EPQ Session 1
I will be doing regular weekly updates, as well as my ‘off the cuff’ updates, to document my process and the happenings of each week; as well as the plans for the upcoming week.
An overview of this overwhelmingly long post.
So, Anastasia, what did you do this week? This week, as my first ‘real’ week, has been dedicated entirely to the planning process. As Frances, my sociology teacher, so loves to say “fail to prepare, prepare to fail” - shout out to Frances - so prepare I have been doing, Frances.
So lets rewind back to Tuesday 8th September 2015, the day my EPQ as we know it really began. I sat down with Jane and we had a little chat, and then conversation turned to my EPQ as we had been vaguely discussing it since before the summer (however since then I’d completely changed topics and decided to do law instead of nursing). Jane’s idea was that perhaps we should look on the course pages for law at the universities that I was interested in, so we did. Whilst looking through the modules we considered which ones I was particularly drawn to, these turned out to be those regarding public international law and human rights law; I remembered the E-Team documentary I’d watched and showed the trailer to Jane and it was decided. Whatever the specific topic would end up as, it would be concerning public international law and human rights.
Anyone who knows a bit about law knows that it absolutely massive, so even with an area of law chosen I still had to whittle it down a little - the E-Team documentary focuses on a team of researchers who are sent into countries considered committing humanitarian crimes.
“The Emergencies Team at Human Rights Watch is a small group of researchers who are specially trained and very experienced in working in conflict areas.” “Human rights work ignites controversy. Human rights activists challenge people in power, and sometimes accuse them of very serious crimes. But most human rights work does not occur in conflict zones. Human Rights Watch sends only very experienced researchers like the E-TEAM into war. Before they go, we review the security of the mission and carefully evaluate the risk. We maintain extensive security protocols for our people in the field.” Taken from the Human Rights Watch website
From here Jane and I threw ideas around, and developed the preliminary title of ‘The History of Human Rights, Campaigns and the Law and its Development’ - the idea, to look at the development of human rights over the years; considering the involvement of law in such campaigns as the civil rights movement etc. After a quick Google search we found that the 10th December is Human Rights Day - how convenient that it hadn’t yet passed! Given that such an opportunity was presented as having time to create ‘something’ for Human Rights Day it made sense to have my artefact centred around that day. The sixth form have this thing about display boards and presentations - they absolutely love it - and an idea sprang to mind; perhaps I could create an amazing artefact AND educate people at the same time?
That evening and the following day was spent creating a presentation of sorts to show to the EPQ teacher, learning how to use Storify (we’ll get to that shortly) and creating this Tumblr blog. Plan. Plan. Plan.
And so Friday 11th September came round and the first EPQ session was upon me, unperturbed by the confusing room allocation which was actually the library, I was confident in my idea and topic. After explaining the plan Deborah, the teacher, seemed somewhat impressed but brought up a fact I had failed to spot. My topic was still overwhelmingly vague/gigantic/endless; a little more trimming was needed - I’d mentioned that I wanted to consider the happenings in Syria and the effects on its people seeking refuge in other countries, so, she suggested that perhaps taking that as my main focus would make the whole task a little more ‘manageable’. I saw her point and decided that was, indeed, a very sensible option. This first EPQ session also saw one of the librarians showing us how to utilise the many catalogues accessible at college; an extremely useful tool, I’m sure I’ll explore more during the coming weeks.
ACHIEVEMENT OF THE WEEK: Booking the refectory display area for Thursday 10th of December for my display board by speaking to Julie and Aaron!
Plan for this coming week.
Create a new title (not necessarily finalised) that fits with the new theme of the Syrian crisis
Compile resources
Think of a few possible features for the display