Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

Individual Paper
Evaluation of project plan
On November 2015, my Global Perspectives teacher assigned the IGCSE 2 class a task to
do over a three month period. That task was to think, decide and complete of an idea for our
group research projects. My group worked enthusiastically on Project Rainbow for the last few
months, and it was one of the most meaningful things that I have ever worked on.
My name is Bui Thien Minh and my other group members for this assignment were
Anna, Juliene, Kitty and Sue. The first meeting was on the 12 th of November, 2015 and we had to
choose from 20 Global Perspectives topics. After two class periods of discussions, the choice
was between doing a project about raising the communitys awareness on LGBT rights, or about
starting a campaign on saving endangered animals. We narrowed down these two choices
because we thought that their humane concept could really involve our school community. We
almost gave up on the LGBT idea because of various reasons, and also because of the
controversial aspects of it. However, we decided not to let go of this idea, after realizing the
positive impacts it would bring in the future if the project outcome turned out to be a success. In
the end, every group member agreed on this topic and we set it as our projects main direction,
because we thought it was the right thing to do and also an interesting research topic.
We wanted to create a better place for our generation and for the next generation. As good
citizens we wanted to make our project meaningful by educating the students in Singapore
International School about Human Rights. Our intended outcome was to raise awareness about
LGBT rights in four ways: first we wanted to design posters to provide information about free
dress day associated with our LGBT Rights presentation, second we created a hashtag name
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Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

(#ProjectRainbowSIS) to link to social media to spread awareness about the presentation, third
we wanted to have an interactive presentation with SIS students to educate them on LGBT rights
and fourth to go out into the community to gauge the communities knowledge and acceptance of
LGBT rights to understand the community we are living in. Through these activities we believed
that students and the community will be more understanding and open minded to the LGBT
community. This understanding will lead to respect to all different types of people and that will
lead to a more peaceful and accepting kind of world. We would gauge this growth in awareness
through our written surveys that we created as a group that all the students would complete after
the presentation. These surveys showed us how the thinking of our students changed after our
several events. Through gauging how much information the students retained through a survey
using number scales we hoped to see a growth in at least 70% of our students. If our goal
succeeded, it means that we made a positive difference in the community.
While researching online, I found out that the International Human Rights Day was
coming up on the 10th of December. That was a perfect opportunity for our group because we
could use that day to start a campaign on raising the awareness of Human Rights in general. At
that moment, we had a single main goal to work towards, organizing the Human Rights Day
event which was on the 11th of December. After that, we could start working on the Group Paper
and Individual Papers. In most of the meetings, the group made a lot of progress and they were
usually used very effectively. We reached the deadlines that we set from the meetings before. On
the other hand, the purpose of the project changed through time, for it to be more suitable. The
team never had any conflicts and generally we always supported each other, when other
members couldnt find research information for example. I think part of the reason was because
we all like this project with our heart so everyone was doing their best. We had no specific
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Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

positions for the group members and no leader, because that gives everyone equal
responsibilities. This was a good approach because there was no pressure on a specific individual
and it made everyone feel that they were equally important to the group.

Evaluation of project process

Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

The groups objective at the time was to get the principals permission for the LGBT
project to happen. However, we didnt get the permission and the main reason was because
theres a huge possibility that the students parents wouldnt feel comfortable knowing that the
LGBT-related issues were being discussed at school with their children. Usually, the target
audience needs to be more mature in order to acknowledge this topic. It could create many
problems to involve the project with younger students. Also, many of our previous ideas could be
restricted, like educating students with a video about LGBT for example. Our solution was to
(Hashtag written on students arm)

organize a Human Rights Day event, which didnt focus directly and only on the LGBT
community, but still related to it. It was an event which all students could participate in by
wearing any clothes of choice with rainbow colors. The rainbow is one of the symbols for the
LGBT community and it represents diversity. Another meaning to it, is that we chose 7 main
Human Rights that related to LGBT for our project. Thats how we got our groups name, Project
Rainbow. The students would also have to write #ProjectRainbow on their arm to show that they
participated in this event and show support to our project. We hung posters around the schools
and used posts on Facebook (https://goo.gl/nsKE3T) to promote this event and to create a
stronger image of Project Rainbow in everybodys mind. There was also a presentation for
students from year 7 and above about Human Rights, the history of Human Rights Day and a
(Sample of our Poster)

section about LGBT. In addition, there were interactive activities about privilege, the different
human rights and a short Question and Answer section near the end.
The Human Rights event happened on the 11th of December. I think it was outstandingly
successful because 90% of the students wore bright color clothes, and it really showed our
message: it doesnt matter where you come from, your race, your gender, what your job is,
everyone needs to be treated equally with their human rights. The different colors emphasized
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Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

