Weeks 1 and 2
To start with my personal project I have to choose a topic which I am going to work for the next 5 months. It has to be something which interests me, something which I think that is important and something which is going to make an impact to the community.
The first thing that came to my mind was to make a brainstorm of ideas:
The first thing that came to my mind was to make a brainstorm of ideas:
From the brainstorm, the topics I find the most interesting and the ones I think I could help to change and make a big impact in my community are:
-How the brain works: This has been a topic that has always called my attention. When I was younger I attended a conference in neurolenguistic, which is the area that centers on learning how the brain works. One of the things that I took from that conference was that everyone has different learning styles, which is why we learn differently. Recently in a biology class we looked at the same topic and I think it would be very interesting to help the community by teaching them that there are different learning styles and that if they figure out which one each person is best at, studying and learning will be more easy.
-Violence to women: I could make an awareness campaign about why this is a modern issue that is being found more often in our country and city so people know how to act (where to call, who to tell, how to stop it). I could also help raise signs for a problem that are recently facing some women, victims of this violence, who leave their kids everyday in some “hogares de paso” so they can go to work, but the government has said they are going to close them because there’s not enough money to keep them.
*In the end, I decided to do the first option (how the brain works) because is something essential for a person’s education, not only in school, but throughout life, and it is something that not everyone is aware of. Truth is, I decided to help people to change the way they study because it was something I thought about during December, while we were taking our cumulative exams. For most of them we had to learn by hard loads of information, and I found out I wasn't the only one stressing about how I was going to be able to do it. That's when I realized that throughout my years in school no one has ever taught me how I'm supposed to study. I also thought about why studying is not so easy for some people, and in why some prefer to study in a group while others need to be in complete silence and alone. So, in the end, I really want to try to bring a connection between the multiple intelligences theory and our study methods and see if I can help me and my peers to study easier.
-How the brain works: This has been a topic that has always called my attention. When I was younger I attended a conference in neurolenguistic, which is the area that centers on learning how the brain works. One of the things that I took from that conference was that everyone has different learning styles, which is why we learn differently. Recently in a biology class we looked at the same topic and I think it would be very interesting to help the community by teaching them that there are different learning styles and that if they figure out which one each person is best at, studying and learning will be more easy.
-Violence to women: I could make an awareness campaign about why this is a modern issue that is being found more often in our country and city so people know how to act (where to call, who to tell, how to stop it). I could also help raise signs for a problem that are recently facing some women, victims of this violence, who leave their kids everyday in some “hogares de paso” so they can go to work, but the government has said they are going to close them because there’s not enough money to keep them.
*In the end, I decided to do the first option (how the brain works) because is something essential for a person’s education, not only in school, but throughout life, and it is something that not everyone is aware of. Truth is, I decided to help people to change the way they study because it was something I thought about during December, while we were taking our cumulative exams. For most of them we had to learn by hard loads of information, and I found out I wasn't the only one stressing about how I was going to be able to do it. That's when I realized that throughout my years in school no one has ever taught me how I'm supposed to study. I also thought about why studying is not so easy for some people, and in why some prefer to study in a group while others need to be in complete silence and alone. So, in the end, I really want to try to bring a connection between the multiple intelligences theory and our study methods and see if I can help me and my peers to study easier.
Definition of my goal
Here is a more specified version of the things I'm planning to do now that i've chosen my topic.
What I want to achieve with my personal project is to make a difference in people’s study methods by informing them about the different learning styles a person can have and help them recognize which one is their one.
What I want others to understand through my work is that studying can be easy once you find the skills you are better on, and that learning this will greatly change your academic life.
The impact I want my project to have is to hopefully change students study habits and maybe the way they take exams, so they can be more relaxed at the time of studying for tests and in this way, they can obtain better academic results.
The purpose of my project is to research about how the brain works. Why everyone learns different by knowing which are the learning styles humans have and the way they can adapt the things they need to learn and understand them better. To do this, I need to find some kind of test that will let me find out which learning style is better for each person.
What would my final product be?
