Excellence and Imagination

The Purpose:

The purpose of this project is to have teenagers from different locations around the globe exchange their thoughts and perceptions of what their lives are like. By viewing, reading, and listening to the perspectives of others from around the globe, they will gain a greater perception of the similarities and differences of people’s lives around the world. This is not an international project where kids learn about the holidays, foods, etc, of another nation. We want to dig deeper, to have you dig, read, write, etc. We want you to explore issues, and work intensely to gain a clearer understanding of concerns that people have in a global world.

In this project you will choose an issue that you feel is important to your life and future, develop your understanding of it, and your understanding of international opinion about it, produce a poetic digital representation of your understanding, and finally share and discuss your experiences with others.

We’ll be working with grade seven and eight students from three other schools who are doing versions of this same project. One school is in Malaysia, another in the United States, and the third is another international school in Columbia!

The central questions, the ones your project answers, are:

* What are the central issues and concerns that people my age, in international communities, have about their lives, about their futures, or about the issues that are facing the world?
* How do I relate to these issues?
* How are these issues similar and different from other people my age in different places around the world?
* What is it like to be ____ (your age) in ____________ (an international community)

Your assignment is to produce a digital representation of your understanding of these issues. By digital, I mean that it has to be able to be put up on the internet. You could make a video that we would post to your blog for other students to watch. You might make a podcast - an mp3 file. You could create a photo essay - a collection of photographs and poems. Your creativity is the limit.

Along the way, you will create a network of people whose ideas will support the development of your understanding of your issue. These will be students from our school, the schools we are working with, and the general public.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Like the saying, a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s time to take that first step, which is to introduce yourself on your blog. Other students will use your introduction to connect with people who share similar interests.

Here are some ideas to help get your introduction going:

Who are you? How old are you? What’s your life like living in where you live? What issues are you interested in? You are introducing yourself to the group of students in other countries who will be working on this project with you.

Here is the wiki where we will start putting our heads together with the kids from the other schools. Any first questions about how people live in other countries? Put them on the wiki!