Kenwood High is an MYP school and as an MYP school all tenth graders must complete a MYP projects with their World History class. The MYP Project is an opportunity for students to explore an area of personal interest and spend several months working towards learning about that topic and finding a unique way to share what they have learned.

“The project also allows students to see the connections between what they are (and have been) doing in their 9th and 10th grade courses and see how those same big ideas, such as connections to Global Context, using Learner Profile traits, etc, are relevant in topics that they may choose to explore for personal reasons,” adds MYP Personal Projects Coordinator Candace Levy. The students are able to choose the topic that they want to do for their project. They create their own finished product from their chosen topic. They are able to explore different ways for completing the project. The project gives all 10th grade students the opportunity to do something that they are passionate about and like to do.

The project helps students to find out what it is like to dedicate time and energy to something they care about mastering. Students have to conduct research over their project, track their project through a process journal, check in with their MYP Project mentor at least once a month throughout the semester, and then create a finished product.

Some students like Ariana W, who’s project will be featured here on Eye of the Bluebird later this month, was to create a cultural cooking series. She did research on five different cultural recipes, including the story and history behind the recipe, and then created the dish complete with professional looking photos and recipes that will be featured as one dish per week here in February.

Ms. Levy adds that this experience is valuable in helping students prepare for their future. “The research part of the projects could be used as a future life skill in other situations for students.” The projects require students to complete a lot of steps to reach their finished product. We all have ideas of things we’d like to do but following through on those ideas to get a finished product can be a challenge. Now that students have mastered that process once, they’ll feel confident to do it again later in life.

One big thing students have to engage in on their own for their project is the research. This can be anything from websites to videos, depending on the topic of the project. Sophomore Erica B. did her project over Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). “The biggest benefit I would say is you learn more about a topic of interest. I learned so much about PTSD in a more in depth way,” she shares. A challenge that she, as well as many other students faced this semester, was the time constraint as the World History class the project is a part of is now only a semester rather than over the course of the whole school year so technically students had less time to complete the project.

Despite the challenges of this past semester though many students completed a finished project and shared with others in a virtual event on January 26. Students learned how to read music and play the drums, learned and practiced how to do difficult nail styles such as ombre, learned and presented about technological innovations over the course of history, researched and made a brochure about ways to help save animals and their habitats, recorded and shared a workout video for elementary aged children, created an original dessert incorporating ingredients that are common in different places around the world, researched and presented on the way that the brain processes emotions, and so many more creative projects.  “Some students have an easier time completing the project while others have a harder time,” shares Ms. Levy.

While the project is helpful it is also a big assignment that some students really struggle with completing. It has a lot of different parts to it and can become very complicated to get through. It is a big accomplishment once the project is finished though. It is a valuable life skill to have to take an idea and go through a process to produce a finished product.

“While doing this project is fun and educational it is a big challenge to finish on time and correctly,” shares sophomore student Mikayla G. “My project was on women’s rights. Learning about the topic is interesting, but it was also hard to complete the project on top of the other work that I have to finish for my other classes.”

The MYP projects are both beneficial and a challenge for students but it’s a project that students really grow from completing. Second semester students will begin their MYP personal projects on February 12.

Check out below some of the Kenwood Sophomore’s MYP Personal Projects from first semestet!