MYP - IB Personal Project Ideas (lots of ideas)
If you are an MYP student who’s struggling to find an idea for the IB Personal Project, here’s a list of some projects that were done this year and in years past:
- Writing a book
- Writing a poem
- Writing a script
- Writing a song
- Developing a marketing campaign to address a Teen Issue, like teen pregnancy
- Training a pet
- Composing a song
- Building something - like a guitar, furniture, etc.
- Developing a plan for a solar powered car
- Learning how to play an instrument
- Learning to play a sport
- Using physics to perfect a sport (a pool shot, a hockey shot, a free-throw, etc.)
- Developing a new strategy for chess, poker or another game
- Starting a business
- Developing a recipe
- Designing and making jewlery
- Producing and directing a movie
- Producing and directing a music video
- Producing and directing an exercise video
- Demonstrating how to do something
- Doing a research/lab report for an original scientific idea
- Drawing a mural
- Throwing pottery
- Going on an archeological dig
- Researching your genealogy
- Debating
- Building a proposal/plan
- Forming a club
- Raising money for charity
- Inventing something
- Developing a speech
- Conducting an experiment
- Performing (dance, music, comedy)
- Providing a photo essay
- Building a model
- Developing your own video game
- Creating an e-commerce website
- Creating a blog
- Creating software programs
- Developing a business plan
- Designing clothes
- Remodeling using eco-friendly material
- Launching a Recycling Program
- Learning a foreign language
The possibilities for creating your personal project are endless. Make sure you pick something that you like and something you think you’ll have fun doing. You’ll be spending your summer and 4-6 months of the school year working on this project. Make sure it’s something that you can be passionate about.
Jose,
To answer your question a photo essay is a set or series of photographs that are intended to tell a story or evoke a series of emotions in the viewer. A photo essay will often show pictures in deep emotional stages. Photo essays range from purely photographic works to photographs with captions or small notes to full text essays with a few or many accompanying photographs. Photo essays can be sequential in nature, intended to be viewed in a particular order, or they may consist of non-ordered photographs which may be viewed all at once or in an order chosen by the viewer. All photo essays are collections of photographs, but not all collections of photographs are photo essays. Photo essays often address a certain issue or attempt to capture the character of places and events.
Constanza,
If you like to talk to people and want to design a website, why not create a blog? You will be communicating your thoughts and ideas to people (the equivalent of talking) and you’ll be designing your own blog site.
i need help on my personal project i want to do something in the photographic area can you help me Cloe!? please!!
Hi!
My name is Idris and i am in yr.9 and doing the personal project. I am in need of ideas!! My hobbies are Cars, sports, business and science. Pls help..
Thanks a lot!
hi chloe.
my name is niki
im in a mental deadend as i cant think of what to do for my myp personal project .and for the “subject chosen” submition thingy i said MARKETING now i have come up with a few ideas
creating a magazine for teenagers relating to what they are interested in : music , movies ,games ,fasion , electronics ,starbucks……
and develop a marketing campaign for it
what i will write for the writen part (4000 words)
is it how i did it or my experience sort of thing…………….and is it ok if i put other peoples work in it (artcles)
~niki~
and wHAT AOI they connect too
niki
Hey chole
Thank you very much for the idea… but if i dont want to compare american culture and indian culture and choreograph my own dance and teach a few kids so they can perfrom for a event at school. Also what AOI would this go into….
Hey. I have to come up with my personal project but i don’t know what to do. I was thinking of doing something along the lines of photography but i’m lost. what can i do that relates to photography?
Hi, my name is sarah and i am also required to do a personal project. As i am quite a creativde person, but also social justice inclined i was planning to make an art piece out of recycled materials. I was planning to make 4 scultures, which are four dresses highlighting the fashion of an era, made our of something specifically related to that era. E.g. for 2010 I am going to make a green dress out of ‘green recycle bags’ to show how people have become climate aware, etc
Have you got any ideas on how i could fit this in to areas of interactions, and what qustions i should use?
sorry was ment to say i want to choreograph my own dance and teach……
Hi Chloe,
I’m in Year 9 and currently going through the process of selecting my Personal Project. I have a few ideas floating around and would really appreciate your help in how I could best put these ideas together and relate it to an AOI.
