Life Skills and Leadership Manual - Peace Corps

Life Skills & Leadership: Unit 4, Session 4: The Project Cycle | Page 52 of 91

You probably would not ask all these questions or complete all these activities in every project, but

which would you say are the most important that you would always include?

What are some questions or activities that you would add to any point of the project cycle?

Note: Keep the posters that participants have made showing the project cycle steps with questions and activities for use in

the Information section of next session, Unit 4, Session 5, “Our Project.”

B. Summary
Conclude the exercise by saying:

“Notice that these questions and activities are general. You may not need all of them for every project,

but they will give you some ideas about what you should be asking and what you can be doing at each

step of the cycle to make your project successful.”

IV. Application ( 20 minutes)
Materials:
Paper
Art supplies: Markers, paint, tape, magazine pictures, glue
(See trainers’ preparation for alternative materials to use instead of art supplies.)

A. Using the Project Cycle
Participants apply the project cycle in a team setting to complete a task.

1. Explain the activity that will give participants an opportunity to use the project cycle. Say:

“I’d like to give your team a chance to use the Project Cycle steps that we have been talking about. Let’s

start with a simple project. The project is for your team to draw a picture of a boat.* The boat you draw

should have three sails and be sturdy enough to travel across the ocean. Make sure you follow the

Project Cycle steps by asking yourselves some of the questions at each step of Identifying, Planning,

Doing, Reviewing, and Celebrating. You can refer to the poster of the cycle we’ve made and the

questions you put on them.”

“When you are ready to begin, you can get supplies from me. You have 10 minutes starting now.”

*Note: Make a drawing before the session begins. That drawing should have distinctive details that belong on a boat but

would not be immediately obvious. For example, one sail might be triangular and two sails square, a star might be on one

sail, a blue stripe might be on the side, etc. These are the details to be shared with participants only if they ask about them.

You can ask participants to draw a different object if a boat is not culturally relevant. A castle, mountain scene, city plaza, or

vegetable garden may fit better with their experience. Keep the object simple, give one or two specifics of what it should

contain, and include a few additional details in your own drawing that participants can learn about only if they ask. Do not

show your drawing until after participants have completed and displayed their own.

Note: This activity has been written with the assumption that it will be used at a post where supplies are extremely limited.

Make adaptations appropriate for your post so the activity is less reliant upon drawing abilities and more interesting for

participants. If you have access to commercially produced construction materials, make a simple object like a house, boat,

person, or animal. Identify one or two details that the participants must include. Make your model with additional details and

keep it hidden from participants until after they have completed and displayed their own. Be sure that you have sufficient

construction supplies so each team can reproduce your model if they follow the project cycle and ask the right questions.