My product will be a guide to CCB students, which will have the test to find out the type of intelligence each person has. Once they find out, the guide will have some study methods they could use depending on their result. It will also include some general tips of how should the environment you study in be. THE GUIDE SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT CAPTURES STUDENT’S ATTENTION, SO IT CAN’T BE LONG OR BORING.
The other part of my product, which is my action plan, is to pass a proposal to the school to see if we could include in the curriculum at least one class in which students are given tips and advice on how they should study. It would be better to include this class in primary, where children are starting to take tests, so when they arrive to Bach to do important exams, they don't feel lost or stressed at the time to study. The proposal will include the results for the survey done to the community, so the head of sections realize that this is a really important thing that should be included in our school but it isn't.
Connection with the Global ContextThe global context my personal project is connected to is An inquiry into the world as a connected whole, because by knowing that there are different studying methods we can reflect on the tensions and opportunities provided by world-interconectedness and see if we could make any modification in our study methods to make studying easier and more efficient . By asking students if they have been taught how to study and if they are aware of which learning style they are good at, we can explore planetary problems and find solutions such as changing or adding some things in the curriculum and our lifestyle.
What I want to achieve with my personal project is to make a difference in people’s study methods by informing them about the different learning styles a person can have and help them recognize which one is their one.
What I want others to understand through my work is that studying can be easy once you find the skills you are better on, and that learning this will greatly change your academic life.
The impact I want my project to have is to hopefully change students study habits and maybe the way they take exams, so they can be more relaxed at the time of studying for tests and in this way, they can obtain better academic results.
The purpose of my project is to research about how the brain works. Why everyone learns different by knowing which are the learning styles humans have and the way they can adapt the things they need to learn and understand them better. To do this, I need to find some kind of test that will let me find out which learning style is better for each person.
What would my final product be?
My product will be a guide to CCB students, which will have the test to find out the type of intelligence each person has. Once they find out, the guide will have some study methods they could use depending on their result. It will also include some general tips of how should the environment you study in be. THE GUIDE SHOULD BE SOMETHING THAT CAPTURES STUDENT’S ATTENTION, SO IT CAN’T BE LONG OR BORING.
The other part of my product, which is my action plan, is to pass a proposal to the school to see if we could include in the curriculum at least one class in which students are given tips and advice on how they should study. It would be better to include this class in primary, where children are starting to take tests, so when they arrive to Bach to do important exams, they don't feel lost or stressed at the time to study. The proposal will include the results for the survey done to the community, so the head of sections realize that this is a really important thing that should be included in our school but it isn't.
Connection with the Global ContextThe global context my personal project is connected to is An inquiry into the world as a connected whole, because by knowing that there are different studying methods we can reflect on the tensions and opportunities provided by world-interconectedness and see if we could make any modification in our study methods to make studying easier and more efficient . By asking students if they have been taught how to study and if they are aware of which learning style they are good at, we can explore planetary problems and find solutions such as changing or adding some things in the curriculum and our lifestyle.
Skills
The ATL skills I've showed in this part of the process are:
Thinking skills
Critical Thinking
Creativity and innovation
Reflection
Transfer
Thinking skills
Critical Thinking
- Identify problems and develop aims, goals and objectives. (Because I had to identify problems in the community and how to solve them).
- Consider consequences of events (Because I thought about how my project would make an impact to the community).
- Identify and define authentic problems and significant questions for investigation. (4a) (Because I've chosen the things I need to investigate in order to make an impact in my community)
Creativity and innovation
- Generate impossible ideas (make people interest for how they should study)
- Brainstorm and map to generate ideas and questions (picking my topic)
- Make connections between random things. (Connecting the knowledge I've adquired in biology, neurolenguistic, and technology to think in how they can interact with each other to improve study habits)
Reflection
- Consider personal relationships to people, ideas and concepts. (By looking at how others have a hard time studying I could find a relationship between the concept of learning styles and what their trouble was).
Transfer
- Make connections between learning gained in different subject areas. (Because I've made a connection between biology and neurolenguistic procesess).