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Reaching new depths in applied design's Gr. 9 Project Week
Reaching new depths in applied design's Gr. 9 Project Week

Originally the product of a scheduling challenge, Gr. 9 Project Week has evolved into a highly immersive week of group project work that is a massive hit with students.

Collingwood School has custom-made this innovative learning opportunity to address the curricular requirements for Applied Design, Skills and Technologies learning, which requires students to develop competencies in such skills as ideating, prototyping, testing, making and sharing potential solutions to real-world problems.

More recently, the program has continued to grow and evolve as student feedback led to the integration of entrepreneurship learning, and an additional mentorship component was also added. Now in its fourth year of existence, Gr. 9 Project Week has become a much anticipated annual event at the end of the second trimester (i.e. the second week of May).

Gr. 9 Project Week challenges students to address a complex real-world problem by designing an original solution. Choosing between solutions that utilize either technology or entrepreneurship, students work in collaborative teams of 3-5 individuals to research, analyze, invent, prototype and present their ideas. The project output is determined entirely by the team. It could be a piece of code. It could be a mechanical prototype. It could be a functioning robot. The intention is to provide a firm goal with flexible means to achieve it. Gr. 9 Project Week culminates on Friday with the exhilarating opportunity for students to present their ideas and prototypes to a panel of real-life industry experts.

As a teacher, one of the most rewarding outcomes of project week is witnessing the growth in students' confidence and capabilities. Many students come into the STEM project feeling as if their skills are not on par with other students who may have already ventured into the world of robotics. However, once the students have been through the process, they all realize they can create something functional that meets the project standards. They also come to understand that the most important part of the project is the journey of taking an idea on a piece of paper and turning it into a fully functional and mechanized machine.

- Morgan McLaughlin, Assistant Director of Academic Administration

In 2024, students received the prompt below to kick off their projects.

This year’s exciting assignment: You have been invited to the annual UN Ocean Conference.

Your task is to create a biomimetic robot that will live in the sea and help solve one of the crises facing our oceans within the UN Sustainability Targets.

During this week, you will create and build a robot that uses the movements of a deep sea creature to help solve one of the targets of UN Sustainability Goal #14 - Conserve and Sustainably Use The Oceans, Sea, and Marine Resources For Sustainable Development.

One significant challenge we faced was the issue of marine life getting stuck in our machine. We overcame this challenge through innovative design solutions, including a sonic deterrence system, a soft filter system, and a mechanical AI-powered arm. Although we had a detailed plan, many of our ideas were too advanced, given the limited time and materials. Overall, I've gained valuable skills in time management, conceptualization, and storyboard design throughout this project, which I will carry into future projects.

- Gr. 9 Collingwood Student