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  1. Documentary Filmmaking

    January 28, 2022 by Niko W. and Dhruv G.

    This project taught me the importance of collaboration and using people as a resource. Because we were able to combine our skillsets, we could create a high-quality final product, which I do not think I would have been able to achieve alone. I learned a lot from this team project, including troubleshooting Premiere Pro and maintaining our sense of humor in stressful situations.

    -Class of 2023 Student Dhruv G.

    As a personal project this term, CM2 students Niko W. and Dhruv G. challenged themselves to develop a short documentary capturing the essence of how modules work at TGS, using the Mo-Botics module as an example. They set out to answer the following driving question: “How can we use documentary filmmaking to capture the essence of PBL at TGS?

    The pair investigated different aspects of documentary filmmaking and combined their prior experience and skillsets to storyboard, plan, and execute the film. They also used a combination of student interviews and shots from module excursions as the film’s backbone.

    By dividing roles and putting in a substantial amount of post-production editing, they achieved a high-quality final product which they presented at the THINK Beyond showcase.

  2. Fracture and Reconciliation Through a Mosaic

    February 26, 2021 by Lexie and Gigi

    Driving Question:How can we convey the complexities of ethnic and religious reconciliation through our experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

    Students Lexie and Gigi decided to tackle an art form that was new to them for their project: crafting a mosaic. The project was filled with symbolism: breaking the tiles represented the destruction that took place during the 90s conflict. Putting the tiles back together in the shape of Bosnia showed that with hard work and time (and given that this was a new art form for the two of them, it required a lot of hard work and time), Bosnia can one again become, regardless of age, culture, ethnicity, or religion.

    Lexie and Gigi visited Bosniak mosques, Serbian Orthodox churches, and Croatian Catholic churches to understand what color tiles to use in the mosaic. They learned that green is an essential color in Islam and is Muhammad’s favorite color, that Orthodox churches are often very colorful, and that Croatian Catholic churches heavily feature whites and golds.

    Once they had identified color schemes and prominent designs, they created patterns based on what they had seen during their scouting process and featuring the colors mentioned above. Once the tiles were created, they smashed them into pieces (90s destruction). Next, they combined the colored elements with white tiles to form the outline of Bosnia and Herzegovina. To finish the piece, Lexie and Gigi grouted the gaps and glossed the top to make everything shine.

  3. Exploring Water Scarcity and Safety in Honduras

    by Estelle Woodcock

    Driving Question: How can I address some of the present threats to global health while promoting human rights and social progress?

    Project Overview: In this module, students were introduced to the foundations of global health. They learned about basic concepts, measurements, and determinants of health, and a number of key perspectives for considering global health issues.

    For her project, Estelle explored water scarcity in Honduras, which leads to a lack of basic sanitation and clean water for up to 1.8 million people. Non-communicable diseases in Honduras attributed to water cause a DALY rate of 4,540 per 100,000 people. Disease spreads through contaminated food and water tanks, and poor management, climate change, and political unrest worsen the issue.

    Project Reflection: “Exploring the niche of environmental global health opened my mind to so many new areas of interest in this field.  I thoroughly enjoyed this module and felt like the skills will be very applicable to other modules.”

  4. Using Photography to Convey a Message

    February 24, 2021 by Malak B.

    Driving Question: How can we convey the complexities of ethnic and religious reconciliation through our experience of Bosnia and Herzegovina?

    For her summative assessment, Class of 2021 student Malak B. went an artful route by working on a series of pictures of Bosnian strangers. Each held up a flower representing a value that they believe leads to reconciliation, along with a description of why they hold that belief.

    The end project demonstrated how different people in Bosnia and Herzegovina hold different views on reaching reconciliation. In the end, it turns out, no matter their ethnicity, everyone strives towards the same goal.

  5. Tackling Malaria in the Democratic Republic of Congo

    October 13, 2020 by Sofia V.

    Driving Question: How can I address some of the present threats to global health while promoting human rights and social progress?

