Verita Insights Magazine VIS magazine final | Page 22

HIGHLIGHTS CELEBRATING LEARNING IN SECONDARY THE POWER OF STUDENT AGENCY For the IMYC Relationship exit point, a group of Year 8 students decided to use their passion for Magic: The Gathering card game to illustrate the big idea. They created their own version of the card game utilising various skills and knowledge they learned from ICT, Art, English, Humanities, Maths and many more. Each group member had a specific job to complete for this big project. When everything was completed, they invited all their peers, families and teachers to play their card game, Brawl of Gods: Egypt, at the exit point. This was a true showcase of what student agency and inquiry-based learning can produce. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND For the IMYC Structures exit point, a group of Year 7 girls decided to illustrate their understanding of the big idea through astronomy. They utilised the skills and knowledge they learned in Art, ICT, English and Science to create this performance installation. Their installation included various planets hanging from the ceiling, colourful lights to represent stars as well as space videos/ music to create an authentic experience in space. Furthermore, they wrote and performed a group poem highlighting the structure of earth and the universe. This was certainly a true showcase of interdisciplinary learning and what happens when students have control over their learning. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________ THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION For the IMYC Community unit in English, students read Alan Moore’s graphic novel, V for Vendetta, and explored how the big idea was present even in the midst of a dystopic setting. Students inquired the various themes through the fascist, anarchist and neutral communities in the graphic novel. For the final project of this unit, students got into small groups to represent one specific community in the graphic novel. They then utilised the skills of newspaper writing they learned throughout the unit to create their own newspaper as a group. Students collaboratively addressed various overarching themes from the novel in their news articles. More importantly, they had to utilise their creative and artistic skills collaboratively to produce the final product. The difficulty and tediousness of this project required a wealth of collaboration and synchronization amongst the students. The final product was a true testament to what students can achieve when they work together for a common goal. 22  |   VERITA INSIGHTS