Breast cancer

awareness day Mariam Dawood

As students in year 11, we were given an opportunity to plan
and prepare for breast cancer day in the Australian school of
Abu Dhabi, our school has been implementing this awareness
campaign as an annual event for students, staff and teachers.
Students come into school wearing pink and attend assemblies
and events that link with breast cancer.
Our class and I had a month to put together a successful
event for almost 1000 people in this school. We had hoped that
by the end of all of this we would have people of all ages more
aware of the life threatening disease Breast cancer.
Me and my friends had divided the class into major groups
which would take up a portion of the responsibility in an area,
these groups were:The tech group- ones in charge of sound, presentation,
microphones, lights and anything required during the assembly.
The Yard group- ones who would make sure that the soccer field
was taped with the shape of a ribbon. This was so that people
would sit on and create a giant human ribbon shape. They would
also make sure posters are hung up around the yard for people to
write special messages on.
The ribbon group- this consisted of almost everyone in class, we
decided to make 1000 ribbons with pins so we could distribute it
around the school to students, staff and teacher.
The assembly group- Create and present a well designed
presentation around what is breast cancer, who it affects, how to
prevent it and how to support someone you know who has
breast cancer.
The photographer- make sure camera and location is set for the
giant human shaped ribbon image.

Though 1000 ribbons sound a lot, we as a class made around

1300 ribbons! I still have plenty with me at home. We were able
to make the assembly go smoothly, and were able to distribute
the ribbons within the elected time. The giant human shaped
ribbon wasnt planned to well, locations were constantly
changed and the camera angle was inaccurate and unsafe to
stand at.
Next time if we receive a similar opportunity id make sure
tasks were divided equally amongst the whole class, since many
of the girls did most of the world while the boys relaxed doing
little more than nothing! Also id find ways to involve the kinder
gardeners since they were unfortunately left out, even by
planning small unrelated activities so they get a day to enjoy.
Overall the entire event was good but theres always room
for improvement. This CAS experience revolves around
Creativity, Activity and Service
Creativity- we all had to put our minds together to find creative,
quick and simple ways to make 1000 ribbons, which thankfully
went well, we had to make the assembly interactive and involve
students as well. We posted creative posters in the yard for
students to engage through their words about breast cancer day
and what it means to them.
Activity- this event was an activity for the school community,
since it has multiple things for students and teachers to engage
in.
Service- since breast cancer awareness campaigns are global
events done in international countries, we were serving our
community by organizing an event for them, serving though
informative ways and helping campaigns to spread there
message amongst a younger crowd.
This CAS experience had covered multiple learning
outcomes including the following: LO 1 Identify your own strengths and develop areas for
personal growth.
LO 2 Demonstrate that you have undertaken challenges and
developed new skills in the process.
LO 3 Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience.

LO 4 Show commitment to and perseverance in your CAS

experiences.
LO 5 Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of
working collaboratively.
LO 6 Demonstrate engagement with issues of global
significance.
LO 7 Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and
actions.
The CAS experience addressed all the learning outcomes in
the following ways.
LO 1- we ended up using our strengths in multiple skills
To guide us through the task, while doing this we enhanced
multiple personal skills such as time management and team
work, personally Im one who has leadership skills, while using
this skill to help my mates, I had to develop the skill of having
tolerance and patience towards my group mates, and
maintaining a positive attitude instead of blaming one of their
faults.
LO 2- we definitely had many obstacles to encounter. Firstly
with around 20 students we had to make and pin 1000 ribbons,
on top of that we had to plan the distribution of ribbons around
the whole school in only 2 lessons, these are just a few of the
challenges.
LO 3- since we were the class organizing the event, we had the
responsibility to initiate and plan the CAS experiences, we took
our lunch breaks to plan and write down the task for each
student.
LO 4- we each has a task to perform, and everyone including
myself persevered and committed to that task, we put our best to
use our free time in school, at home, and extra time to complete
our work.
LO 5- since this was a class CAS experience, we had to work
collaboratively, by attending meetings on time, sticking to
deadlines, and informing the leader of every action we took.
LO 6- Breast cancer awareness is a global issue, which we
decided to bring awareness to in our school.

LO 7- a lot of ethical considerations had to be taken, a few

examples involved me, I had the task of preparing the
presentation, in the presentation I had placed animated pictured
of a bare body displaying cancerous growth, before presenting I
spoke to the MYP coordinator to receive ethical approval in
placing these images. Instead of presenting without approval I
felt the need to ethically consider cultural aspects in modesty
etc.