    Project Description: My project is a policy brief about the Malaria situation in Congo. It includes its nature and magnitude, the most affected populations, the socio-economic consequences, and the potential solution to reduce the burden. The policy aims to convince the finance Minister of Congo to invest in solutions for Malaria.

    Project Reflection: “I enjoyed hearing from my peers how the health care systems function in different countries. A challenge was writing in the concise and precise way required for the policy brief.” -Sofia W.

  6. Vibey

    October 8, 2020 by Nada A. Kirsten A. and Guillermo M.

    Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?

    What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?

    For this module, we all had a common goal, create a fun product for young people that will help them connect with themselves, so we produced a notebook with a lot of cool stuff in it.

    What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?

    I enjoyed researching and designing the driving questions for the journal. It was really insightful for me because I was basing what we had learned from the interviews and shaping it into something our users could interact with. I like that we were able to refine our product based on the feedback we got. At first, I thought that it would be hard to change all our work for the comments, but it turns out that it was beneficial. It made our vibey journal better.

  7. Asombro: A Jar of Surprise

    October 7, 2020 by Asja, Dia, and Viktoria

    Take Part in the Project: Visit the Asombro Website

    Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?

    What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?

    Our collective goal was to make a fun product that could potentially boost the mental health of teenagers all around the world aged 13-17. We did it by creating Asombro – a collection of jars filled with surprising prompts suiting every person’s individual interests. Asja created the jars; Dia the website, the Instagram account, and the logo; Viktoria did the prompts.

    What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?

    We learned how to apply design-thinking into making something into reality, and figured in the end that following a structured way of creating a product made the process a lot easier. Our team will definitely apply design-thinking skills to our future projects. We took into account our stakeholder’s needs by conducting over 20 empathy interviews and went through feedback sessions, and got a lot of positive responses regarding the idea. 

    What did this project mean to you?

    It meant a lot, each of us learned something new about ourselves.

  8. Hot Takes

    by Vansh C. Kiana B. Theo M. and Methini G.

    Driving Question: How might we collaboratively implement a design-thinking process to meet the needs of the community we serve?

    Who was your target audience? Why?

    Our target audience was the TGS community. We saw the impact that going online had on the community’s morale. Since there were not as many opportunities to connect with one another, so we decided to create such an opportunity.

    What were your goals for this module? How did you achieve them?

    We aimed to give an opportunity to the TGS community to connect with each other in a way that is fun and comfortable. We did this by hosting an open-ended discussion about controversial topics.

    What did you learn about yourself or about your creative process or about your medium?

    Each one of us learned something different about ourselves.

    What did this project mean to you?

    This project gave us an opportunity to form more connections within the community. It was also our first time collaborating with people we hadn’t before, so this project also allow us to form bonds within our summative group.

  9. Creating My Own Herb Garden

    by EffieLing H.

    Driving Question: How can I grow my own indoor herb garden in Finland’s dark winter?

    What are you passionate about that lead you to choosing this project?

    Being home so much allowed me to reflect on my personal actions and how I was contributing to the environment. I had in the past wanted to do a gardening project however traveling and limited outdoor space prevented that. 

    What do you hope people will get from looking at your page?

    I hope people will be inspired to possibly start their own mini herb gardens and realize that even having limited space won’t prevent you.

    What was your initial idea and what did you want to do/learn with this project?

    My initial idea was to just grow a herb garden and learn about the various herbs and how they grew from seed. 

    Did your project develop and change from your initial idea, if so how?

    Upon looking at the different learning targets I could possibly utilize I ended up adapting my project into a more of a science project where I explored how different soil types would effect growth. In my research, I ended up using 2 main variables: the soil type and 3 different herb seeds so that I may achieve the best results.

    What are your big takeaway lessons from this project?

    I think my biggest take away is that it was fun. I enjoyed observing and taking pictures of the plants growing. Watching something grow from seed is extremely rewarding and a beautiful part of life. 

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