Okay, so personal project proposals are due on Friday.

For those of you who don't know what it is, you may very well be blessed. In short, we need to do a project on anything really. Learn an instrument, build something, design something, etc. Plenty of things out there. The goal is to analyze what you did, show your learning stages, and show off what you learned. Failing it means you get kicked out of the program and sent through a millennium of hell and misery when your parents learn about it. Cheery stuff  

So I need some ideas for something to do, preferably something historical to make, or something to write. It should take more than 10 hours to do, yet should take less than 40 (Although certain people have built some serious crap and taken hundreds of hours to make). Anything would be great.

So right now my issue isn't finding something to do, but getting a best idea. So far my ideas are:
+Make a simple chain maille shirt, using the 4:1 pattern. I'd go for 1/2in diameter rings. The mesh shouldn't be too tight, as I do have a time frame, but not too loose or else it'll be useless.
+make a pamphlet explaining how to make and use a sling. Probably less than 20 hours, but I can always BS some crap*
+Work on track, right now I'm running a crap 6:30 mile. My goal is to run a 5:40 mile by the end of the summer in time for more serious XC training which will hopefully get me to an average 5:30 mile. It sounds like a massive leap, but I'm not in very excellent shape right now (or any type of shape), so it's not like I'm going from a 4:50 mile to a 4:30 mile.  

Anything else would be great too. I've thought of blacksmithing, but it's not possible where I live. Local fire laws are ridiculous, and I doubt anyone would appreciate me banging on a chunk of steel 24/7.  

Here's the actual description: http://www.ibo.org/myp/curriculum/project/ There is a French and Spanish website as well, if you don't read English.

issues
+I'm not sure how long learning, and making a chain mail shirt will take. I'd like to finish within a month or two, with around 10 hours of effort each week (heaven knows I'll have the time)
+Pamphlet is only going to take 4-5 hours at best, with me giving detailed pictures, etc. I could change it to a short book, but then I would have to worry about keeping my grader's attention span. If it's too boring, chances are he/she will just fail me for the heck of it.
+I like running...but I don't like having things ruined by stupid project, capiche?
+Want to learn to wood carve, but again I don't know if I'll be able to become decently proficient at the end of project. The assessors have already made it clear that they won't accept overly difficult projects if they think that the finished product won't be able to show a high level of learning (No learning new instruments, because at the end of the project you'll at best be able to play a few simple, short songs.)
+Writing a book would be nice but again, I don't want it to be ruined by the project. I write at my pace, for myself, to enjoy.

bigkahuna wrote on May 8^th, 2012 at 12:33am:

Ditto that. 
http://www.youtube.com/user/KeniLeeBurgess for many different styles of CBG and howto  play info.

Dang, the cigar box guitar is my suggestion too!  You could explain the mathematics involved in setting up the frets, etc..  You could even play a little number to entertain the troops.

Maybe you can make an ocarina? I have made a couple of these - there are on the internet easy tutorials for making them.
You can also try to make a flute, for example a quena - you just need a pvc pipe and some tools.

You could make some kind of wooden drum. Jungle tribe all over the world use them for everything from small celebrations and they also use giant ones for communication long distance.

I don't know a whole lot about making them, but I would assume it's relatively simple. You can go pretty crazy when decorating them though.
Hope it goes well for you.

Hmm, cigar-box guitar sounds interesting. Will research it. Same for the drum. Not sure about trebuchet, it sounds interesting but my adviser for the project might not accept.

The issue with the ocarina, and possibly the cigar-box guitar is that it might not take long enough. The bulk of the project (and the one inch thick notebook/terrabyte large journal) is in recording what you did. Because it's IB, they're more interested in length and bulk than quality. how many hours will it take? I want to be able to spend at least 2 weeks working on it, giving a few hours every day.

I'm still looking at a chain maille hauberk/shirt. How long would a simple 4 in 1 take? I'm thinking I could finish within two months of constant work, what do you guys think? I've got an official 12 months to do it, but in reality I'll need to be able to do everything by the end of summer if I want to have a chance of finishing and keeping my grades up in my sophomore year (year 15 across the pond).

Sorry about being nitty gritty, and thanks for all the advice. I'm just undecided because I don't want to finish too early and go 'that's it? I'm done?" or too long so that I'll be working all the way till deadline.

What about weaving a couple of your slings? I know you do a decent Balearic. Then give a presentation on how you did the and a history of the sling itself.

found this thread debating it via google: http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?512063-How-long-did-it-take-to-make-(chain)M...

It sounds like this is something that interests you, in which case I say go for it. A project that excites you and takes more time is better than one that is "easy" but annoys you.

You might also consider, instead of chain mail, making a form of scale armor using plastic or something else that would be easier to work with than metal but still illustrate the principles at work in armor making. Actually plastic is also an option for making mail, it's what they used for LOTR in order to get more authentic looking mail without needing to invest as much time/money/effort.

Also, to buck the trend a bit, you could learn baking or cooking more in depth. Discuss the science underlying, its evolution, all while learning a valuable life skill. Granted I'm biased, my wife is  food scientist and I come from a large family that does a lot of cooking from scratch, but it's a good life skill and the science underlying it fairly interesting.