On Wednesday, March 6, Carson Graham Secondary hosted both its Personal Project Exhibition and our Viva Voce celebration that turned out to be an incredibly memorable day. These two events represent the culminating learning experiences for our International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme and Diploma Programme. Yet, that only begins to tell the story…
Our Grade 10 students have been working for the last 12 months developing and completing their personal project before presentation day. To provide a little background, our students are assigned to a teacher advisor that guides them through the design process, goal setting, research and their process journals. In other words, the criteria to develop an excellent personal project. Throughout the year, our students meet with their advisors who provide ongoing feedback that sets the stage for our Personal Project Exhibition. Of course, summarizing such an intensive process in a few phrases can be difficult but let me highlight the following key characteristics:
- Focus on inquiry – the entire project is truly about the active learning process where students manage and direct their own inquiry.
- Personal – appropriately named, the personal project affords students the opportunity to pursue and produce a truly individualized piece of work.
- Areas of Interaction – these (5) areas (approaches to learning, community and service, health and social education, environments, human ingenuity) provide the context for inquiry through the exploration of real-world issues.
- Encourage and develop higher order critical thinking skills to deepen understanding.
- Incorporate an interdisciplinary approach to learning.
- Authentic connections to broader community.
These characteristics were displayed for our entire school community to witness in our large gym in a gallery of 200 student booths exhibting their personal project – an impressive sight to say the least. During that same day, the focus of inquiry was taken to another level as our Grade 12 IB Diploma Programme were setting up for their Viva Voce (with living voice) celebration as they showcased the core of the IB Diploma Programme by selecting a particular aspect of the program which could have included their Creativity, Action Service project, their Theory of Knowledge (TOK) experience or their Extended Essay. Our Diploma Programme exhibition ended with the opportunity for our students to share a particular highlight of the programme which acted in many ways as an informal yet extremely powerful closing ceremony. This great evening with our Personal Project Exhibition and Viva Voce Celebration was appropriately summarized by one of our parents who stated “the future is in good hands with young people like these.”
A tremendous learning celebration for our school – way to go Carson Graham!