Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Grade 1 Age group: 6-7

To inquire into the following:
School: LWIS Hazmieh School code:
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite
resources with other people and with other living things; communities
PYP planner
and the relationships within and between them; access to equal Teacher(s): Aya Jaber, Maha Alkaaki, Tania Elkattar, Nadine
opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.
Nawfal, Ghadir Sbeity

Proposed duration: number of hours over number of weeks: 5 weeks

 transdisciplinary theme
Sharing the Planet

 central idea 2. What do we want to learn?

Personal decisions can affect Earth's sustainability What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

 Summative assessment task(s):

-Assessment task: Learners will list 5 ways of good actions to keep Change, Responsibility, Causation
Earth sustainable, and 5 ways of ruining the planet. They will also draw
the Planet as a good place to live on and as polluted to compare. What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

-How nature is valued in local communities

- Assessment tool: Rubric -Impact of people's actions on the environment
-Our responsibility towards Earth's resources

What teacher questions/provocations will drive the inquiries?

Provocation:

Questions:
-what is our responsibility towards nature?
-What can we do to protect the Earth?
-why should we care for Earth?
- what do people’s actions cause?

-Learners will go around stations to observe different kinds of pictures that show
how pollution is affecting the planet. They will think and make comments.
-The teachers will rip papers and pluck plants from the garden to see their
reaction and comments.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
 3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?
Planning the inquiry
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to
learn?” encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving
questions?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for? - Tuning in: Learners asked questions about Earth, and its pollution. They
sorted out their questions and chose the ones they want to start with.
-Through the provocation of ruining nature and wasting resources, the learners'
comments will be noted. - Finding out: learners watched videos, read stories and books, saw
different images of people’s actions on Earth.
-To understand the importance of preserving water, learners will not drink water
for half a school day. Their comments and reactions will be noted. - Sorting out: Learners explored different habitats and understood the
importance of having rules to control access or behavior in such
habitats. They worked according to groups of interest and made rules to
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of help protect them.
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
- Going further: Learners collected garbage from the school bins and
sorted them out. They thought of how to group them and what can be
done to have less waste. They explored the 3Rs and raised awareness
to the community.
LOI Strategy Tool - Making conclusions: Learners concluded what actions cause harm to
How nature is valued in Learners will make their Rubric Earth. They showed this understanding in the summative assessment.
local communities recycling boxes to be What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
placed and used in the development of the attributes of the learner profile?
classroom.
Our responsibility Learners will come up Anecdotal records
towards Earth's with rules to show their Transdisciplinary skills:
resources responsibility of valuing Communication: Learners will use their social skills to tell others what rules they
local communities. should follow in order to keep the planet sustainable.
Research: Learners will research in books and by asking about different
methods of pollution and its causes, ways to save Erath, and the importance of
being aware of such a global issue.
Learner profile:
Principled: Learners will understand how their behavior and actions towards the
planet will affect it.
Caring: learners will show care about Earth and its resources.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
-Videos about the 3 R's. Stories about pollution and its effects. -Pictures of animals suffering from pollution.
-Recycling boxes for sorting out garbage.
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
We used the school bins be able to sort out garbage not only in class, even at home. We used the board to sort out visuals and displays.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? 7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students’ What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved
 develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.
learn?”
Homeroom: Learners were able to understand the importance of reusing,
causation: learners investigated reasons that cause pollution to Earth. Within
reducing, and recycling. The explored the importance of Earth’s sources.
Arabic and homeroom sessions they read stories and watched videos about the
Arabic: Learners were able to understand that it was our responsibility and causes of pollution.
choice to keep the planet sustainable by reading different stories and analyzing
responsibility: learners inquired into their roles in protecting Earth. They created
importance of choices.
disturbing art materials to raise awareness of the people’s impact.
Art: Learners created “disturbing art” samples of animals swallowing plastic in
change: Learners analyzed how people’s actions can change Earth positively or
the sea and reflected on the impact of such action.
negatively. They shared with other learners why people should change their
French: learners also read stories about the importance of taking care of Earth. practices. They changed some routines in class and playground to follow
through this.
 demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
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  Communication: Learners will use their social skills to tell others what rules
idea. they should follow in order to keep the planet sustainable.
Maybe putting them in smaller groups to focus on each learner’s contribution.  Research: Learners will research in books and by asking about different
methods of pollution and its causes, ways to save Erath, and the importance of
being
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central
 aware of such a global issue.
idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
 develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
-Learners clearly understood and were able to make connections between the
central idea and the theme because they reused items at home and brought  Learner profile:
them to school.  Principled: Learners understood how their behavior and actions towards the
-Learners also reduced the use of papers. They used the papers from both sides planet will affect it.
before recycling it or using a new one.  Caring: learners showed care about Earth and its resources.
-Learners pointed to chimneys from nearby buildings to show air pollution and
explained how that was a kind of pollution.
Attitudes:
-Some learners shared with the class how they clean litter from land in certain
areas with their parents. This showed how much they connected to keeping the
planet Sustainable and healthy. Integrity: Learners learned that they should be honest about following rules to
take care of Earth.
Appreciation: learners understood the importance of appreciating resources of
Earth
Cooperation: learners learned that people including themselves can work
together to take care of Earth.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning? 9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
The learners enjoyed the unit very much. They had a lot of chances
- Who takes care of Earth?
to apply t heir understanding. We thought they wouldn’t want to sort
- How can we clean the sea? out garbage from classroom bins as they would consider that
- Where should we put all the garbage? disgusting, but to our surprise they enjoyed it.

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and A good idea for next year is to make an expo for the items they made
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the from recycles materials so they inspire others.
inquiries.
What can we do to protect the Earth?
-why should we care for Earth?
- what do people’s actions cause?

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.
- Learners asked a lot of questions about what happens to the materials that
the school collects and sorts out. They shared their understanding of the
unit in the school’s open house and mentioned that they are collecting bottle
caps to make wheelchairs.
- They also shared their knowledge about sorting materials with all learners
during community time and showed them samples of the boxes they made
and other recyclables.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007