Sophomore students at Roberto Clemente Community Academy wrapped up their personal projects this week! Personal project is a yearlong endeavor that is an essential part of the IB curriculum in which students are tasked with completing a research project of their choosing that reflects their personal interests. This project was completely self-directed and gave students the opportunity to not only demonstrate the many skills they have attained throughout their time at Clemente, but to learn and cultivate new skills as well. Although students were responsible for timely submission of deliverables, they each had a mentor who supported them along the way.
This week students submitted their final deliverables, which include: a reflection paper summarizing their experience and knowledge gained while completing the project, a bibliography of their sources of research, extracts from their process journals—which chronicled the development and evolution of their projects, and any supporting or visual aids for the final product (i.e, photo, video, etc.). Students chose to create a wide variety of products, ranging from written works of original poetry, comic books, and a Puerto Rican cookbook, to art such as clay bowls and a Mexican corn husk doll. Others explored digital technology and designed their own video games and websites.
Here are a few of the projects that students completed:
Brianna Padilla, created a website titled, “Brianna’s Dessert Addiction” where she showcased two recipes she learned from her mother, including a pancake mix cake and fresas con crema (strawberries with cream). Brianna learned not only how to make her recipes, but also how to design a website.
Ana Jimenez created her own Mexican corn husk doll to explore her own cultural identity. She also used recyclable items to create her doll.
Davosier Rutledge wanted to highlight the issue of violence in Chicago. He wrote and performed an original poem. With the help of his mentor, Davosier recorded his poem and then edited it. He hopes to share his video on the internet to determine if other people share similar points of view.
Sierra Davis wanted to share her love of basketball and created and edited a short film of different basketball shots. With the support of her mentor and friends, she was able to share her passion.
Naudia Brown researched artists who inspired her including: Tupac Shakur, Maya Angelou, and Langston Hughes. Naudia then wrote original poetry inspired by those artists.
Evaristo Rios is incredibly passionate about writing and has a strong interest in mental illness. Evaristo researched various mental illnesses and wrote a story in which created characters with the illnesses. Evaristo also aimed to respectfully represent individuals with mental illness. Even though the project has already been submitted, he continues to revise, edit, and perfect his story; but he was incredibly proud of the work he accomplished.