My mother’s parents were immigrants from Croatia, however they passed away when my mother was 12 so I do not know much about them or any of my family history in Croatia. I was thinking I could create a book that involved research into my family tree, current relatives in Croatia, information about their local culture, Croatian history, authentic recipes (I could possibly try cooking these and photographing my efforts) etc.
Do you think this is a good idea? I would really appreciate any suggestions, improvements and also ideas on which AOI I could relate it to.
Thankyou so much!
Hi. i am also in the myp program & i have absolutely no idea what to do =/ i want to do something pertaining to drama/theatre arts because that is something i am really passionate about. i cant write or direct a play because that takes too much work & equipment and i have no time for that in between my excessive homework and my job. is there any other things i can do besides writing and directing a play? please help. thanks(:
Malika
Why not try just writing a play…with out directing it. I was able to write a 112 pg book in the amount of time allowed. Writing is the best project you can do, in my opinion, because you don’t have to coordinate a bunch of things. You just sit down with whatever time you have and write. Writing a screenplay is a good idea and would be my choice.
Hope that Helps
~Chloe~
Niki,
Sounds like a great idea. If you choose to put other people’s works in your written portion of the PP, you must cite them. Try to keep direct uses to a minimal. However, indirectly referencing other works and comparing your work to others is just fine.
Sounds good
~Chloe~
Niki,
Hi again, you can connect to the AOI Human Ingenuity because you’re creating something (of course you’ll have to go a little deeper with your connection than that, but it’s a start). You can also connect it to the AOI Environment and talk about the capitalistic environment of the 21st century that we live in and how it related to teenagers.
~Chloe~
Ashlyn,
For photography you can do a lot of different things.
1. Create a picture book
2. Use photography as a means to compare different cultures
3. Examine how a photograph can capture the essence of a moment
4. … so on and so forth. There are a lot of things that you can do with photography. If you don’t like anything on this list, could you narrow down your idea for me so I can further help you in this process.
~Chloe~
Sarah,
Great idea! The AOI’s you can connect this to is Human Ingenuity (creating something…consequences/benefits of creating), Environment (using recycled material to create something. Show’s how in this day and age, we are aware of our environment and adjust accordingly…etc…), Health and Social interaction (How social interactions in society today can lead to this fashion trend).
Those are just some ideas to run with. Hope that helps.
~Chloe~
Misty,
Sounds like a great idea, but make sure that you are able to connect what you’re doing to something meaningful. So don’t just choreograph a dance and be done. You have to do research, maybe mix different styles of dancing into a new form that you can call your own, and teach that to someone. That would be interesting.
~Chloe~
Claire,
This is a great idea. You can definitely connect this to the AOI Human Ingenuity (because you’re creating something, include the consequences/benefits of creating and such), and you can connect to Health/Social interaction if you connect the Croatian culture to ours (social interactions of US compared to those of Croatia). If would make for an interesting project to see these differences. Evaluators love projects that are meaningful as opposed to projects that people thought were easy. This really seems like something that you’re passionate about and would definitely prove to be meaningful.
Be prepared because looking into family trees is harder than it seems.
Good Luck
~Chloe~
i need something thats related to business please help me…… i will start after 20 day
I was wondering if you could suggest any ideas for me. I am interested in writing and photography and was wondering if attempting to get one of my pieces published could some how work? Or to do something along those lines, any ideas? I am very into art; painting, drawing, photography, writing, but i cannot play an instrument. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
- Stella
hey,
i was wondering if anyone had i deas about the persnal project todo with sculpture and art since i am really intrested in them but i dont know what base them on. HELP ! i was thinking about working with disablity but i am not intrested in it …. what do you think would be a cool thing to do so that my product would be a model of something or sculpture??
