Project Utopia

“A utopia is an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its citizens.”

Thomas More

In Term 2 and 3, we started a project called “Project Utopia”. The meaning of utopia is a place that is perfect in every way. We learnt that it was impossible to make a perfect community and have the choices that we have today. So we had to aim to make it as perfect as possible but maintain our citizens’ freedom and choices. We also had to learn many skills while working in a group like teamwork, compromising, being efficient and to stay on task. We also got more in-depth knowledge about the UN global goals.

Throughout the whole course, we learnt a lot of things in the different subjects that were meshed together with our project:

HASS: We learnt about how certain factors that can affect the liveability and choices that people make about the area where they choose to live. These factors were put into two groups, objective and subjective factors. The former are measurable factors. The latter is about the wants and needs that a particular person might have. We also looked at types of government and how constitutions are written.

English: During Term 2 &3, we read a book called ‘The Giver’ (from Lois Lowry) that gave us a base idea of what a utopia could look like. We also learnt that it was impossible to have a perfect community because its all the flaws and choices that make us human.

Science: We learnt about sustainability and our carbon footprints. We also learnt that it was quite easy to soften our impact on the environment through some energy and water-saving features and behaviours which we then had to implement into our sustainable houses.

InnovatED: We learnt about the 17 UN Global Goals and my group received 5 accreditations which we have learnt about and deepened our knowledge and implemented into our city’s design.

Goal 3

Good health and wellbeing:

Everyone’s health and wellbeing are accounted for, especially mental and physical health. (We have free healthcare and lots of specialized hospitals.)

Goal 1

No poverty:

Everyone’s needs are accounted for. Like food, water, shelter, having a job etc. (We’re giving free food packages for people who earn less than $200 a week. In addition, we’re going to also have homeless shelters)

Goal 10

Reduced inequalities:

Everyone will be equal no matter what gender, age, race, religious belief. (It is written in the Constitution)

Goal 15

Life on land:

Animals living on land and the environment will be taken care of and managed appropriately. (Plastics will be prohibited and there is an animal rehabilitation centre.)

Goal 14

Life underwater:

Animals, fish and bodies of water (like lakes and rivers) will be taken care of. (Citizens aren’t allowed near coral reefs and littering will be fined)

During this project, we learnt to work well with each other and to talk to adults well. When we were unclear about our opinions and it would lead to misunderstandings, often ending in arguments. This would hinder our performance and result in lost time for doing what was important. To avoid this, we had to learn to compromise and listen to one another’s ideas and opinions. By doing this, we have achieved a great result and had an enjoyable time working on this project. It has also done an amazing job of diversifying our views of each the world and each other. When it came to the Presentation Night it was quite nerve-wracking for me because I wasn’t used to talking to lots of people. But with the help of my groupmates and lots of practising, I eventually felt better. On the night itself, we learnt a lot of skills like public speaking and holding a conversation with an adult that we might not have already known.

While we were creating our model, we quickly found some problems in our design. We found that circular or round buildings were difficult to make. We also found that painting them wasn’t a great choice either. But we took what we had, and we made an amazing model of what our group’s utopia could look like.

Unfinished Jessiana

This project has been a huge success and with the guidance and support of our teachers, facilitators and special guests. We have been very privileged to have been given this amazing opportunity to learn in such a fun and unique way. Overall, it was an exciting and challenging journey and a really rewarding feeling that we could showcase our learning to all of our parents.

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