The Junior Project is a chance for students to use the accumulated skills and knowledge they have gleaned from all their subjects at SHSID. In groups of 6-8, students will spend the year developing their own unique answer to the guiding question “What can we do to improve quality of life in Shanghai?” which will ultimately be shown to classmates and faculty in the form of a 10-12 minute presentation with a visual component. Each group has two designated Mentor Teachers who provide guidance and counseling to prepare for this presentation. Group members must, not only theorize, but demonstrate and apply solutions in a manner which uses knowledge and skills from at least six subject courses.

— SHSID Junior Project Booklet

On June 12th, 2019, the juniors finally had the chance to showcase their results for the junior projects they had been working on for the past year. After seven long months of preparation and creation, almost every group was brimming with excitement to show the teachers what they had accomplished over the year. The guiding question of this year’s junior project is “What can we do to improve the quality of life in Shanghai?” a question that provides ample space for creativity for each student.

The first round of presentations for each group was held in XMT. Groups gathered together at their assigned classrooms after a lunch break of nervousness and last-minute rehearsing, and they waited for their evaluation teachers to arrive. After the bell echoed across the hall, signaling the beginning of the junior project presentations, the corridor was quieted and students quickly calmed themselves from the tense break fueled by each student’s anticipation. One by one, student groups delineated their efforts across the seven months in front of the teachers assessing their presentations; in return, teachers also listened carefully and respectfully to students’ presentations, taking down notes and asking students insightful questions at the end of each presentation.

The initial round of presentations was completed and nine groups were selected as Outstanding Groups: Plastics, Metropolis Sunshine, SEQUAL, Beacon, Asian Family, Indoor Air Purifying Group, Save the Children, and Group One. These groups were invited to present in front of the whole grade and faculty to share with everyone their research objectives and the huge effort they devoted to completing the project. Due to time constraints, only four groups were given the chance to present in the XMT annex on June 12th. The remainder of the Outstanding Groups were scheduled to present in future assemblies.

The four groups that presented were Indoor Air Purifier, Beacon, My Kitchen, and Metropolitan Sunshine. All four groups presented to the audience their unique ideas on how to improve the quality of life in Shanghai, and, amazingly, none of them brought up similar ideas, reflecting the diversity and creativity of the SHSIDers.

Specially, Christine Wu from Wellesley College was invited to come to the auditorium and make a speech. She then pronounced Britney Zhang from 11(8) the winner of the annual Wellesley Book Award for her excellent academic performance, extracurricular studies, and potential in changing the world in the future.

Even as the school day ended and the share of presentations ended, SHSID’s junior projects were far from over. Other than the teams that had yet to present, many teams also expressed their will to continue the efforts and dedication to their projects in order to make Shanghai a better place.

The following day, on June 13th, juniors gathered in the XMT Annex for their last assembly of the year, in which two awards were given: the Outstanding Groups of Junior Project and the Certificate of Appreciation—Junior Assembly. The award winners were filled with satisfaction and their cheers filled the XMT annex. Let’s congratulate these students for receiving their rewards through their commitment and effort.

Junior Project Comments from Mentor Teachers

Mr. J.R.

My group has created a social media platform called My Kitchen 2020 with the goal of improving the dietary habits of Shanghai residents. Through a long process of research, interviews, writing, filming, editing, and publishing, they have been able extend their message and influence beyond the school walls as they have promoted healthy eating habits and nutritious recipes along with raising awareness about the negative effects of a takeout-based diet.

Mr. C.H.

My group, RE·crea$ion, worked really hard and was committed to the process of research in order to improve the local community. They worked together as a team to find practical ways to promote recycling and to repurpose common waste into useful and attractive products. Their creative solutions to waste and recycling will help inspire us all to look at products and packaging in new ways.

DIY Recycled Art

Mr. A.N.

My group has worked on developing a device that will alert the hearing-impaired to incoming traffic, thereby increasing their safety when they navigate the city. From polling local members of the hearing-impaired community to developing a functioning prototype, this group has worked hard to understand and meet the needs of members of their community. With further development, perhaps this prototype will one day become a device we see on the streets of Shanghai!

Mr. M.S.

Our group took it upon themselves to help SHSID be in compliance with Shanghai's new, complicated, trash sorting policy. After navigating the Byzantine depths of new legal code, the group took it upon themselves to educate the school community about the intricacies of classifying the four types of trash. Along the way they developed an intimate familiarity with the scintillating yet seldom-seen SHSID logistics department, met with school leaders of all persuasions and power levels, dealt with the hottest of hostile questions, taught themselves a thing or two about aesthetics and photoshop, and learned some valuable lessons about the difficulties of working with complex systems of people. While they may not have met the demands of their titanic ambitions, the knowledge they gained about how things happen in real, chaotic, and complex environments—not to mention their expertise in a complex new law—is exactly what we hoped students would take from this project.