In the IB Middle Years Programme, the MYP community project and the MYP personal project are known together as MYP projects. MYP projects are student-centred and age-appropriate, and they enable students to engage in practical explorations through a cycle of inquiry, action and reflection. MYP projects help students to develop the attributes of the IB learner profile; provide students with an essential opportunity to demonstrate approaches to learning (ATL) skills developed through the MYP; and foster the development of independent, lifelong learners.
At Southside Middle School, all 8th grade students (MYP Year 3) participating in the MYP are required to complete the community project. The community project focuses on community and service, encouraging students to explore their rights and responsibilities to implement service as action in the community. The community project gives students an opportunity to develop awareness of needs in various communities and address those needs through service learning. As a consolidation of learning, the community project engages in a sustained, in-depth inquiry leading to service as action in the community. The community project may be completed individually or by groups of a maximum of three students.
In order to help students be successful in the project, Southside Middle School provides a series of scheduled meetings between students and their project advisor during the school day on Early Release Wednesdays. In addition, students are provided with the SMS MYP Community Project Guide to help them through the process. During the advisor sessions, students receive lessons on each of the four objectives of the community project:
Objective A: Investigating
Students should be able to:
Define a goal to address a need within a community, based on personal interests
Identify prior learning and subject-specific knowledge relevant to the project
Demonstrate research skills
Objective B: Planning
Students should be able to:
Develop a proposal for action to serve the need in the community
Plan and record the development process of the project
Demonstrate self-management skills
Objective C: Taking action
Students should be able to:
Demonstrate service as action as a result of the project
Demonstrate thinking skills
Demonstrate communication and social skills
Objective D: Reflecting
Students should be able to:
Evaluate the quality of the service as action against the proposal
Reflect on how completing the project has extended their knowledge and understanding of service learning
Reflect on their development of ATL skills
In addition to the scheduled time at school (approx. 3 hours), students are expected to spend an additional 12 hours (approximately) on their MYP community project, which includes independent learning through research, planning, development, and completion of the project as well as reporting the project. At the end of the year, students will present their community projects. Students will use the presentation of the community project as an opportunity to demonstrate how they have addressed each of the objectives. Students will be expected to communicate clearly, accurately and appropriately.