Our PYP exhibition is the highlight of a learning journey that for many students started at GIS when they were 3 years old. In the final year of the IB Primary Years Programme our students complete an in-depth collaborative capstone project related to real life issues known as the PYP exhibition. This involves students working collaboratively to conduct an in-depth inquiry into real life issues or problems. Students collectively synthesize all the essential elements of the PYP in ways that can be shared with the whole school community. It also provides teachers with a powerful and authentic process for assessing student understanding. The exhibition represents a unique and significant opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile developed throughout their engagement with the PYP. It also provides schools and students with a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the transition of learners to the next phase of their education. Read more here. If you are interested in projects that our PYP world community is working on, you can find more projects under the #PYPX21 hashtag on Twitter and Instagram.

This year is no exception. Our students conquer many challenges in the last year from distance learning to back to in person learning and many small steps in between.

The PYP qualities of a great learner continue to show and prove how successful they can be no matter the challenges put in front of them.

After months of learning in a hybrid model we transitioned back to fully in person model on March 30th, right when it was time to start our exhibition journey together.

Our 5th grade team has several broadly defined goals for our exhibition in place:

• Celebration of learning

• Student agency and voice

• Collaboration

• Creativity

• Community outreach ad action learning

While each year evolves slightly differently, our overall approach follows the same stages.

We hope we sparked your curiosity as well, and you will enjoy learning more about our journey into inquiry.

Our Unit:

Sharing the Planet: an inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things.

People’s food choices have an impact on other living beings. Menschen treffen Entscheidungen in Bezug auf ihr Essen, die sich auf andere Lebewesen auswirken.

“Intelligence is traditionally viewed as the ability to think and learn. Yet in a turbulent world, there’s another set of cognitive skills that might matter more: the ability to rethink and unlearn.”

Adam Grant “Think again”

When introducing the overall theme, we love to spark curiosity and introduce the ambivalence of many of these topics. There is not necessarily a right or wrong solution and truth seeking can take many forms.

Now that students have an understanding about our central idea they dig deeper to find what resonates with their own curiosity.

We recruit student mentors from our school community and connect students in small groups baked on themes chosen. Mentors commit to meet with their group weekly and support students on their inquiry journey by asking questions, help make connections and support the German language component.

As a teacher and mentor for several years I love engaging with students and supporting them on their path. We may take detours, climb hills, but we won't lose sight of our goals.

Students are now meeting with mentors, researching the bigger question and starting their research in German and English. For many students there is a lot of information to digest. Our conversations focus on what attributes reliable sources have, how to distinguish opinions from facts and biases in reporting.

Very early in the process we brainstorm ideas for actions. We looked at how Greta Thunberg became an activist and how her personal convictions helped her start a movement. The students focus on changes that we can make individually, changes we would like to encourage in our community and bigger picture ideas. They look for synergies with other topics and creative ways to be the change. Students were able to share ideas of how they have taken action in the past and what to keep in mind to be respectful and tolerant change makers.

April 19: many of our students are reaching out to our community to connect with experts. They are interviewing community members about tier experience with food allergies, diabetes and dietary choices. Two students chose to create a survey to find out more about vegan diets and sugar consumption.

We were also fortunate to have Mark Trexler, a local climate change expert join the class for a Q&A session.

These connections provide students with authentic, real-life information that goes beyond the theories they researched. For many, connecting with community members also sparks ideas for how they want to initiate change in the community.

Working and researching such broad topics is not without challenges. Students need to be able to plan for continuous progress, be open-minded to feedback from others, collaborate and channel their creativity. The PYP approaches to learning (social, research, thinking, communication and self-management skills) help students to reflect on their progress and fine tune their goals as they are moving forward.

May 10: the students are finishing up their projects and are working on creative options to share their findings. While sharing findings through a slide show is still a popular option, students are choosing creative displays to demonstrate learning and engage their audience. Due to COVID-19 constraints we still face limitations in our ways to share out ideas with our community, but the team is working on new and meaningful options.

Throughout the building, students are displaying flyers and information about their actions. Our community already starts engaging in the conversations

May10: Take a moment to explore our students’ projects! There are dioramas, videos, raps, presentations and much more to explore! The creative approach to showing research findings give students a voice and choice in their learning.

May 18th: Today the website will go live, and we will share our findings with our community. On May 19 and 21st, students will meet with families to answer questions and share their findings. Due to ongoing COVID restrictions participation for the in-person event had to be kept small. Please come back later for pictures from the events.

After researching their project in depth, students are passionate about sharing their findings and encourage the community to engage and change. Here are some examples of the change our students want to initiate in our community.