Stella,
You can do practically anything with anyone of those topics. Since I did writing for my personal project, I’ll give you some ideas for that. For my personal project, I worked on developing a writing process that would allow me to actually finish a novel. I did not actually get mine published. I just focused on the fact that I had a chapter 5 disease. I would be able to write up to chapter 5 and I wouldn’t be able to come up with more things to write about or I would get bored with the topic of the novel and quit to start a new one.
That’s just one idea, but there are hundreds of possibilities for any one of those topics that you have presented. If you feel passionate about one thing in particular and would like some more help, feel free to re-comment.
~Chloe~
Fatema,
Make sure that if you want to do art that you also make it meaningful. The MYP world doesn’t like it when a student just makes something and says “here, I made something, it’s my personal project.” Making something tangible is always a good thing, but you need to find something to connect it to. Maybe you should study other sculptures and use techniques of other artists to make something new, modern, and totally your own. Maybe you can look into how artists of earlier centuries have influenced modern art and make a sculpture of your own to show exactly how these influences manifest in modern art.
~Chloe~
Hi, I have just complied my personal project. I wrote a travel book about a the country I am from . In the book I included a brief history of the country. Also , I included the major cities and attractions. however, I now realized that I am unaware as to which AOI this book covered.
Hey Chloe
I have just started working on my 4000 word essay for my personal project. My goal was to create comfortable and expressive t-shirts for teens. Basically, i created graphics for the t-shirts and got them printed. I linked my project to Human Ingenuity, but i don’t know how to explain how it’s relevant to my project. Any ideas?
Thank youu
Khadija
Julia,
You can connect your project to the AOI Health and Social interaction because travel books generally include things relating to different places to go to interact with others. You can also include Environment and explore how your travel book depicts your country and how that’s different from travel books about the US. Also you can connect it to Community and Service if you included different aspects of different communities in your travel book.
Hopefully this gives you a good place to start.
~Chloe~
Khadija,
You can also connect your project to the AOI of Community and Service if you were planning on donating the shirts to underprivileged teens so that they could express themselves in the same fashion that other teens do. You could potentially connect it to the AOI Environment if you look at the commercial effects of producing t-shirts.
~Chloe~
Hi.
For my personal project I wanted to design and plan my own journey around the world.
Because traveling has always interested me.
Do you think that’s a good project?
And do you think it’s a problem if you don’t use your own pictures?
Lisette
Hi Chloe,
I have a great passion in music performance, and my dream is to be a professional concert cellist. I know this dream will not come true in reality, but I wish to do this in my pesonal project. I wish to do a proper performance, making a balance program with pieces chosen from Boroque period to 20th century composers, with proper program notes. I plan to make this real by listening to CD, DVD, interview professional performers… to make my performance a success, or as real as a professional performance. However I don’t know what AOI this is going to be. Human Ingenuity, creating a concert of my own, although I didn’t write what I perform. If not, what should be my AOI? Please give me guidelines of how to make it personal, and to get a good grade from it.
Hello Chloe
I’m preparing for the MYP Personal Project. The problem is that I cant seem to find anything to do about.
I’m interested in Arts; Drama, Photography, directing and movie making (however, I’ve never really tried it before, so that would be a bit difficult :/)
And also; Creative Writing, but i don’t want to write a novel, or short stories book because two of my friends are doing that and I don’t want them to think I’m copying them.
But I want to do something that is rarely done; Any Ideas? Please help!
At first, I really wanted to do something that has to do with the book series Harry Potter, because it was, and currently is, my obsession…
Any ideas?
Thanks loads. x
Meena
Hey, I think this is an amazing blog, thanks Chloe for running it. I think I am gonna make a few contributions to this blog before I ask you for my help.
Well, the most creative project I have seen is that of a student who sent emails to celebrities and athletes asking them what their meaning of success was, then he compiled them and defined success on his own. It was pretty good.
My brother last year organized a clean-up of a forest and got some sponsorship money to make bins and set them up in the forest.
