Potens Sui Program | Semester 1, 2022
From global humanitarian problems to local issues in sustainable development, the Potens Sui Program engages students with complex real-world challenges, and presents a rich opportunity to develop the skills necessary to tackle them; preparing students for learning beyond Year 9, and for acquiring “mastery of self” - Potens Sui.
In the final week of Term 2, the Year 9 cohort experienced their first Potens Sui Program - Project MENTAL. Grounded by design thinking, our students developed and refined their collaboration skills as they worked towards creating digital solutions for mental health-related problems.
On Day 1, students actively participated in a Collaborate Workshop that challenged their assumptions and intuitions about effective collaboration. They were presented with team-building exercises and opportunities to reflect on what it meant to be a productive team member, and by extension, a positive leader. Students were then greeted by a panel of guest speakers, from different professional backgrounds, who shared stories about the mental health challenges and obstacles one could face in their occupation. These stories transformed into powerful real-world stimuli for our students during the Empathise and Define Workshops, where they conducted further research and articulated a problem statement that served as a guide for the rest of the Project.
Day 2 began with the Ideate Workshop, stretching students’ divergent and creative thinking skills - students were tasked with generating potential solutions that responded to the concerns identified by their problem statement. For the remainder of Day 2, students participated in Prototype Workshops, which scaffolded their practical skills with developing digital solutions. These workshops focused on experimenting with three digital mediums: CAD/3D modelling software, soft app development and video/social media marketing techniques. By the end of Day 2, students had created prototypes in preparation for testing on Day 3.
The last day consisted of Test Workshops, which allowed students to share their solutions with peers and teachers, receive feedback and improve their designs. Their work was then showcased at the Potens Sui Exhibition in the Gym, where the school community had the opportunity to view the various problem statements and digital solutions, and interview the students about their process and their experiences. After a successful Exhibition, students participated in the Reflect Workshop, to consolidate their learning and draw connections between Project MENTAL and classwork.
Overall, Project MENTAL revealed how innovative and imaginative our Year 9s are, creating digital solutions ranging from an app called MedBread (to link medical students to discounted healthy good), a retreat called Octivities (an Octopus-themed Squad Game spin-off, but for wellbeing), and a Virtual Reality Rage Room (where participants could break things without actually breaking things). Through this experience, not only did students discover ways of improving their collaboration skills, but they also learnt about strategies they might personally use to support their own wellbeing, and the wellbeing of their peers.
In Week 8 of Term 4, the Potens Sui Program returns with Project RECONCILIATION. This three-day intensive will enable the Year 9s to explore actions the Mac.Rob school community can take to support our reconciliation and inclusion efforts with the local First Nations community, all whilst strengthening their reasoning and critical thinking skills. Project RECONCILIATION will also serve as a celebration of the Year 9s growth and learning throughout their first year at Mac.Rob, with an Exhibition the families are invited to attend.
Miguel Regalo, Interdisciplinary Project Leader