Life Skills and Leadership Manual - Peace Corps

Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 4, Session 4: The Project Cycle | Page 47 of 91

Session 4: The Project Cycle

Date: Time: 90 minutes Facilitator(s):

Facilitator preparation:

1. Draw a picture of a boat or similar simple object with details such as decorations or a unique combination
   of sail shapes.


2. If you choose to use construction materials instead of art supplies in the Application step, make your own
   model of the object you will ask participants to create as a team. Prepare a bag or box of identical materials
   for each team.


3. Hide the picture or object that you have created in the learning space.


4. Make a copy of Handout 1 for each small group of five or fewer and cut it into five pieces, each showing
   one project cycle step.


5. Make a copy of Handout 3: Questions and Activities for each small group and cut it into squares along the
   dotted lines so each piece has either questions or activities (See the facilitator’s note about this in the
   Practice section)

Note: If your youth group wishes to explore the topics of the project cycle and project planning more deeply, or if they need to
develop skills even further, please refer to the Peace Corps documents listed at the end of this session plan. These resources
offer training designs and useful tools for facilitators and their youth groups.

Materials:

Equipment

1. Ball of string or yarn


2. Paper


3. Art supplies: markers, paint, tape, magazine pictures, glue


4. (Additional commercially available construction toys, such as blocks, wooden pieces, plastic building
   blocks that can be found locally if you would like the participants to make an object. You can also
   collect clean discarded or recycled materials such as tin foil, plastic, paper, plastic bottles, cans,
   pieces of cloth, carry-out food containers, etc. to use as building materials.)


5. Flip chart paper


6. Markers or crayons
   Prepared flipcharts
   Flip chart 1: The Project Cycle
   Handouts
   Handout 1: Steps of the Project Cycle
   Handout 2: The Sports Equipment Story
   Handout 3 : Questions & Activities
   Trainer materials
   Trainer Material 1: The Sports Equipment Project
   Trainer Material 2: Project Cycle Questions and Activities

Learning Objective:

1. By studying a fictional situation, participants will describe the five steps in the project cycle.