Taking the Personal Project Exhibition Online

Celebrating the work of our Year 10 students through the Personal Project Exhibition has seen significant change
since I began teaching the MYP at Mercedes College in 2009. Pre ‘next chapter’ projects commonly saw students creating physical products like go-karts, surfboards and models. Students seemed to have an urge for creative projects and to make something tangible. The exhibitions were big events and a lot of space was needed to showcase the work. An entire section of the school was blocked out of lessons and a great deal of time was dedicated to set up information booths so students could wander through, class by class.

Over time the type of work seen at the exhibitions changed. With the introduction of ‘next chapter’ and an increase in student access to technology, Personal Projects gravitated toward online products like websites and film, with students looking to inform and educate. Exhibitions consumed a smaller footprint and became a sea of laptops for viewers to scroll through. Tangible products became less common.

This year with COVID-19 many schools have experienced huge challenge, and while the catalyst has been less than pleasant, the accelerated new ideas and skills to keep the curriculum going have been wonderful. The carry over to the Personal Project and the exhibition has been no different: with the combination of less and less tangible products, alongside on-site showcasing being problematic, it felt like the time was right to move the exhibition online.

To create the online exhibition, we used an outside company to build the structure to match our own school web design.

Students were asked to create small summaries of their projects to include alongside evidence of their product and final report. To sort the projects, we used an intro page with links to each Global Context, where student work was displayed accordingly in a tile format. This format emphasises to the community that the global contexts were the drivers of the projects. With students already taking images of their work in case they are selected for moderation, getting the materials needed for the exhibition was fairly straightforward.

The final display has been extremely successful, and by using an online exhibition platform, we can reach a wider audience and ensure the safety of the community. Grandparents, relatives, parents and younger students can all access it without any risk. The exhibition is all about sharing student success and showing them that their work is valued. We are content that an online environment works for the exhibition, even post COVID-19, and will no doubt continue to conduct it this way going forward.

To view the exhibition please visit:  https://www.mercedes.catholic.edu.au/exhibitions/year-10-personal-project-2020/

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