How the Personal Project enables Northbridge Grade 10 students to showcase skills learned during MYP

Students are no exception to this. Our students at Northbridge International School Cambodia (NISC) are expected to balance the demands of their academic subjects with sports, service, and other extra-curricular commitments. Although the IB MYP program is built with student agency in mind, all too often students can feel like there is no time to explore their personal interests. 

The Personal Project is the designed to give students this agency and freedom of choice, while also allowing them to display the full range of skills they have acquired during their 5 years in the MYP program. While it is the final product of the students work that often draws our attention, the students engage in a lengthy inquiry cycle to bring their project to reality.

This begins with in depth learning about the topic of their project. Using a range of primary and secondary sources, students gather knowledge that will help them with their project and then create a detailed plan of action. They also identify their own criteria for success.

Next, students execute on their plan, creating a product of some kind that is connected to their own personal interests, while recording their progress in detail. The product does not have to be a physical item. Every year I am amazed with the creative products that are made by Grade 10 students. From architecture to cooking, or pottery to poems, the students always find new and interesting ways to express their ideas and talents. 

To conclude the inquiry cycle, the students must reflect on both their learning and evaluate the success of their product. This is done as a report, which is graded externally by the IB as the penultimate part of the MYP program. Through this reflection, students show how they have applied a full range of skills in the completion of their project.

It is not always about success in the creation of your product either! A good reflection can be critical of what was created, showing that the student has learned valuable lessons they can carry forward with them at school but also in their life more broadly.

Regardless of the grade that the students achieve at the end of the process, all of them should have learned some valuable lessons. They will experience freedom of choice on a large project, maybe for the first time ever. Boundaries on what they think is possible will be stretched, and both strengths and weaknesses highlighted.

It is my sincere hope that all students take something away from their Personal Project, be it a deeper understanding of a personal area of interest, a deeper understanding of themselves, or even just a fun experience doing something they love!