Parents, teachers and students filled the auditorium at Somersfield Academy to view the Middle Years Programme (MYP) participants’ International Baccalaureate projects.

From Cani Swan’s hovercraft to a Donovan Stubbs bodybuilding programme, the 18 student projects covered a gamut of ideas last Wednesday.

Zydeja Burgess created several outfits, many from old copies of The Royal Gazette, as well as from paper bags and other recyclables in order to hold a fashion show, at which she raised $500 for a youth mentorship and development programme called Stand Up, Stand Out.

She was inspired by her young cousin who suffered from medical challenges, and the charity was founded to support young people in similar situations.

Sachio Harrison was also driven to help people in need and undertook a fundraising project for brain tumour patients who required financial assistance. He raised $15,000 for charities LCCA and PALS by planning a school-wide walkathon.

Colby Mapp directed his focus on sports with a basketball skills-and-drills training programme that he recorded on film.

He aimed to “train two students at my school to improve their skills and abilities in basketball to show in an informative documentary”.

Stubbs, who designed the total workout programme, said: “The personal project is all about doing a project that is personal to you and important to you.

“I’ve always been interested in fitness in general. I designed this for other people, and then I tested it myself.

“I wanted it to look professional, I wanted to ensure the criteria was professional. It’s a 20-week workout programme, and includes information on losing fat, cardio, sleep and rest, calories, recipes, and shakes and meals.”

Other sports-focused projects included Darius Tucker’s under-23 football training programme, which was designed to cover a 12 week period. Noah Tompkins recorded a music album featuring his own songs and he explained that the sound was influenced by favourite bands like electro-rock duo Phantogram.

He also took the photograph for the album cover and designed a logo. Tompkins said he chose the project because he listens to music every day. “I thought I should do something which is such a big part of me,” he said.

Shanyce Morris wrote a collection of short stories that she compiled into a book, which was published with a cover picture that she took herself in New York. The stories focus on characters who are marginalised, with victims of abuse and people suffering from mental illness just two examples the young author gave.

Marcus Bassett is another young author, who wrote a science fiction short story called New Haven about a mother and daughter’s journey across the North American continent to reach a spaceship in which to evacuate the earth stripped of its natural resources.

“I’ve been writing throughout all my life. I really enjoy it; it’s one of my passions,” Basset said, adding that his aim was to create “a well written, entertaining and complex science fiction story”.

Alexandra Gerenda explored the creation and design of cake and raised funds for the Eliza DoLittle Society, while other projects included building a ukulele from scratch, and designing and printing a 3D Rubik’s cube.

The personal project is a requirement for all M5 IB students in the 15-to-16-year-old age range at Somersfield Academy and is described as a “product of a student’s own initiative”.

The International Baccalaureate says it places “great importance” on the development of student’s unique talent. Each project is monitored by a supervisor, but it is the student’s responsibility to complete all its components.

Somersfield science teacher and personal project coordinator Mark Gaskell said: “The project is very student-driven — they can pick anything, any personal interest and they are assessed on achieving a challenging goal.”

The project is in three parts: students document their first ideas, as well as all the steps and stages, in a process journal. They have to write a 3,000 to 5,000-word final report.”

“The IB is about student-driven learning, inquiry-driven learning,” he said, adding that students tend to perform better at university as a result.

“The data suggests that students have more success at university. The traditional exam-driven system is not what the modern university and workplace is looking for.”

The IB MYP personal projects are internally assessed and a sample of the student’s work goes to overseas moderators, where it is assessed externally.