The York School 2024/25 Year in Review - IB Personal Project: Creating a beautifully illustrated book to teach children about endangered animals

The Personal Project gives students in Grade 10, the final year of the IB Middle Years Program, an opportunity to independently explore an area of personal interest over a three-month period. The project assesses students’ self-management, research, communication, critical and creative thinking, and collaboration skills. Students are encouraged to choose multi-layered, multidisciplinary projects that have a purpose or value outside the school. They develop their own goals and criteria, must show evidence of a product or outcome, and write a report reflecting on what they’ve learned. While the students take ownership over their projects and make all the decisions, their teachers provide guidance and coaching. Their report is assessed by their supervisor and externally moderated by the IB to ensure a globally consistent standard of excellence.
Madi S. '27 has loved animals – and been concerned about those that are endangered - since she was very young. For her personal project, she combined her passion for protecting animals with her talent for watercolour painting to create a book to educate children about species that are at risk. In preparation for writing and illustrating her book, Madi conducted research to find out which animals are in the greatest danger and identify facts about each species that children would find compelling. Her next step was to learn more about children’s books so she could determine what vocabulary would be age appropriate (10-year-olds are her target audience), what format would work best and what size her illustrations should be. The finished product is a book that features gorgeous paintings of animals like monarch butterflies, a blue whale and a hawksbill sea turtle, and the reasons why we need to protect them.
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