By Megan Chan

For Year 11 students in 2020-21, the MYP Personal Project, also known as “PP,” was among the most memorable of experiences, whether that be positive, negative, or a combination of both. Occurring against the backdrop of online learning, this year’s cohort were the first to start and end their personal projects with COVID-19 limitations in place. 

The Personal Project Exhibition, which occurs annually at the end of each year, was altered from its previous in-person fair to an online Padlet. Made available to the public starting April 29th, students collated their goals, topic rationales, and products into a brief series of slides to garner interest in their various projects. 

The MYP Personal Project transpired throughout Year 11, where students chose to develop a product based on their passions and skill-sets. There were some requirements — for example, the project had to involve research — but the parameters were generally vast. Student projects could vary from designing a robot to producing a political podcast to even learning a new language. Following the project a report was written detailing the process, reasoning, and reflections throughout the experience. This formed a bulk of the final PP grade. Starting in May 2020, the PP officially ended in March 2021 with the handing in of all reports. 

2021’s Personal Project marked the second consecutive year of hosting the exhibition virtually, with last year’s cohort using an Instagram page rather than a Padlet. Similar formats have been adopted in other school exhibitions, such as the Year 6 PYP Exhibition. This online exhibition format posed several challenges. 

Michelle Roberts, Renaissance College’s Personal Project coordinator, observed that the online format most strongly affected student projects and mentalities: “At the beginning of the project, we were back on campus, and we had no idea how long the pandemic was going to last… many students had exciting project ideas that would involve meeting in groups, organizing events, utilizing public spaces, etc. which they hoped would be feasible. But then, with school closures, social distancing rules, park and beach closures, etc. these projects became extra challenging. 

She added, ”I also think home learning greatly affected [the Personal Project]. Many students struggled to stay motivated with their school work during online learning. For some students, their Personal Project really suffered because of it… Some students were a bit evasive on Zoom and I believe if we had been on campus we could’ve supported them better.”

Year 11 student Louna Larose shared similar sentiments. “For my PP product, I was planning on printing a few of my art therapy journals and [was going to] hand them out to other students around ages 13-18. But because it was online, only parents were looking through the padlet, which made it hard for me to reach to my target audience.”

Personal Project was victorious for some, but few. For most, it was a notoriously gruelling process. 

“PP was an unnecessary hassle that just made everyone stressed,” an anonymous Year 11 student commented. “I don’t think I actually learned much.”

Another anonymous student lamented, “It was very difficult to keep up that level of effort and time management for a project, so when it came to report-writing I was on track until the last few days, resulting in sleeping very late the day before it was due. I also became burnt out from the almost year-long project for several months after it was handed in.”

Praise was scarce, but some students were more optimistic than others. According to Year 11 student Hernan Lee, “PP was pretty fun, especially [when] making my final product… It was definitely worth it because I learned a lot during my time working on my PP.” 

Student Maki Flauta agreed: “I liked PP because it gave me a tangible reason to pursue an interest in greater depth. Although time management was sometimes extremely challenging, and the documentation and report process was quite tedious, the skills I gained were valuable in furthering my knowledge in the field I chose.”

Personal Project supervisor Tom O’Grady had similar observations from his experience: “The PP process may not be that popular with students, but I think it is a great way of focusing you on your interests and giving you a project to really develop your independent learning skills.”

Despite the challenges, 2021’s Personal Project still demonstrated a great deal of resilience and passion. “I am impressed with every student who successfully completed their project this year!” praised Roberts. “It’s been a rough year, not just with staying motivated through online learning but also to stay in a positive mindset with everything going on in the world around us. Even if a student’s project didn’t end up exactly how they had planned it in the beginning, I’m still proud of everyone for having the resilience necessary to keep on going!”

For those interested in the 2021 Personal Project Exhibition, all content and projects can be accessed via the online padlet.