tackle the the issue of video piracy Creating a working model of a wind turbine that generates electricity Creating an illustrated book to tackle the issue of Alzheimer's Disease for young children |
Area of Interaction link
Human Ingenuity Human Ingenuity Human Ingenuity Community and Service Community and Service Environments Health and Social Education |