The personal project is the perfect opportunity for students to develop their critical thinking skills and motivate them to take charge of their own learning. It is essential to choose an inspirational topic that would keep me engrossed throughout the project. When the Personal Project was first introduced, I began veering toward topics connected to Design, Technology, and Sports as those were my interests.
Since childhood, I’ve had a great affinity for Basketball. I started playing 8 years ago and I have always enjoyed being a part of that sport. This sport has increased my athletic skills, reflexes, sportsmanship, and team spirit. It also fuelled my curiosity to understand how this sport could help improve the lives of people who aren’t as fortunate as me. One day while walking down my community park I saw a mother trying to play basketball with her special needs child, and at this very moment, a seed was planted in the bottom of my heart with a burning desire to teach such children, how to play basketball.
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Hence, I concluded that I would challenge myself by working alongside children with special needs. I chose this topic for two main reasons. Firstly, I am passionate about basketball so it would constantly motivate me to do my best. Secondly, prior to this project, I had never worked with these children so it would be a great learning experience.
The goal formulated for the personal project was to “Teach the fundamental skills of basketball to a group of children with special needs” so that they improve their gross and fine motor skills. It would alter the behavior of people’s beliefs of them and in due course, they shall be well accepted in society. In order to complete the goal, I made a website that would consist of all the information I gathered about special needs children, their mental and physical challenges, their behavior, and why they should play sports. In addition, I included videos of me teaching the basic skills to a group of 3-5 special needs children. I also uploaded tutorials and other informative data so that the children easily refer to it in the future.
This goal was highly challenging as I had to familiarize myself with new mediums. I had to contact various individuals such as parents of special needs children, clinics, and different organizations. As I had no experience working alongside children with restrictions it is necessary that I conducted extensive research to ensure I gathered the best possible content. I had made 1-2 websites before I knew the basics, however, there is still a lot I could learn from completing this project. In addition, it would also be a challenge for me because, before teaching the children how to play basketball I needed to ensure I gained their trust, which is a key factor in having a healthy relationship so that, they gain the benefit of playing the sport. Lastly, it was imperative that I demonstrated excellent organizational, communications, and self-management skills so that I could successfully complete my research and create a comprehensive website.
From the 6 Global Contexts, the chosen global context is “Identities and Relationships”. I chose this global context because of one of its aspects “Students will explore physical, mental, social and spiritual health” (IBO). This specifically relates to my project due to the fact that I would be analyzing the mental and physical challenges the children face. Children with special needs often struggle to adapt to their surroundings and struggle in socializing so there would be an end section where I wrote about the children’s social behavior and their “relationships including families, friends, communities and cultures” (IBO).
In order to successfully complete the project, I used my thinking skills, especially my transfer skills to discover the prior learning applicable to this project. Taking Digital Design in MYP I was able to use programming languages like HTML and CSS to create a website. To keep myself updated with the latest technological advances I studied computer languages at a computer institute called Compufield in Mumbai where I learned skills on how to make an informative and user-friendly website.
Studying Individuals and Societies in the early years of MYP I was able to look at a variety of research methods and accumulate a wide range of primary and secondary sources. Through this subject, I learned the importance of identifying the reliability of a source and its limitations. One of the units covered in English was Media Literacy. The unit helped me identify the importance of visual aesthetics and the importance of keeping readers engaged. Lastly, by using the Design Cycle, I divided my work into separate stages, which helped me complete my project efficiently.
At the start of the project, in order to get sufficient information, I primarily concentrated on using secondary sources to obtain a clear understanding of the topic. Being a novice to this new world, it was salient for me to do extensive research on this subject. For my research, I used various mediums of primary and secondary sources such as websites, videos, interviews, magazines, and books. I also engaged in the ATL skills of research, media, and information literacy to ensure I used credible information (See Appendix A.2)
For my primary research I conducted an interview with Aanal Shah, who is a mother of an autistic child, Tanay Shah aged 18. Through the interview, I gained insight and information on the behavior, mindsets, daily activities, and challenges of special needs children. She mentioned the various daily struggles Tanay faced and how he always found ways to overcome them. At the end of the interview, she gave me a list of individuals in the field of sports for special needs so that I could contact them and acquire more information.
For my secondary research, I created a few research questions that were based on the content and technical aspects of my project. My secondary research consisted of looking through many websites. I started my research by reading an article from the Khaleej Times called “Basketball helps autistic kids socialize in UAE” (Nasir, Sarwat). This was a very reliable source and it gave me an insight on the multiple ways basketball helps the mental and physical health of a child with special needs. It also led me to find out about Kalin Bennet, who is a Division 1 basketball player diagnosed with autism. Finally, I also read a book called “The Child with Special Needs” by Stanley Greenspan. The immense knowledge that I gained through different mediums provided me with a greater clarity of the topic and this majorly helped me when creating the final product.
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