Through the Middle Years Programme (MYP) projects, students experience the responsibility of completing a significant piece of work over an extended period of time.
MYP projects encourage students to reflect on their learning and the outcomes of their work – key skills that prepare them for success in further study, the workplace and the community.
Students who complete the MYP in Year 3 or Year 4 complete the community project. All students who complete the MYP in Year 5 complete the personal project.
The community project provides an important opportunity for students ages 13-14 to collaborate and pursue service learning. Schools register all MYP Year 5 students for external moderation of the personal project, promoting a global standard of quality.
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.
What are the aims of the MYP projects?
The aims of the MYP projects are to encourage and enable students to:
- participate in a sustained, self-directed inquiry within a global context
- generate creative new insights and develop deeper understandings through in-depth investigation
- demonstrate the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to complete a project over an extended period of time
- communicate effectively in a variety of situations
- demonstrate responsible action through, or as a result of, learning
- appreciate the process of learning and take pride in their accomplishments.
What will students learn through the MYP projects?
MYP projects involve students in a wide range of activities to extend their knowledge and understanding and to develop their skills and attitudes.
These student-planned learning activities include:
- deciding what they want to learn about, identifying what they already know, and discovering what they will need to know to complete the project
- creating proposals or criteria for their project, planning their time and materials, and recording developments of the project
- making decisions, developing understandings and solving problems, communicating with their supervisor and others, and creating a product or developing an outcome evaluating the product/outcome and reflecting on their project and their learning.
As students become involved in the self-initiated and self-directed learning process, they will find it easier to construct in-depth knowledge on their topic, and develop an understanding of themselves as learners.
Find out more about the MYP curriculum and about becoming authorized to implement the MYP.
Learn more about MYP projects in an MYP workshop for teachers.
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Community story: Teaching service as action in a changing world
MYP educator Novadene Miller shares two incredible service as action projects and why they are fundamental in an ever-changing world.