A physics genious last year did a whole report which he gave the the greater municipality about how skits resistance should be considered in road safety (no idea what that is, but its kinda like Einstein-ish work)
Um, I am interested in many things, whoever I would like to focus on
a) Solar Energy or something related to environmental sciences
b) Globalization
c) Track and Field (cause like i am really interested in track but the community here is kinda limited for this sport)
d) Computers and creating a website
Please give me your ideas, I would like something innovated, preferably related to human ingenuity and NOT community and service.
I think your blog gave me an idea of doing a blog about globalization, but will it work?
Please answer soon, as my PPR form is due NEXT WEEK!
Thanks so much in advance
Hi, I have had my personal project hanging over my head for about the last 4 months
and the due date is in two weeks, and i have done hardly anything!
I am investigating What kind of fiction appeals to teenage readers, and writing a 2000 word report thing, but I am not sure what AOI it would fit into, Health and social education or Human ingenuity?
Also, do you have any idea for sources that i could incorporate into my work?
I got about 450 teenagers to do a survey relating to reading, is there anything else i could do?
Thanks
Nadine,
Sorry, I know that this is a little late, but I love researching Globalization. One of the topics that I find interesting is the Golden Arches Theory of Conflict Prevention…just because it’s an interesting way to look at peace/conflict studies. Another topic that you can look at in Globalization is the idea of how Globalization is essentially Americanization and that it destroys cultures. Maybe you could do a project where you design a pamphlet or web page that explains the importance of keeping diverse cultures and traditions in a world that is becoming more and more similar every day.
I hope this helps
~Chloe~
Sarah,
It would fit into human ingenuity the most because you are analyzing what types of creative work impacts teenagers the most and you’re (probably) looking at different styles and comparing how people create their novels.
I would recommend that you look at Stephen King’s On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft He mostly analyzes his style and his inspirations, but they might give you an insight on what teens look for in a book.
However, I must recommend that you look up top selling books among teens and see what comes up. Maybe you can read a few and look at why it appeals or doesn’t appeal to you. Make sure that you include a personal element in the paper. The evaluators love when you make connections to your own life when presenting your project. You could also compare the survey that you’ve already done to the top selling books among teens and see how it compares. You could also talk to your librarian at school and ask them about the books that people check out the most.
I hope this helps
~Chloe~
Hi. i’m am about to be a sophmore so i need to start coming up with ideas on what to do for my Personal Project. i really like music, but all i can play is the violin but i have a guitar so i was thinking about learning how to play it but my teacher advised us to stay away from learning how to play an instrument since it might take too long. i also love baking/cooking but making a cookbook is so unoriginal! HELP ME PLEASE!!!!!!!!! also what aoi could i link these to?
would learning how to do something on a car like fixing/replacing brakes count as a personal project and if it would what aoi would it be???
Mia,
If you already play a string instrument, I would say that you should go ahead and learn how to play the guitar. The hardest part of learning how to play is getting used to pushing strings down hard enough to make a sound, and you already have that taken care of. I taught myself how to play the guitar and it only took me a few months of perseverance to learn a few songs.
If you decide to learn how to play the guitar, I will suggest that you also compose your own song. You could even record a song using the violin and the guitar. If you compose music, you could connect your project to the AOI Human Ingenuity (same for the cook book).
If you need any help with the guitar or any further advice, just leave another comment.
Hopefully this helps
~Chloe~
Hi,
I’m currently doing my personal project as designing a sustainable house. I thought this wouldn’t be too hard as I had a bit of experience in the area already, but I’m actually finding it really hard to find the time and also to find the motivation. I was given a guitar a month or so before I was introduced to the PP and have since been learning how to play it on my own. I had an idea that if I couldconvibce my teachr to let me change, I could use learning the guitar as my project and work towards learning and recording a number of songs. Do you know what AOI this would fit into? I would prefer not to write a song as I don’t have a lot of time and probably don’t have the expertise for this yet? What do you think? I’m new to myp so I don’t really understand it very well!
