Introduction
Our Utopian project started before we even knew it; it started back in Term 2 when we began reading the book “Giver” by Lois Lowry. The whole point of us reading this book was to understand and learn what a Utopian society was. Later on, we did a project in Science that taught us about being sustainable and all the things that can be implemented in a house and community that can have a positive impact which taught us ways to create a greener world. The other major thing that we did to prepare for our project was we learned about constitutions in HASS and how to make them, this then helped us to create our constitutions for our community. In my personal experience, I was taught a lot through these projects which gave me the ability to do my Utopian Project. The whole idea around the project was to try and collaborate with other people in our year that we would not usually work with and to try and increase our creativity by working with these different people. Another big reason is that we needed to learn how to create a more sustainable future for our world.
Global Goal
My favourite global goal that my group and I were able to achieve was Sustainable Cities and Communities. I thought we implemented this goal into our community very well, I thought that the idea of having no roads was a really clever idea to apply into our island because our group found out that hundreds of insects, animals and plants are destroyed in the building process of roads. We wanted to put a stop to this issue on our island by requesting that our community would use equipment like lawnmowers to create a pathway that will have been grass that is shaped to be a green “road”. I love how we placed so much green energy on our island; I think by placing our island in a good area helped make the concept of having so many renewable energy sources look more realistic. A worry I do have if we did implement all of our group’s sustainable ideas onto a real island would be that it would be quite expensive, a counter-argument we thought of would be that in the end placing these clever ideas would be worth it and it would have a positive difference on living creatures. Having a sustainable community was a big goal for our group and I think we achieve the goal and implemented it in our society very well.
College capabilities
The All Saints College capabilities were a guideline for our group trying to make sure we were creative and inquisitive but also remembering to keep in mind that we needed to be self-aware and have effective communication skills towards our group members. I think I was very good at achieving creativity and organisation, but l could have improved on my communication skills. A way I could improve could be I could ask my partners if they want to say anything and taking a break for a couple of minutes so they could have a chance to speak. A part of the project I am proud of it when we had to start rushing around, we were surprisingly good at still being able to keep calm and not getting into arguments. Our creativity skills were really good when we had the initial thoughts of the project. Altogether we were a really good team that clearly worked together sensibly.
Favourite Part
My most favourite part of our Utopian project was being able to create our model. This task involved everyone, meaning we had to work together efficiently and effectively. In the next 2 weeks we were able to design the shape of the island and start and finish painting. It was amazing to see what our group had completed with such little time. Once we had completed the base, we had to start adding the details. This was a challenge because we had to position particular buildings in certain areas, so it was a more sustainable idea.
Improvement Goals
The part of the project I thought I could have improved on most would have been the public speaking. For me this is a big challenge because I get very nervous, I know I could have improved a lot more if I had put less on my palm cards so I wasn’t reading of them but also I should have referred to them more because that could have helped. At the same time, I was also proud that I was able to speak to important people with quite a bit of confidence. I felt that sometimes I forgot to mention important parts that we had done in the Utopian Project and then my partners had to mention it. I also think that because I wasn’t used to speaking to important people I had a little bit of stage fright because I thought that they were quite important people so I wanted to make a good impression on them. So next time if I practise a bit more, I will be able to achieve a better performance. Overall, I was pretty impressed at the presentation night with what I said to parents, teachers and important people.
Conclusion
The Utopian Project taught me about how I can shape a better future for the world. I have learnt many things over this period of time, and I have also learnt that what I have learnt in this project will most certainly help me in the future. Overall, my group and I were very good at our presentation night and clearly tried our best. If I did this project again I would unquestionably like to try and redo my palm cards so I was a bit more prepared as I could put less detail in so I wasn’t reading of my palm cards as much. Our model was incredible and indeed demonstrated if we had a real island what it would actually look like.