PYP: Planning The Inquiry
Link to PYP Planner with examples: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1t2lNbEaJAJ0TMc6sz-mztNcrkQur8V55Rg51phdo4Ks/edit?usp=sharing
Grade:
Class/grade: 4 Age group: 10-11
School: Tesla School code:
Title:
Teacher(s): Ms. Ngoc, Ms. Minh Anh, Ms. Dien, Mr. Su, Mr. Phuong (ICT), Mr. Phuong (Music), Mr. Carlos, Mr. Dan, Mr. Brandon
Date: December 10, 2021
Proposed duration: 6 weeks (3 weeks before Tet and 3 weeks after Tet)
1. What is our purpose?
To inquire into the following:
Transdisciplinary theme:
An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and technological advances on society and on the environment
Central idea :
How humans interact with the natural world can lead to advancements and consequences
Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Students will work in pairs to conduct research in order to compile a report to present to community members to help them make an informed decision regarding a proposed Hydroelectric Dam project in the area (Central Highlands of Vietnam).
Summative (UOI, EAL, Vietnamese, Social Studies, Math (MOET), Math, Art, ICT, Science Music
2D and 3D Dam sketching/drawing/painting
3D Sketch Design of an Hydroelectric Plan in the Central Highlands of Vietnam.
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Causation
Connection
Responsibility
Related Concept:
Impact
Advancement
Consequences
Relationships
Sustainability
Interaction
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
How humans interact with the natural world
Advancement
Consequences
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
Modified: In what ways have humans had to adapt to their natural surroundings?
Core: How humans interact with the environment
Extension: How has our interaction with our natural surroundings driven technological advancements? What consequences can you identify?
Modified: What is human? What is natural world?
Core: How to interact with Natural world?
Extension: what would be the effect on the natural world if we keep using non- renewable resources?
Other questions:
Why have human beings needed to build dams?
Location of dams? What are the dams made of?
Benefits and consequences after having hydraulic dams?
How the force of water is controlled within the hydroelecrtic plans to generate electricity.
What are the main components in a Hydroelectric plants?
How have scientific and technological advancements changed our lives or helped us (humans)?
What are some of the negative effects (problems) of technology on the environment?
3. How might we know what we have learned? (This column should be used in conjunction with "How best might we learn?"
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?
Complete the sketching of 2D Dam sketching/drawing and then transfer it to the 3D Dam sketching.
Completion of assignments (research, writing, reading, group/individual presentations)
Response to and application of feedback in their classwork and group work.
Completion of reflection activities at the end of the unit.
Demonstrate understanding of key concepts, related concepts, subject specific content, writing mechanics, presentation techniques, and research methods.
Solutions to problem of plastic overused
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Completion of the presentation that illustrates a proposed Hydroelectric Dam project in the area (Central Highlands of Vietnam).
Grade 4 - Unit 4 Evidence (Debate Practice)
Group 1 - For the idea (Jamboard)
Group 2 - Against (Jamboard)
Complete 2D/3D sketching on Canvas and 3D tinkercad of the hydraulic dams on 3D printing.
4. How best do our students learn?
What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
Science:
Students research on Internet about natural resources; explore different renewable and non-renewable energy; Discussion how people use them to meet their needs; Research on Internet how people's need for natural resource and their activities impact the environment; Brainstorming different ways people can conserve natural resources
UOI + EAL
Formative Assessment: Debate - Students worked in groups to conduct research (JamBoards) on the Pros + Cons of Hydroelectric Dams. Worked on argument/sentence structures (writing). Conducted a practice debate.
Students then worked with members from the opposite team to educate and share information allowing all students to gain perspectives of both 'sides' before starting work on the summative assessment.
In addition, the UOI, EAL, and HR teachers worked on a series of bilingual assignments that required the students to complete the following:
research hydroelectricity
Hydro dam in Central Highland of Vietnam
plan and write a persuasive paragraph about the pros and cons of hydroelectric dams
Plan and give a presentation on the pros and cons of hydroelectric dams
The tasks were assigned in both Vietnamese and English
ICT
Watching a series of ED puzzles videos about 'how hydroelectric plans work" and 'how hydroelectric power is generated'.
The students get use to 3D shapes, how to rotate the scale of objects in 3D space.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development
of the learner profile?
The students inquire themselves about the operations undertook within a Hydroelectric Power Plant in order to maximize the power of the water into the generation of electricity. So students can clearly seen how humans can interact positively with the natural world in order to obtain benefits from the water force and create a renewable energy. (Knowledgeable)
Students translate their knowledge gained through ICT lessons and apply into 2D and 3D pencil sketch in Art lessons. (Reflective)
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profiles?
Attributes:
Knowledgeable
Balanced
Reflective
Attitudes:
Independence
Cooperation
Curiostiy
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Edpuzzle
Hyperdocs
RazKids
YouTube:
Google Earth
Canva:
Google Site
Living in the coldest town in the world: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CTqCVdQYHg&feature=emb_logo
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community to used to facilitate the inquiry?
