1. Approaching the Childcare Project - 2019

2. Project Outline r Your individual Child Care project is worth
15% of your final
Junior Certificate mark (Ordinary/ Higher Level)
and will be examined separately from the exam paper in June r

3. Project Outline
For assessment, this project is recorded and presented in a folder under key headings
The project should not exceed 1,500 words
Quality is more important than quantity in achieving success r

4. Project Outline
The focus of the project is on the “basic physical, mental and emotional development of the child in its formative years (0-12 years)”
The investigation may be sociological, consumer or scientific in nature r

6. How do I get good marks for my project?
Choose a topic that interests you
Check with the teacher that the topic is suitable
If the topic is interesting and suitable, are you ready to begin straight away?
Work carefully following guidance on:
- What to include in the project
- How to carry out the work
- How to present the work
Keep forwarding the project to the teacher by for guidance and advice

8. Project Outline
As this project is your own work, the choice of topic must be suited to:
Your personal capabilities
Allow for individual input/ initiative & personal development of the topic
AND
Should be completed within 8 weeks and with the available resources r

9. From where do I get my ideas/ secondary research?
Projects involving investigative methods may use information from the following:
- relevant websites
- Books
- Magazines
- Agencies with relevance
to the project TOPIC

10. Starter Web Sources of Information
for the ups and downs of pregnancy and parenting
- look at the magazine section (scroll down for “precious beginnings “& “discovery years”)
(American website)
SMA Nutrition -Information on products. Additional features on planning for a pregnancy as well as how to obtain free booklets.
Cow & Gate - Pregnancy Information, Pregnancy Advice, Baby Nutrition, Baby care, etc.

11. Selecting my TOPIC General areas for childcare projects are:
Physical development of the child
Mental development of the child
Children’s diets, e.g. commercial baby foods
Children’s clothing (consumer based)
Healthcare for children in the local area
and preventative medicine

12. Project Outline
When working on the project there are four main stages:
Background secondary research into the general topic
Information gathering to develop the topic under certain headings
Primary research/Personal investigation, e.g. survey, questionnaire, interview
Conclusions/ critical examination to form personal judgement r

13. Originality? What is this?
Project work and finished result must be your own information or ideas that you found out during your research
To make it original, read a variety of research resources, select appropriate material keeping focus on the topic; for primary research phrase the questions you might ask parents/ teachers, etc. about their child/ student carefully
To make it original, an observation that you carry out with a child/ student

14. How to present the information…
To help give a clearer description of what you found out use:
- pictures and captions
- Photographs
- Labelled diagrams
- Graphs/ charts
- Answers to questionnaires
- Information from conversations with parents
of children
- Letters from firms/ agencies answering queries
- Recordings of children

15. Approaching the Childcare Project
Choose possible topics
Check suitability with teacher
Ensure personal interest in topic
Carry out initial research on topic
Does the topic still interest you?
Confirm topic choice with teacher
Begin project using specific headings
Check your progress each class with teacher
Complete project while interest remains