Economics club is a CAS project that I along with two other students started due to our keen interest in Economics. I was the co-president of the club along with two other students. This club was started last year (2019) in the month of July. We conducted monthly sessions on various economics topics such as behavioral economics and even hosted debates with the members of our club. Along with this we also published monthly newsletters which were later posted on Fountainhead school’s social media.
LO2:
Due to COVID-19, we were not able to meet face to face so it was difficult to communicate and coordinate with other team members. However, we managed that by using certain online tools. Apart from this, I had stage fear so conducting online sessions was a challenge for me because I used to get very nervous. However, doing this activity definitely helped me overcome this.
Another challenge was managing my school work along with the economics club work because both required significant time devoted to them. To overcome this, I made a time table which allowed me to focus on both the tasks. By undertaking these challenges, I feel more confident about taking such future projects.
LO3:
Economics club was difficult to plan and initiate. Since, I had to plan and conduct sessions regularly once (sometimes twice) a month, it became very challenging for me to manage all the school work with the economics club. As a result, to organize myself I decided to maintain a time table. This was the first time I did something like this to organize myself and found it to be very effective. From now on, organizing myself for other activities will be relatively easy. Planning everything for the online sessions was also very difficult because we had to make sessions interactive in order for sessions to be fruitful for the students. Some topics such as “Behavioural Economics” were also not in our syllabus so to initiate such sessions we had to educate ourselves. This made it difficult to initiate and plan such sessions. To overcome this, we planned to divide the work in order to reduce burden. This Club has definitely improved my problem solving skills and time management skills.
LO4:
In the Economics Club commitment was important because this Club was active for one and a half years. Perseverance was also necessary to complete all the work. This is because sometimes, I was overwhelmed with a lot of work such as planning meetings and at the same time writing for the newsletter. But since I was committed to this Club I decided to complete all the work in the given time. This is also partly because economics is a subject that I enjoy, so I did not feel discouraged when I had work to do. Therefore, it was easier for me to commit and persevere to this activity.
LO5:
It is generally easy for me to work with others because I have a lot of experience with team activities such as football. Therefore, in the economics club as well I was able to work with others easily. This had many benefits being in a team, we were able to divide our work which allowed us to focus on other tasks as well apart from the economics club. We also had more ideas about what to do in the club because more people result in more ideas. Leadership was also important because we had to make sure the members of our club feel motivated to do the work and not discouraged. Therefore good leadership was also important to ensure all the work is done.
LO6
Knowing about global issues is important and therefore we decided to incorporate these into our sessions. This club had issues that were of global significance such as the impact of COVID-19 (global pandemic) on different industries. Knowing these global issues is important because they make a person more aware about the current world. They also contribute to our personal growth.
LO7
While working with the team, I needed to make sure that I was not biased towards any member and that I also do not hurt anyone. This is because all our actions have consequences. We also had to make sure that we don’t plagiarize for our newsletter because that is unethical. This was a good policy because it ensured all of the work was our own and credit was given where due.
Due to this CAS project, I developed various learner profile attributes such as being a thinker, responsible, risk-taker, and communicator.
Evidence: