Lanier Middle School
International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme
The Community Project
Introduction: What is the Community Project?
The community project focuses on community and service, encouraging students to explore their right and
responsibility to serve their community. The project gives 8th grade students an opportunity to develop awareness
of needs in various communities and address those needs through a student-designed service project. Students may
complete the project individually or in groups of a maximum of three students. The goal of the project is for
students to take part in in-depth inquiry that leads to taking a specific action to serve the community.
What are the learning goals of the Community Project?
There are four objectives (goals) for student learning in the Community Project:
1. Objective A: Investigating. Students should:
 Define a goal to address a need within a community, based on personal interests
 Identify prior learning and subject-specific knowledge relevant to the project
 Demonstrate research skills
2. Objective B: Planning. Students should:
 Develop a proposal for action to serve the need of the community
 Plan and record the development process of the project
 Demonstrate self-management skills
3. Objective C: Taking Action. Students should:
 Demonstrate service as action as a result of the project
 Demonstrate thinking skills
 Demonstrate communication and social skills
4. Objective D: Reflecting. Students should:
 Evaluate the quality of the service as action against the proposal
 Reflect on how completing the project has extended their knowledge and understanding of service learning
 Reflect on their development of Approaches to Learning Skills
What are the components of the Community Project that will be assessed?
1. Action Plan – Students will identify a goal to address a need in the community, identify a global context for
their project, and explain their plan for their project (see the Action Plan template). Due January 23.
Here are some examples of what students might choose to do for the project:
 Direct service: Students interact with people, the environment, or animals. Ex: one-on-one tutoring,
developing a garden alongside refugees, or teaching dogs behaviors to prepare them for adoption
 Indirect service: Benefits the community or environment. Ex: redesigning an organization’s website,
writing original picture books to teach a language, or raising fish to restore a stream
 Advocacy: Students speak out for a cause in order to promote action. Ex: initiating an awareness
campaign on hunger in the community, performing a play on replacing bullying with respect, or
creating a video on sustainable water solutions
 Research: Students collect information through varied sources, analyse data and report on a topic of
importance to influence policy or practice. Ex: conducting environmental surveys to influence their
school, contributing to a study of animal migration patterns, or compiling the most effective means to
reduce litter in public spaces
2. Process Journal – A process journal is a record of your progress on the project, and EACH student will
keep a process journal throughout the project. At the end of the project, you will submit extracts (pieces)
from the journal to your supervisor along with your presentation (see separate list of journal extract
requirements).
Process journals will be checked for progress on January 29, February 20, and March 6. You should
be able to use the journal to show and explain your progress to your supervisor on these dates.
Students should be ready to take action by March 6. On that date your process journal will receive a
final check and you will submit your bibliography/sources.
3. Presentation – Once you have researched and developed your community service action, you will go out
into the community and carry through your action. Finally, the project will end with a presentation. You will
deliver your presentation aloud to your supervisor and study lab.
 For an individual student presentation, you will have 6 – 10 minutes
 For a group presentation, you will have 10 – 14 minutes
If you complete the project in a group, you will present as a group, but each group member should speak
during the presentation.
Students should plan, draft, rehearse and prepare any materials necessary for the presentation (for example,
you might wish to create a poster board or video demonstrating the development, process, and results of
your project). Your presentation should be designed in such a way that you are demonstrating what you
accomplished/learned based on the four student learning objectives listed at the top of this packet.
At the time of the presentation, students must submit the following finalized items to the supervisor:
 A completed academic honesty form for each student
 The proposal for action
 Process journal extracts (a maximum of 10 per individual or 15 per group)
 Any supporting visual aids used during the presentation
 Bibliography/sources
What rubrics will be used in assessing the Community Project?
Your project will be assessed on the four student learning objectives (goals) listed at the top of this packet.
You will receive an IB grade out of 8 points for each objective. The rubric for each objective is attached to
this packet.