Friday Headlines
the weekly newsletter from EHS
The Year 9 Higher Project
04 December 2020
This week, we take the opportunity to showcase our final few Higher Project finalists. The Higher Project is a one-year course offered in Year 9, where we were given the chance to plan, manage, develop and review a project of our own devising.
This project could literally have been about anything on the planet, and we all chose very different things to explore.
This project was excellent preparation for the challenges that we are facing at GCSE level in Year 10.
We learnt and improved a whole range of skills including how to complete independent research, finding guests for interviews and developing our analytical writing, editing and proof reading skills.
We also learnt the pitfalls of asking bad questions on a questionnaire meansing you get no useful data. We also had the realisation that not everyone you contact will give you an interview or even reply to your query. And we also gained the knowledge that a deadline actually is a deadline and we had to get everything in on time.
We took ownership of our projects over the course of the year, gradually building up a portfolio work. Finalists were chosen to present projects to a panel of judges to decide the winner of the Higher Project Cup.
However, it was not just learning about our topic that was important. The Higher Project also encourages you to learn about yourself. We understood what our strengths and weaknesses were and we could improve upon these as the project progressed. We are really proud of our final portfolios and proud of ourselves for persevering with the project alongside our studies. It is stressful at times but definitely worth it and we are already looking ahead to the Extended Project that we can do in Sixth form. We are already thinking about ideas we could research.
We have thoroughly enjoyed taking part and hope that Miss Hayday and Miss O’Hare will enjoy working with the new Year 9.
We will now give you an insight into the finalists projects and the most fascinating things that they found out during their study.
LAUREN
I explored the phenomenon of plastic pollution and its impacts on future generations. I hope to pursue a career in this area one day and I thought this would be a great way for me to do some initial research and put the completion of this project on my CV. I am fascinated by marine wildlife and how much plastic has affected our oceans. I am inspired by younger climate activists like Greta Thunberg who state “WE ARE GOING TO CHANGE THE FATE OF HUMANITY, WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.” In my project, one of the most interesting facts I learnt was that tea bags contained plastic and we actually do need to look at all areas of our life and how we can reduce plastic waste.
ISOBEL
I chose to base my higher project on the impacts that dogs ownership can have on your overall health and well being. I found it really interesting that dogs can pick up their owners emotions, sometimes just as well as – and even better than humans. I own a dog and wanted to talk to a number of people who do and who don’t own dogs to find out their views. The Independent Newspaper found out in one study that owning a dog increased your life expectancy. The other medical revelations are that owning a dog can reduce the impact of some diseases such as Epilepsy, Alzheimers and Parkinsons. I also conducted interviews to explore the idea of dogs and pets being used as therapy dogs – and how spending time with a dog can change and transform your day.
Year 9 Higher Project
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