Display Inquiry Cycle and Prompts board to offer structure to the inquiry process and display student work.
Utilize library, bulletin boards
Exhibition art work to show message across the school
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? (Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.)
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
Being able to search for and filter information is evidence that students understand the central idea.
Integration with EAL and UOI was extremely successful as it allowed for the building of children’s knowledge and understanding bilingually.
The UOI, EAL, Science and Home Room teachers collaborated throughout the unit to give the students the chance to complete their tasks in both languages: on the EAL and UOI side, the teachers planned content and activities that connected well with the central idea and subject specific assignments that the HRT assigned to the class every week. The students were presented with the vocabulary, grammar, reading materials, and writing guidance to be able to complete their assignments translingually.
In the future, the HR and EAL teachers have discussed collaborating together to create G4 specific grammar lessons to help boost the language skills of the students. We have also discussed co-teaching these lessons together in order to highlight the differences that exist between Vietnamese and English grammar structures.
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to learn?”
demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
Kyle and Ben were the best in the class as far as group work is concerned: they collaborated well, split their tasks, and completed all of their work in a timely manner.
Tom was the best in the class as far as independent research is concerned: he is skilled at finding relevant resources from the internet to support his points and arguments. He is also working on becoming more diligent in using his assignment checklists in order to produce higher level work.
Emily is very precise and possesses very good critical thinking skills. She applies her skills to create presentations that are well structured and adequately informative.
Lucy is very diligent and worked very hard to make a video where she told a traditional Vietnamese fable.
Michael has made huge improvements in his writing as he tends to do better in class in an offline environment where he feels supported.
Harry performs well when he is pushed and stimulated; he is a very capable communicator.
Cherry has showsn that she clearly understands the concepts of cause and effect in the context of the pros and cons of hydroelectric dams.
Research skills: the students were able to demonstrate adequate understanding of the research process when they investigated the pros and cons of using hydroelectric energy. They had to prepare writing tasks as well as presentations.
Communication: the students were able to collaborate in small groups to produce high quality presentations. In addition, they documented their progress in their diaries, presented their findings in class, and in addition, even prepared structured debates, which they held against one another in class.
Self management: They students were able to work in small groups and divide up the work amongst themselves; in addition, they also delineated a timeline by which they had to complete their tasks as a group.
Refllective: Students developed their reflective profile putting into practice all the knowledge gained throughout ICT lessons into the 2D and 3D sketch of a Hydroelectric plant undertook within the Art lessons.
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? (Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.)
At this point, teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn” and highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the inquiries.
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning? (Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to reflect, to choose, and to act.)
The EAL and HR teachers collaborated in creating student led activities aimed at eliciting their knowledge of the central ideas.
We made use of the following activities:
We led brainstorming activities to elicit student knowledge and then gave the students the chance to share their ideas and previous knowledge with the class.
We also gave students prediction tasks
We showed the students videos and asked them to come up with questions they wanted to know more about: the videos were paused to give the students to listen, read subtitles, and take notes.
We gave the students time to work in groups to exchange their ideas and then allowed them to elect a group representative to write their questions on the board
In Science, students brainstormed different natural resources together, different ways people use natural resources. They researched and shared their prior knowledge, they worked in groups and did 3R projects in Art classes. They did hands-on activity in the kitchen to explore heat energy using observation sheet. Students watched video and shared different ways people can conserve natural resources. They observed toast structure to learn how to convert electrical energy into heat. They explored circuit to know how to convert electrical energy into light. They read documents about water power and did their own presentation.
Students questions : Why it changed color and covert to another state different from original by heat?
In Art, students watched videos related to the famous hydraulic dams in the world. They also have a chance to have a look at some 2D and 3D Dam designs, some 2D paintings, and 3D Dam models. They learn how to measure the chosen dam and transfer their knowledge to their work on paper and canvas with good ratios.
Those activities help students to answer questions:What is a 2D dam? What is a 3D dam model?-How can we recognize it?-How can we transfer the 2D sketching to the 3D sketching?
-What initial knowledge do we need to be successful in producing a 3D sketching dam?
-Why do we need to sketch in Art before producing a 3D model in ICT?
When they finish this step, they use their 3D sketching to work on the platform in the ICT lessons.
In ICT students watched ED puzzle videos about Hydroelectric plans and discussed about different types of hydroelectric plants and their features. Also they talked about how to maximize the efficiency of those hydroelectric plants and which main components are specifically involved in that aspect. They finally assessed the importance of slope and the steepness of the pen-stock throughout the water flow in order to maximize the force of the water that will turn into electricity.
In Music, students watched videos related to recorder instrument. These help students to answer question:
-What is an instrument called a recorder?
-How do recoder works?
-What is the difference between a flute and a recorder?
-Is the recorder a serious instrument?
After that, the students start learning to play recorder.
9. Teacher notes