October 24,2021 / Emelia Theseira

-Fremantle Port-

For Project Utopia the year sevens had an assignment to come up with ideas to redesign the Fremantle Port. Project Utopia came into our English, Humanities, and Innovated. The project began in English, by reading The Giver. Throughout the book we learnt the difference between a utopian & dystopian society. In term three we learnt about livability factors. We had an excursion to Fremantle Port, where we explored all the history. To present our ideas we made vision boards, we had included, global goals, pictures, and headings. A lot of planning, communicating & perfecting went into designing the project. In the end, we presented our final model of the vision board to special guest and parents.

-Global Goals-

Global goals were a huge focus on Project Utopia. There are 17 global goals. My group used three of the global goals. Those three were, affordable energy, industry, innovation, and infrastructure. The last one was climate action. Learning about the global goals gave me a better understanding of some problems in world. Our main idea was industry, innovation & infrastructure, we decided on doing a water park & a café.

-Public Speaking-

Public speaking is nerve-racking but sometimes can be enjoyable. Throughout year 7 we have done public speaking when presenting to the class. For Project Utopia we had to do public speaking to present our speeches. I tried to improve my skills as much as I could. Using open hands is a powerful tool when it comes to public speaking. Hand gestures also help you connect with the audience, then I could get my ideas across better. Researchers around the world have found that hand gestures make people pay attention to your ideas of the speech.

-ASC Capabilities-

The ASC capabilities chart is divided into three main components, positive relationships, spirited agency, and powerful thinking. In Project Utopia I focused on effective communication. Effective communication is where there is good communication between two or more people, and is successfully received and understood by the other. As a group of four we had to learn effective communication so that our ideas could be included during discussions. For example, we effectively communicated while designing & finishing our vision board, by keeping contact & staying organized. Compromising is also another element in groupwork. Together, as a group we got past challenges and were a functional group.

-Conclusion-

Therefore, I believe Project Utopia was a valuable insight to real world problems using the Global Goals. The global goals allowed us to focus on problems in the world today and creatively solving them.  In the end of this project, I felt like I extended my thinking at the bigger picture of life. Overall, It was quite stressful to try and finish everything in just a few weeks. This project has taught me different skills, I will continue to use in school. I feel that Project Utopia was a huge and eventful success which allowed everyone to learn something from it.