Julia,
I am always an advocate for playing the guitar. You could connect recording music to the AOI Human Ingenuity. Writing songs isn’t too bad. One thing that someone at my school did a few years back is they recorded songs using minor chords v. major chords and did a study on which songs people like more. That could be an interesting idea. And if you are unsure about recording songs that you’ve written in general, I would just use the fall back chords G D Em C.
If you need any further help, don’t be afraid to ask.
~Chloe~
Hi,
I’m doing my personal project this fall, but I am not quite sure on what to do. I would like to do something related to Civil rights, but I don’t want to do anything unoriginal like raising money for a charity, as many in my school has done this before. One of my main inspirations are RFK and I thought of maybe doing something related to the RFK foundation or him himself.
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Emma
Hi Chloe,
Basically, I like art, drama and fashion. I was thinking of creating outfits or clothes or artwork that represent different cultures (maybe 4-6) and maybe show an awareness (yet they are linked together), then maybe auctioning it and donating the money to a charity. But will this be too much work? And which AOI can I link this to?
Thanks,
Cassie.
Hi Chloe,
I am halfway through my personal project, which is basically a booklet on the history if a local suburb. It covers the lives of people who lived there, jobs people had, dates of when things were built, the types of residents in various eras, how and why it has changed, etc.
My school only allows me to choose one AOI to relate my project to, I am stuck for ideas and it would be a great help if you could suggest the most relevant one, and various ways in which I relate it to my project.
Thankyou!
Kate
hi Chloe I was just wondering if you could give me some help with my personal project. How would you say human ingenuity is connected to designing a house? I am just designing the floor plans and doing a Google sketch up deign.
Chloe,
Sorry for adding another question to the list. Im brainstorming for the personal project but Im having trouble coming up with a good project that will get me a good grade and interest me. Im not an artsy person at all, but i can write. Im interested in culture/foreign languages, but I dont know what product I can turn that interest into. Any ideas?
Thank you so much.
Caitlin
Hi Chloe,
Your blog is amazing! It’s really helpful to people. Thanks for doing this.
So, I have this problem about my project.My MYP project is about teen depression, I will do a video about this topic.I’ve done some researching and I sent some questionnaires to people about depression.And, I’m ready to interview my peers. One of my goals is to show the video to people and record their reactions or comments. But I really don’t want to show these to people at my school, I’m thinking I could upload it to youtube. What do you think?
Thanks a lot!!!
Liam,
That sounds like a good idea. You could also blur out faces and alter voices if you’re worried about showing reactions of your peers at school. Think 60 minutes when people don’t want others to know who they are. =D
Hope that helps
~Chloe~
Caitlin,
While it isn’t the most original idea in the world, you could write a travel book that gives the ins and outs of a culture and the language spoken in a given area. If you are more into creative writing, you could always write a book and set it somewhere like Latin America. You could use Isabel Allende or Gabriel Garcia Marquez as influences (you could even write something related to their books). Those are just some ideas, but you can take this idea and apply it to anywhere/author that interests you.
Hope this helps.
~Chloe~
Sophia,
Make sure that you add something more than just “I made something” in order to connect it to Human Ingenuity. Include the technology you used, how effective was it, how does what you made effect others, consequences/benefits of creating, so on and so forth. Make sure to make your connections to your AOI meaningful. It would be a shame to spend a lot of hard work and time on a project only to get marked down on your connections to an AOI.
I hope this helps.
~Chloe~
Kate,
I can’t believe that they only let you connect to one! That’s horrible. However, I would say that you should connect it to the AOI Health and Social Education (based on the information given). Unfortunately, I haven’t seen your project and it looks like you’ve spent a lot of time on it and it looks like the booklet covers a lot in depth. Only you are the expert. So, here’s the link to the IB web site where you can find the information on each AOI and see which best to connect it to. Based on your product, you may or may not agree with my suggestion, but it’s the best I can come up with with the information given.
http://www.ibo.org/myp/curriculum/interaction/
PS Homo Faber is Human Ingenuity
I hope this helps
~Chloe~