《声音》启明星专刊 VOICES for Daystar Academy VOICES Spring/Summer Edition 2019 | Page 28

MHS CORNER
Learning and Taking Action
for the Community
By Nicole Last, English Individuals and Societies Teacher, DS Beigao Campus
T
his spring, Daystar’s 8th graders have been
planning and taking action on their MYP
Community Project, which they have been
working on since the beginning of the school
year. Their hard work investigating and planning is
finally paying off as they have been taking action in
their school, residence, and charity communities!
There are two ways of thinking about the Community
Project: as the project itself, and as a vital part of the
MYP 5-year program.
First – what is the point of a community service project?
In the MYP, a big part of the point is for our students
to dream and execute a concrete way to add concrete
value to a real-world community. It’s one thing to say
that we should end world hunger, find a cure for cancer,
or “help the poor” – but those are big, ambitious, and
non-specific. A student’s task changes quite a bit once
they identify, say, a specific orphanage that they want
to help. What does that orphanage actually need? Do
they want school supplies? Blankets? Fresh fruits and
vegetables for healthy lunches? Free ice cream for
all (probably not!)? Our students are discovering that
the only way to sort that out is to actually ask – write
emails, send messages, show up and ask.
Our students are also discovering that their chosen
service can – in fact, should – speak to their own personal
interests. One of our students enjoys baking, and used
her baked goods to raise money for the community
she chose. Another is a computer-literate type, and
aimed to create an online forum for Daystar students to
express their own opinions and ideas about the school
in a safe and appropriately moderated way, but in a
way that might also be heard by the powers that be.
A third feels passionately about protecting pets from
the unfortunate effects of ill-considered adoption, and
designed a brochure to educate would-be pet owners
about the responsibilities that adoption carries, so that
they can make more informed commitments.
Finally, our students will be asked to evaluate the long-
term impacts of their service on the community. Will
it be a matter of giving a man a fish, as the old saying
goes, or of teaching him to fish? Will the orphans simply
get better apples for a few weeks in March, or will they
be learning a skill they can use to support themselves or
Daystar Academy Spring/Summer Edition 2019
explore their own passions?
Will the Daystar students
learn to navigate responsible
and constructive civic speech?
So the Community Project gives
our students a concrete way to think
about the real-world consequences of their actions, and
a real way to think about why the quality of their work
matters. This will be an incredibly important learning
experience for them, both in its own right, but also
as a precursor of the MYP Personal Project, which is
the ultimate assessment of the MYP student’s progress
towards the IB values of principled inquiry followed
by responsible action. Both projects follow the same
process cycle of Investigating, Planning, Taking Action,
and Reflection:
During the 8th grade process, the students have
received a lot of direct instruction, teacher modelling,
and instant feedback from their project supervisors.
As they move to the 10th grade Personal Project, they
will be asked to complete the same cycle under their
own power, taking responsibility for their own learning,
investigation, time management, seeking of feedback,
communication with partners, and skills of execution.
So this is valuable practice, and everything they are
learning by trial and painful error during this process
should be informing their success in the future!