PERSONAL PROJECT Personal Project Questions?
Heather Alexander: [email protected] |
The Personal Project (PP) is a capstone project for the Middle Years Programme that scholars complete in 10th grade. The PP is an opportunity for scholars to utilise the skills they've been developing in the programme to learn about and create something of personal interest to them. Projects range from building go-carts to fashion design, self-sustaining terrariums to musical recordings, a barber's chair to computer coding. The projects are as diverse as our scholars. The creativity of our scholars is showcased at the Personal Project Expo.
Join us in celebrating the creativity, capacity, and identities of our scholars at this year's Personal Project Expo on March 26, 2026, at City High Middle School. |
Personal Project Exemplar | IB & Economicology
Scholar: 2026 MYP Candidate
Project: Multi-stakeholder project to support the completion, awareness, and engagement of a Native Perennial Garden on campus.
Project: Multi-stakeholder project to support the completion, awareness, and engagement of a Native Perennial Garden on campus.
- Learning Goal: How to write a grant proposal and to design and maintain a Native Perennial Garden.
- Product Goal: Complete a grant proposal (hopefully receive the requested funds) to support the completion of the garden's second phase. Also, to design a website dedicated to the garden, which includes a map of the garden, information on the project and the garden's plants.
Project description and aims:
The Native Perennial Garden is a beautiful space on our City campus dedicated to supporting sustainability, environmental interaction, sense of place, and the school's theme of Economicology. This scholar-led, multi-year, and multi-stakeholder project is projected to be completed in Spring 2026. The garden aims to provide the following:
The Native Perennial Garden is a beautiful space on our City campus dedicated to supporting sustainability, environmental interaction, sense of place, and the school's theme of Economicology. This scholar-led, multi-year, and multi-stakeholder project is projected to be completed in Spring 2026. The garden aims to provide the following:
- Environmental interaction: Students are involved in all aspects of the garden, from maintenance to seed collection. Working with the garden, along with learning about the different plants and how they affect the environment, allows students to grow their knowledge of nature. Students and visitors are able to engage with the garden to learn how to help preserve and manage our environment.
- Sustainability: Native plants require less human influence to thrive in their habitat, leading to less water, fertilizer, and pesticide usage. They also don’t need to be mowed like grass, which saves gas from mowing.
- Sense of Place: Students are in this area a lot, so having a garden contributes to the overall feeling of peace. It is a place for students to take a break from school to relax and enjoy the nature around them.
- Economicology: Native plants require less human intervention, such as watering and fertilizing, to survive, meaning that less money is spent on their upkeep. Native plants are more sustainable for the same reasons. By having the garden instead of a lawn, money is saved on mowin,g and the ecosystem benefits with more food for pollinators, a lush habitat for many types of insects, and clearer air as these plants release more oxygen than a simple plot of grass.
Garden Location and Design
The Native Perennial Garden is located on the south side of the school in the amphitheater area. The gardens line the building, several classrooms, and the cafeteria.
Phase I of Native Perennial Garden. Completed Spring 2025. Correlates with the section outlined in blue above. Numbers indicate the location and species of plants.
Phase II of Native Perennial Garden. Correlates with sections outlined in green and yellow in the image above. To be completed Spring 2026.
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List of native perennial plants in the garden
Plant numbers in the list relate to numbers in the images.
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Scholar Reflection
"The Personal Project is a culminating experience of the MYP IB program. Students get to pursue something that they are passionate about and create something from it. When I was thinking about ideas for my Personal Project, I wanted to do something impactful and that I would be interested in. I love nature and want to go into biology for college, so I immediately thought I should do something involving plants. I did some research on possible ideas and consulted my science teacher, Mr. Rizley, and he suggested working with the garden we were in the process of making on our campus. The gardening club was in need of a list of plants and their locations in the garden for seed collecting, and I wanted to be able to share the details about this beautiful space at our school. From there, I worked to identify all the plants in the garden and put them on a hand-drawn map. To share this project with others, I worked with the school administration to make this web page." - 2026 MYP Candidate
"The Personal Project is a culminating experience of the MYP IB program. Students get to pursue something that they are passionate about and create something from it. When I was thinking about ideas for my Personal Project, I wanted to do something impactful and that I would be interested in. I love nature and want to go into biology for college, so I immediately thought I should do something involving plants. I did some research on possible ideas and consulted my science teacher, Mr. Rizley, and he suggested working with the garden we were in the process of making on our campus. The gardening club was in need of a list of plants and their locations in the garden for seed collecting, and I wanted to be able to share the details about this beautiful space at our school. From there, I worked to identify all the plants in the garden and put them on a hand-drawn map. To share this project with others, I worked with the school administration to make this web page." - 2026 MYP Candidate
This personal project was supported or guided by:
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