What is the Personal Project?

Imagine at the age of fifteen, having to choose a topic to research for four months and then write a fifteen-page report and create a visual board.

This is what the Middle Years’ Personal Project is all about. Since this is Aspen High School’s first year being fully an International Baccalaureate school, it is the first year for the Personal Project, which is also the MYP’s culminating project. While planning for the whole program began in the spring, this year’s sophomore class has been thinking about their projects since the fall Freshman Connections class.

“Personal Projects are an opportunity for students to explore an idea they are interested in learning more about, in a long-term project,” said Personal Project Coordinator Kate Korn.

These Personal Projects require every AHS sophomore to choose and explore a topic.

“Doing a project like this has many benefits, as students get the opportunity to explore their interests and improve their research skills,” Korn said.

Doing a project like this one is a good opportunity for students to practice a long-term project, which at this age they most likely have not done before.

While the projects will be pass-fail this year, they have a detailed assessment process.

“Every single teacher in the district who works with grades 6-12 is involved along with the superintendent, who will be moderating,” said Korn.

The teachers will be split into groups of three and then will review a certain number of reports individually. The reports will be graded in three sections: planning, applying the approach to learning skills, and reflecting. The teachers will then meet to go over their reactions to the report. As a group, they will then come to a consensus on how well the student did.

Sophomore, Owen Cruz-Abrahms learned a new coding language called Dart for his project. He used it to develop an app for Nordic ski testing. Another Sophomore, Josie Brands studied the Baroque era and learned a piece for the violin.

As this is the first year for the projects, there are going to be some bumps in the road. However, a few sophomores offer some advice for this year’s freshman class:

“While you may not want to fill out the journal, it keeps you from writing a long essay,” said Cruz-Abrahms.

“Start researching early, and don’t worry too much,” said Brands.

The projects will be on display Feb. 14 at the IB Personal Project Showcase.