The ISWA Newcomer's Guide
http://iswancguide.weebly.com/
For the CAS project, I worked together with two other students in year 12. As we had all traveled to different countries during our lifetimes, we came up with an idea called an ISWA's Newcomers Guide. We designed a website which included all the information we thought any new families who have moved to Perth would find helpful. Also, because the majority of the families are bilingual, we found it appropriate to translate the website into French as well as English.
For the CAS project, I worked together with two other students in year 12. As we had all traveled to different countries during our lifetimes, we came up with an idea called an ISWA's Newcomers Guide. We designed a website which included all the information we thought any new families who have moved to Perth would find helpful. Also, because the majority of the families are bilingual, we found it appropriate to translate the website into French as well as English.
To the side, one can see the progress we have made on the website. In order for us to complete a successful CAS Project, our aims were to engage in a global issue or meaningful service, it must have significant duration and intensity and finally, must require leadership. After having our project approved by our CAS coordinator, we started working on it, adding new pages every week and putting our research onto the website. We even went to the extent to which we had several meetings with parents of some ISWA students to receive their opinion and advice as to what kind of information to include. By taking initiative in these meetings and the amount of work we put into the project, we felt that out project was truly original, significant, and had a lot of impact scope and depth.
However, as we were about to launch the website around the school, the project was denied due to sponsoring and confidentiality issues. At first we took the news quite hard, as we had put so much time and effort into the website and it felt like we had completed the project without it having any purpose. But then after some time passed, we started to realize the skills we had developed related to acquiring research and assembling an easy-accessible website. So in the end, even though our project was not put to use, we learned that not all things can be successful after you have put so much effort in it and also learned from our mistakes if we ever were to do a project like this again. Nevertheless, we were all proud of the things that we had achieved during out CAS Project.
However, as we were about to launch the website around the school, the project was denied due to sponsoring and confidentiality issues. At first we took the news quite hard, as we had put so much time and effort into the website and it felt like we had completed the project without it having any purpose. But then after some time passed, we started to realize the skills we had developed related to acquiring research and assembling an easy-accessible website. So in the end, even though our project was not put to use, we learned that not all things can be successful after you have put so much effort in it and also learned from our mistakes if we ever were to do a project like this again. Nevertheless, we were all proud of the things that we had achieved during out CAS Project.
Learning Outcomes
You need to plan and initiate your own activities.
Because the idea of our project was entirely student lead and had little influence from teachers and parents, all the ideas and organization had to be done by ourselves. In order to generate ideas for the guide, we tried to relate to our own experiences when first arriving in Perth. Therefore, we also added in our own personal input making the project quite relatable and unique.
You have worked collaboratively with others.
Without the help of two other IB peers who also were part of this CAS project, the final output that we produced could not have been possible. When knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, we had jobs allocated, for example, translating, researching, or design.
Be engaged with issues of global importance.
We are all international students and for many of us it was the first time coming to Perth. In order to benefit others and make them feel more welcome in their new place of stay, we tried to inform them about all the practical information that we felt that we were unaware of when first arriving.
Because the idea of our project was entirely student lead and had little influence from teachers and parents, all the ideas and organization had to be done by ourselves. In order to generate ideas for the guide, we tried to relate to our own experiences when first arriving in Perth. Therefore, we also added in our own personal input making the project quite relatable and unique.
You have worked collaboratively with others.
Without the help of two other IB peers who also were part of this CAS project, the final output that we produced could not have been possible. When knowing each other's strengths and weaknesses, we had jobs allocated, for example, translating, researching, or design.
Be engaged with issues of global importance.
We are all international students and for many of us it was the first time coming to Perth. In order to benefit others and make them feel more welcome in their new place of stay, we tried to inform them about all the practical information that we felt that we were unaware of when first arriving.