Evie's Passion Project

From Egg To Omelette

Goal/Purpose: My goal was to breed chickens, build them a chicken coop to grow up in and have them grow up healthy and strong. My purpose was to breed chickens as I am interested in animals as well as wanting to witness the growth and development of the chicks.

Process:

• Choose a topic
• Research chicken breeding
• Research where to get a chicken coop
• Get fertile eggs
• Find out where to get an incubator
• Meet with my expert and mentor
• Build a chicken coop
• Get the chickens’ food
• Take photos of the chickens

Reflection:

I have learnt so much about chickens and how to breed them at home and in a incubator. I know that in the future I will breed chickens again and I will keep Maisy, Meredith, Missy and Minky and they will be a part of the family with our other chickens. Breeding chickens took a lot of time and effort but I have learnt so much that will help me in the future. In the end I think all of the hard work has payed off and I am very proud of what I have achieved.

By Evie Eaton

Joanna's Passion Project!

Animals In Focus - By Joanna

Goal:

My goal was to improve my knowledge and understanding of different ways to take photos of animals.

Purpose:

The reason I chose this topic is because ever since I got given a basic camera for Christmas when I was 7, I have found an inner passion for photography and wanted to expand my knowledge and thoroughly improve what I know about photography. The reason I wanted to narrow it down to just animal photography was that I have grown up around all sorts of animals and wanted to do a project on animals and photography.

Process:

• Decide topic
• Research about topic
• Start blog
• Take photos
• Research
• Keep updating blog and diary
• Research
• Print out photos and info
• Present my project!!

Reflection:

Overall my project has been a quite a success and I have gained lots of skills like:

• Photography (action and focus)

• Organisation (organising mentor meetings)

• Time management

• Independence

• Knowledge about how different cameras work

I will definitely keep on taking lots more photos and look forward to learning heaps more!!

Me with my board:

Two of my photos:

Kathleen's Passion Project

Goal:

My goal was to successfully run team building sessions for the girls going to AIMS Games, and to design and order personalised hoodies for the team.

Purpose:

I chose to do this for my passion project because water polo is definitely my passion. As AIMS Games was coming up, I thought it would be worthwhile to do a project based around it. I thought that we could benefit from some team building activities and they might improve the way we played together as a team.

Process:

Term 1:

• Research, research, research!
• Design hoodies
• Meet with Dr. Bird and Mrs Taylor

Term 2:

• Choose hoodie supplier etc.
• Get hoodie info

Term 3:

• Order hoodies
• Create training calendars
• Run team building night
• AIMS Games!

Term 4:

• Essay
• Present

Reflection:

I’m really proud of my entire project. I have worked so hard on it and it was pretty successful. The highlights for me are still seeing girls wearing their hoodies after AIMS, and also the fact that the parents and coaches decided to get their own hoodies after seeing ours. This project has meant a lot to me because I have learned so, so much, developing and learning many skills. My project means a lot to me and has been a great experience because of what I achieved. Overall I have loved doing this project and now I’m so glad I chose this topic.

Ella C's Passion Project

Screen Printing

My Goal

Was to learn how to screen print and to be able to screen print at home.

My Purpose 

I chose the topic of screen printing so I could combine 2 of my passions - art and clothing design. Screen printing allows me to do this because I can create my own designs and put them onto fabric to create art or clothing. I also wanted to learn something new and screen printing was something I didn’t know anything about.

My Process

Term 1

• researched about screen printing courses/workshops
• Book a screen printing course
• Look at designs, collect a variety  

Term 2

• Go to course/learn how to screen print
• Organise meet mentor meeting
• Extend my Passion Project goal

Term 3

• Research about resources needed to screen print
• Gather screen printing resources
• Screen print at home

Term 4

• Essay
• Board
• Present  

My Reflection

Passion Project gave me the opportunity to learn a new and creative skill – screen printing.

I am really proud of all the things I have been able to achieve:

• I have learnt how to screen print
• Put my own designs onto screens
• Created many screen prints
• Collected all the resources needed to screen print
• Screen printed at home
• Got some of classmates interested in screen printing, wanting their own screen prints and even screen printing themselves.

Please comment any ideas, feedback or questions your have for me.

By Ella C

Ava's Passion Project

My goal was to design and decorate a room display while learning about the different aspects of interior design.

My process was:

-Research, Research, Research

-Meet with an expert and my mentor

- Strip the wall of the original wallpaper

- Prep the wall

- Under coat, first coat, top coat

- Wallpaper

- Bring in the furniture

- Do the finishing touches

Overall I have learnt a lot of new skills (e.g how to paint and wallpaper and how to design different types of rooms). I am really proud of the end product. It has been an amazing experience that I will remember for the rest of my life.



By Ava Smith

Ella's Passion Project

              

Lana's Passion Project

Matilda's Passion Project

Chef for a Day

My goal was to create a healthy boarding menu and bring it alive for a day.

My process

* To improve on my cooking skills

* What is a healthy meal?

* Research

* Practice

* Budgeting

* Taste test

* Get my ingredients

* Have mentor meetings

* More research

The outcome of my project was great, I am over the moon of how well it turned out.  The girls gave me really positive feedback on my dinner and really really loved my Berry Ice Lollies. Also, Liz said that the menu I had planned was good - well balanced and nutritious for kids. I didn't get to make all of my meals for the day, because I got super busy in the third term and looking back, I think that that initial goal may have been a bit big for me. I didn't expect to have to spend so much time researching my meals  and working out a budget for all the meals. I have a learnt that working out a menu for a day that has meals  that are healthy, yummy and affordable is hard and takes a lot of research. I worked really hard to stay focussed on the  purpose and I did and my project was successful.

Meg's Passion Project

 Goal

My goal was to go on treks with my mum, take photos and review each ride for other horse riders on my blog.

Purpose

My purpose was to discover more ways to use the iPhone camera and skills to make great photos just with your iPhone. I also wanted to expand my knowledge on different places you can go trekking in Canterbury.

Process

My process included,

• Research about taking photos on an iPhone
• Find out about great places to go riding
• Go on 10 treks around Canterbury
• Take at least 6 photos along each trek
• Write a blog post about the ride and give information about where and how good the ride was and post the best photos.

Reflection

I loved learning all about photography and trekking. I learnt the best time of the day to take great photos, to change lighting or use focus to enhance the photo quality and what directions and angles it was best to take photos with. A website I discovered had some great information about taking photos with iPhones. I only got to use it for the last few of my treks. I am very happy with how well my entire product has turned out.

Passion Projects 2015!

What an amazing week last week as the Year 8s invaded the Cybrary, MakeSpace and Food Tech rooms to present their three term Passion Project learning. These projects embody everything that Selwyn House believes about learning:
- student led 
- excellent scaffolding, mentor and expert support
- learning across a wide range of subject areas 
- developing important skills that the 21st-century workforce demands like communication, self management, organisation and research 

Take a look at this clip made by our awesome ICT guru Jimmy that gives you a glimpse into the colour, energy and learning that was on display to the school community.



Thanks so much to all our families, mentors and experts for helping us across this year projects. Keep an eye out on the blog over the next few days as we post a more in-depth look at each of our projects.