Success subject: "Activating Identities and Futures"

The Saint Ignatius' College Class of 2023 has reached remarkable success through the innovative Activating Identities and Futures (AIF) subject.

The cohort earned an impressive 17 merits, 28 A+’s (20%), 32 A’s (23%), 29 A-‘s (21%) for AIF - overall, 64% in the A grade band.

Saint Ignatius’ College has been one of a select number of schools involved with the piloting of AIF, since its inception two years ago. The subject is set to replace the current SACE Stage 2 Research Project in 2025.

Mary-Anne Hobbs, Curriculum Coordinator for Cross Disciplinary Studies believes that by the end of the pilot, AIF will be a best practice program for student-centred lifelong learning.

“As we prepared the graduating students of 2023 to embrace adulthood, we have recognised the value and importance of self-discovery and hence, through AIF, we are promoting student agency and ownership of their learning journey,” Mary-Anne said.

Mary-Anne has been impressed with the work produced by the Class of 2023.

“The range of topics students selected was diverse. I was repeatedly stunned by the breadth and creativity displayed: how to train for a marathon, learning to fly, baking the perfect macaron, investing in the stock market, learning Auslan to name a few,” said Mary-Anne.

With AIF, students determine their learning journey, using resources they personally consider valuable while reflecting on the relevance and credibility of a source. The ability to employ good judgement in the selection of resources is therefore highly important.

“With the emergence of Artificial Intelligence and the dominance of technology driven resources such as Tik Tok and Reddit, students have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Appropriate and critical use of these various ways of accessing information has become vital,” said Mary-Anne.

At the College we teach students to be resourceful but highly critical in their judgement and selection when seeking resources to impact their thinking.”

Will's Story

Will O’Callaghan chose the research topic How to train for a marathon as a student for which he scored an A+ Merit. Throughout the project he undertook the physical training of a marathon in order to source accurate information from experience. As well as developing a schedule of training he researched areas including nutrition, recovery, clothing and potential setbacks.

“Through a culmination of research both online and in person and physical training, I was able to gain a deep understanding of my topic area and how to best prepare myself and others to run the marathon,” said Will.

Time management was a skill that Will honed as a result of undertaking the project.

“I scheduled the running time into my already busy schedule, ensuring that I got enough sleep and time to complete my Year 12 work. Setting up pop-up windows on my computer and using calendars with colour coordinated time allocations proved useful in managing this additional load,” Will said.

“A part of time management was ensuring that I completed reflections soon after the run was done, so using my study lines at school and class time meant that the only work completed outside of lesson time for AIF was the running, which I used as the mode of transport to get to school between 2-3 times a week depending on how I was feeling.”

Eve's Story

Driven by her passion for language studies and her ambition to continue these studies at the tertiary level, Eve Corso’s research topic focused on the intricacies of learning and maintaining a foreign language, with a particular emphasis on Italian.

Her project delved into the neuroscience of language acquisition and involved many forms of research.

“This involved research from books and online sources, interviews with language students and teachers, and experimenting with these strategies in my daily routine,” Eve said.

Eve finished on an A for AIF. She aspires to become a teacher and recognised that her investigation into effective language teaching strategies would be invaluable in her future career.

“My knowledge of this topic has improved beyond measure, which will hopefully be useful in my future vocation.

“Additionally, my ability to be open to growth and open to new ideas has further developed, as there were times where my preconceived beliefs were challenged, and I was encouraged to follow a completely new direction.”