1) It is important that young people lead the way in a project

It is crucial that students participate in this programme as it allows students to take charge of the project that they are passionate in. As a teacher I lead my classes but the great thing about YSI is that students take the lead and they respond really well to this. I n addition, I love how students pick a social issue close to their hearts and great a project that could make a difference to their community, this allows them to give back to their society.

2) Past experiences of how teams picked their social issues

I used a classroom metadology that I picked up from the  fantastic guide in-service. I place three posters on the classroom wall and each poster saied one the following:

It is not fair that…….
I would like to know more about …….
I am grateful for.....

Students wrote their answers on sticky notes and we could easily see what topics the YSI students would like to discuss.

3) Being passionate about the issue

Both issues being explored where close to students hearts or students had some experience with the issue. They really want to help and their aim was make a difference.

4) How the group dynamics were and how did the young people react to challenges

Our first challenge was that there were two ideas that students wanted to discuss. I emailed YSI and they kindly allowed one class to spilt and enter two YSI projects. Secondly, some students tended to do a lot of work so as a guide I ensured all students particpated and did equal amounts of work.