LEARNING AREA CONNECTIONS
In this project, the learning areas that it was connected to were English, HASS, Science and InnovatED.
This project was connected to English because we were reading The Giver. This book introduced the idea of a Utopia and we were learning about the different aspects of the Utopia.
The Giver was all about a perfect society and that was what we were going to be creating.
Also, in English, we had to make a presentation about our Utopias. The speech taught us how to improve our posture, our speaking skills, being organized, which all connected to the project and presenting on the Showcase Night.
In Hass, we were learning about liveability. As we were learning about these things, it was helping us to have a better understanding about liveability so that we knew what to incorporate into our own communities for the people to live there. The objective liveability factors – education and healthcare and infrastructure, were most important as they were big parts of my group’s utopia.
We learnt a bit more about the global goals in Hass, but we mostly learnt about them InnovatED.
We also learnt about Civics and Citizenship and we looked at how the government has changed and improved over the years. We also looked at democracy and what it means. We learnt about the Australian Constitution and the components that made it up.
In Science we were learning about Sustainability and making Sustainable Houses. This was connected to our Utopia because we needed to know about sustainable solutions to incorporate into the community. The Sustainable Houses helped us in this project because we could take ideas from the sustainable house and use it in our housing in the Utopia, or we could use the whole house and make that a big model of our houses.
In InnovatED was the subject that was most important for the project as that was where we were doing all our designing, thinking, and building. At the start of this project we learnt about the U.N Global Goals. Learning about the Global Goals included choosing about 10 of our favourites and making up a song, rhyme, or rap about it, making an Actormap showing how all the Global Goals link, and discussing about each Global Goal. In our groups, we had to gain Global Goal accreditations. By getting these accreditations, the teachers felt that we had an understanding about the Global Goals we went for, and that we knew how we were going to incorporate it into our communities.
ABOUT MY UTOPIA
My Utopia was called Anaea Bay. Sascha and I chose this name as Anaea means butterfly and they are peaceful animals, and we wanted or Utopia to be peaceful. We also added a dove to our flag to show that peaceful meaning.
The special features of my Utopia were the Edible water bottle bubbles. The Edible water bottles are a membrane that is filled with water, or any liquid. The casing is made from a seaweed extract which means it is Bio-degradable and sustainable. These edible water bottles link to our Sustainable Cities and Communities, as there are no plastic water bottles lying around because they are substituted for these membranes.
ACCREDITATIONS
The accreditations that Sascha and I got were Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Sustainable Cities and Communities and Reduced Inequalities. During the final Showcase of our Utopia, we handed out brochures that provided more information about our accreditations and the overall Utopia.
MY ASC CAPABILITIES
My ASC Capabilities are collaboration, leadership, organisation.
Collaboration – I had to work with others which I found very fun and I got many good learning and social experiences from it. I enjoyed collaborating on this project because there were so many ideas being put forward from me and my partner Sascha, that we had to choose which ones we were going to use in our Utopia. It was fun to build on our ideas and get the best aspects possible, such as sustainable ideas, community ideas and more.
Leadership – In some cases, I had to take charge of what was going on and what needed to be done in order to improve my group’s utopia. This was because sometimes we didn’t plan enough and things didn’t turn out the way we wanted them to, such as getting things done on time and bringing in materials.
Organisation – my group and I had to be organised and bring in materials to make the utopia. I think that I need to still improve my organisation a little bit more because I ordered ingredients to make our edible water bottles, but they didn’t come in time, so if I had ordered them earlier, they probably would have come.
WHAT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT INFO I HAVE LEARNT?
The most info I learnt was about the Global Goals and how they all linked together. At the start of this project we made Actor maps and we linked all the Global Goals together. This helped me to know more about what the Global Goals are about and how they can make this world so much better. I also learnt how to collaborate even more and input my ideas more. This helps for my contribution to the group but also help to get ideas we can build on.
I also learnt a lot of important things from the adult experts who came in that had special knowledge about different things. I learnt a lot from them as Sascha and I were able to ask them questions we had, and we knew that we were going to get a good answer that could help us.
You do not always succeed on the first try – persisting, adapting, and keeping trying.
WHAT HAVE I ENJOYED THE MOST?
I enjoyed doing this project with my friends as it was fun to work together. Sascha and I were great partners because we had similar ideas and we could build on them. We understood each other and could help each other to understand things further, so we could make our Utopia the best it could be. I also liked the freedom within the project. There were so many opportunities for us to have for our Utopias. All the teachers were understanding and helpful, so if we needed advice or help, they were there to help us.
WHAT ASPECT DID I FIND THE MOST CHALLENGING?
The aspect that I found most challenging was that closer to the end, there was so much to do and organize. There were many things that I had to remember to bring to school and make. But when I did get those things done, the project was very enjoyable.
WHAT WOULD I DO DIFFERENTLY?
I probably would prepare more as sometimes I forgot my hot glue gun when I needed it. When I forgot some things, we had to put it off until the next week and so we lost time. I would also try to get more accreditations and spend more time on those inside school. In the project, Sascha and I got 4 accreditations (Good Health and Wellbeing, Quality Education, Sustainable Cities and Communities and Reduced Inequalities) but next time, we would probably go for 5 or 6.
WHAT DID I GET OUT OF THIS?
The things that I got out of this project were many experiences that I wouldn’t have gotten from a smaller project. These were experiences like interacting with parents and showing my work and explaining about it. In a smaller project, we would not have had a showcase day, so this really helped in my confidence and organisation.
