The IB Community Project is a major activity for students to complete in their 8th Grade year at Ortiz Middle School. Ortiz is an authorized IB school with a three-year MYP programme. In schools in which the MYP finishes with year 3 or 4 of the programme, all students in the final year must complete the community project.

The community project focuses on community and service, encouraging students to explore their right and responsibility to implement service as action in the community. The community project gives students an opportunity to develop awareness of needs in various communities and address those needs through service learning. The community project can be completed individually or collaboratively in groups with a maximum of three students. The choice of the goal or topic for the project is made in consultation with their supervising teacher, who has the responsibility of overseeing the development of the project according to the MYP Community Project Assessment Criteria and International Baccalaureate Organization guidelines.

The aims of the MYP projects are to encourage and enable students to:

• participate in a sustained, self-directed inquiry within a global context
• generate creative new insights and develop deeper understandings through in-depth investigation
• demonstrate the skills, attitudes and knowledge required to complete a project over an extended period of time
• communicate effectively in a variety of situations
• demonstrate responsible action through, or as a result of, learning
• appreciate the process of learning and take pride in their accomplishments.

Tina Garcia,
IB MYP Coordinator