Me and my four friends who had taken up Design Technology Higher Level decided to form a design club as a part of our CAS Project. The aim was to give students the experience of an actual Designer’s life in various forms like graphic, industrial, architectural, product, fashion, etc. For this project, around 20-25 students from grades 9, 10, and 11 enrolled. We started by having an introductory session which was a brief about this club and asked students their expectations from us and we cleared our expectations from them. We planned to have 3 modules in our club, one about basics about designing, second about CAD, and third about Graphic design. These three topics are required in most of the design fields and will give students a basic understanding of them. Due to the pandemic, we conducted these sessions online through google meet. 

LO1: Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

One of the strengths we has was that we five were from Design Technology Higher level and were clear about the topics and areas we were going to teach. Having a clear understanding f these topics was an advantage to us as we could easily make the learning more fun. 

LO2: Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

There were some challenges that we faced. One of them being able to organize. All five of us had different schedules along with that we had to consider the students’ schedules as these sessions were after school timings. In the staring it became hard for us to conduct sessions, some of them had their exams and were not able to join, so we had to reschedule and it continued to happen but we arranged it and tried to organize our classes prior, asking for their free time.

Another was these sessions were online. They were not the most fun and lacked enthusiasm and participation from students as we expected. But as we included more activities, we were able to see their participation. 

I developed a lot of skills during this project. I became more confident, responsible, balanced, and at last, this project made me a better communicator.

LO3: Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

Initiating and planning this project took a lot of effort. We all had to plan the flow of the session, curriculum, modules, presentations, and much more. We all were regularly in touch, used to organize group meets, discuss and divide the tasks. Our main goal was to make it short, interesting, and fun. Apart from this, we had meetings with our supervisors where they helped us out and suggested what could be done better. To manage and organize all of this, we created a spreadsheet in which we kept a track of all the students, deadlines, tasks, memos of meetings, curriculum, activities, and much more.

LO4: Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences.

Commitment and perseverance to this project was shown by all five of us. No matter how tiring our school day was, we had meetings to plan out and used to take time out on the weekends to meet and discuss. As mentioned earlier, we created a spreadsheet to organize and manage this club. In the spreadsheet, we created a column wherein we divided the tasks and set deadlines for each and every task and a check box next to each task. There were times when some tasks weren’t completed but we all helped each other. This club wouldn’t have been a success if it weren’t for our commitment and perseverance.

LO5: Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

Without my team, I wouldn’t have been able to manage this club. Having a team of 5 helped us a lot as we had a lot of school assignments and examinations apart from the tasks which were supposed to be completed in order to move forward with this club. We divided tasks and responsibilities which made things easier. Working in a team has a lot of benefits; even if one member is absent the others are always there.