that message that we wanted to pass to the audience. All the group members worked extremely
well with each other to make a well-rounded presentation and this presentation was the best part
of our project in my opinion. I think next time we should plan the project more carefully because
it was a bit hurried near the end. Part of the reason is because we only had 3 days to complete the
PowerPoint presentation and collect all the useful resources, since we decided too late on making
the slideshows or not. Teachers like Ms. Laurel and Ms. Kelsey also tried their best to make this
event happen and I really appreciate their effort, thats also why the presentation needed to be the
best possible. Besides that, all the members had amazing connections and teamwork with each
other, which really contributed to the quality of the presentation.
The presentation flowed smoothly because the speakers were confident, but I felt like we
could have prepared the script more carefully. The story Ms. Laurel told that everybody had to
close their eyes and imagined is an effective method to interact with the students and made them
realize the importance of Human Rights existence.
The privilege game could have been better
instructed and there was also little space for
everyone to move around. I felt guilty myself
because a few students were more behind the
Privilege-line, which could make them upset. But it
was a good thing that nobody was too far back. But the emotional atmosphere was gone when we
had the next activity, which we separated the students in different groups to make posters based
on their given human rights. The groups were working zealously with each other to make their
posters. Seeing everyone laugh and enjoy their time really warmed my heart and its already
considered one of our big successes. The event was even better than we imagined it to be
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Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

because all the audience participated

cooperatively and there were a variety of
on-point opinions.

Evaluation of project outcome

(Students who participated)

(Ms. Laurels Amnesty speech

After the presentation, there were emotional

feelings from both the speakers and the audiences. It felt like there was an invisible string
between everybody and we definitely learned something that could affect each of us as a person.
One month after the presentation, we created a survey to gauge the students knowledge and
asked what they remembered about the Human Rights Day in order to analyze the results for our
research. We believed that this was the best way to measure if the students awareness had raised.
Our actual outcome was a bit different than the intended outcome due to the events
described previously in this paper. In the end we raised awareness about Human Rights and
LGBT rights in three ways: first we designed posters to provide information about free dress day
associated with our Human Rights presentation, second we created a hashtag name
(#ProjectRainbowSIS) to link to social media to spread awareness about the presentation and
third we had an interactive presentation with SIS students YR 7 and above (approximately 63
students) to educate them on human rights and LGBT rights. Our topic shifted from LGBT rights
to human rights as we encountered several obstacles with the school administration. They were
weary that it was too sensitive of a topic that our parents would not approve of. We did not go
out into the community to gauge the communities knowledge and acceptance of LGBT rights to
understand the community we are living in because of the lack of time and our inability to record
final outcomes in a large city. Through these activities students are more understanding and open

Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

minded to the LGBT community and the needs of all humans on earth. This understanding will
lead to respect for all different types of people and that will lead to a more peaceful and
accepting kind of world. We gauged this growth in awareness through our written surveys that
we created as a group. You can see these graphs in previous pages. These surveys showed us how
the thinking of our students changed after our several events. However, we only received back 32
out of 63 surveys, as students were irresponsible in returning our materials. This made us a little
disappointed because those missing surveys could really affect our outcome analysis. Based on
the 32 surveys given and returned to gauge growth, it shows that 30 out of 31 students found that
their knowledge on Human Rights had improved. Before the presentation, students were not so
confident to write a high score on the survey and there were no tens out of tens, but after the
presentation, they were confident to write a lot of sevens out of ten, eights, nines and a ten. This
survey helped us a lot in achieving our actual outcome. We thought we did not do our best
because there were a lot of students not discussing but then through their answers, we knew that
we did a good job in educating students about Human Rights and LGBT Rights. We believed that
this project made the students better people because their awareness on this topic were clearly
raised, which made them more educated and prevents them from doing things that are against
Human Rights.

Evaluation of my contribution
For this project, I worked as a writer and researcher. I think my biggest contribution for
this project was to find out about the existence of Human Rights Day and explain to the other
group members on how to turn it into an advantage in ways like making posters and showing
videos to the classes. Im very proud of this discovery because it became the main structure for
our project later on. I think what I can improve in the future is to talk more with other group
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Bui Thien Minh

Global Perspective

IGCSE 2

members to clearly understand exactly what they were planning to do. There are some moments
that I missed out on the important information and the other members had to explain it again, so
better communication is one thing that I need to fix in the future. Every member is committed to
both the presentation and the research paper so Im really satisfied with the team and my own
personal contribution.

What I have learned from cross-cultural collaboration

After this project, I think my respect and knowledge about Human Rights has changed
drastically. My attitude has changed towards a few issues that makes me a better person. Before,
I wouldnt take the topic of LGBT as serious as I do now and I honestly even made fun of it
sometimes. After listening to touching stories and reading different research, I felt speechless and
also enlightened by the truth. Learning about human rights makes me realize their importance in
this society and how this world can be cruel and disorganized without them. Its a great thing to
understand the world that Im living in. Seeing all the students walking out of the presentation
hall feeling like they learned something made me realize one thing: Education can convert
peoples thinking and even change their destiny. Our goal was to educate the community but I
believe every member was also educated themselves during this project. In different places in the
world, human rights might not be treated with respect but by small events like this, it can change
peoples mind. It might not be the fastest way, but the knowledge thats earned can definitely
impact on the way a community think.