We have two types of Project approach: for the 3rd year students’ Final Project (PAP), and the 1st and 2nd year students’ Interdisciplinary Projects.
In the first case, the students choose their Project and discuss it with their PAP tutor (sometimes even in previous years). Then, they start developing it throughout the year with the help of all the other trainers. The aim is to be able to hand in a final piece of written work at the end of the year and to present their Project to a jury.
For the 1st and 2nd year students, once the school has a strong relationship with different companies and institutions, we choose a topic bearing in mind some of the requests from real companies/school partners. This is usually presented to the students as a problem to be solved or a weak point to be turned into an opportunity. Students have to deal with real life problems and their solutions, propositions, answers which can be effectively put in motion if the companies/institutions feel they are appropriate; thus, this makes for stronger student motivation.
The stages of this Project work methodology are: a) Project Awareness; b) Planning (with scheduled Planning Class Councils), c) Research and Check; d) Preparing the presentation to the class/company or institution/community; e) Presentation; f) Company feedback/evaluation.