Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: Lion Class Grade 3/4 Age group: 8/9
To inquire into the following:
School: NCIS School code:
• transdisciplinary theme: An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the
struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; Title: Sharing the Planet
communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal
opportunities; peace and conflict resolution. PYP planner
Teacher(s): Lisa Page
• central idea: People can create positive change in our world.
Date: Feb 22nd-April 1st

Summative assessment task(s): Proposed duration: number of hours over number of weeks 6
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?
Goal: Your task is to spread awareness about a global problem that stands in the 2. What do we want to learn?
way of achieving the Global Goals for Sustainable Development. What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
Role: You are an advocate for a cause and you want to spread the word and responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
educate others. Causation: The influences and events that cause someone to make a positive
Audience: Your target audience will be the students, staff and parents of NCIS. change. Actions and events have consequences. (impact, sequences of events)

Situation: The Global Goals for Sustainable Development have been announced Change: Looking at local and global changes going on in the world. How are people
and the goal is to complete them before 2030. The first step in achieving the goals is adapting, transforming… How is positive change happening?
making them famous and raising awareness about the problems faced by the world Form: Identify, describe and categorize different types of positive change. (structure,
today. similarities, differences)
Product, performance and purpose: You will need to create a report about a What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
problem that occurs in the world today. Your report should help others understand • Problems and challenges that occurs in our world. (causation/change)
what the problem is, what is causing it, where the problem if affecting people and • Why some people choose to make a positive change. (causation)
finally, what people can do to help solve the problem. These reports will be shared • How individuals and groups have created positive change. (form/change)
with the school community so that we can help make the goals famous, and we can
inspire others to make positive changes in their lives that will make a difference What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
Standards and Criteria for Success: Form: What are different ways that people can make positive changes? What does
positive change look like? What would the world be like without positive
-Write in the report style of writing (see literacy expectations) change/without action?
-Provide an explanation for the problem or challenge. What is causing the problem? Causation: What causes people choose to make positive changes? Why would
someone invest so much time in creating positive change?
-Explain where the problem is occurring and why this is the case. Why isn’t it Change: How have the efforts of individuals or groups changed the world in positive
happening in other parts of the world? ways? How could you create positive change?
-Provide examples of the effects the problem is having. Because of _____, _____ is
Attitudes:
happening…
Empathy: Imagine themselves on others shoes and feel the need to act for change.
-Provide suggested actions people can do to help the problem or challenge Enthusiasm: Willingness to put effort into the process of creating positive change.
Patience to see the positive change occur.
-List and explain what some charities are doing to taking action already.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

 4. How best might we learn? What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or
Planning the inquiry students to encourage the students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
Related concepts: Continuity and Change Through Time: Conflict, Innovation, Progress,
3. How might we know what we have learned? Revolution. Resources+Enviro: Conservation, Pollution, Poverty, Sustainability

This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?” Throughout: Daily newsflashes- time to read news online/summarize, add to trello…
Week 1: Prior knowledge
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills? UOI: Start with what the world problems are. Create main categories to make it easier to
What evidence will we look for? classify and understand. Each student becomes a country and gets a global goal. They record
the problems that stand in the way of the goal. Local to global (target chart) Focus on local and
Class discussion conducted like an interview (As we normally find out what is
move towards global. What can we do to understand (experiments)
happening in the world through the news!) to be recorded and re-visited at the Lit: Creating a wall of fame for people who have created positive change in our world. Writing
end of the unit for reflection. short biographies that explain who they are, why they chose to make a positive change and
Looking for: knowledge using examples to explain problems in the world, what change they have made. *Look at why did they want to create change.
positive change, why people choose to make change and how people can make Math: Revision and ISA test. Division strategies.
change. Get a good picture of their scope of knowledge from open discussion of Week 2/3:
each line of inquiry. UOI: Focus on understanding each problem:
-How disease spreads (carriers, hand washing experiment, sharing fluids experiment)
Student to be given the 17 global goals. Each student receives one at a time,
-Make a contraption that could clean water. (bacteria, viruses, water cycle)
and tries to record all the problems they can think of that stand in the way of Start coming up with/researching ways to solve the problems (local and global)
achieving the goal. *What actions can we implement? Start research and action planning.
Looking for: knowledge of world problems, the reach of their understanding Lit: week 2: publishing their week 1 work and choosing how and where to display it. Week 3:
(globally). summarizing. Using articles about current events, students practice summarizing by choosing
THEN together as a mock UN, we would pool our ideas together to get a more the most important details and main ideas.
complete picture. Math: Division strategies links to fractions, stats about world problems in equivalent fractions.
Week 4:
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
UOI: Different ways of creating positive change: -Raising funds to buy materials, supplies etc.
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
that will create positive change. -Raising awareness about the problems to inspire change. -
Ability to give examples of different types of positive change and different Suggesting or giving people the tools to change. Continue to come up with ways to solve
problems they fix. Individual research results. Noting student action and problems related to the GGs. *implementing their action plans at school and starting an action
commitment for their chosen projects. Using rubrics to mark writing and math journal for things they can change at home.
projects. Check continuum scope and sequence to update progress. Increased Lit: Structure and features of a report. Identify, practice, learn. Observe examples. Shared
use of topic related vocabulary. writing of report. *Journals to look at why people make positive change (case studies)
Math: Apply skills learned over operations unit to mixed word problems about student actions.
Week 5:
UOI: Move towards global. What can we do to effect change on a larger scale? Start to choose
5. What resources need to be gathered?
a focus Global Goal they are interested in.
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, Lit: Write a report with a partner. Plan, draft, edit, publish. Then start planning for the
computer software, etc, will be available? summative task report.
Math(2 weeks): Perimeter and area using spaces in the school community we want to clean up
People: students and staff across the school to help out. Places: around the during Eco Action Club. Use trundle wheel. Create scaled models of areas to clean up
school community, lots of audio viduals from The World’s Largest Lesson, Week 6:
videos from net about the goals or innovations, check out variety of books from UOI /Lit: Final summative week.
library on topics…
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community of the attributes of the learner profile?
be used to facilitate the inquiry? Learner Profiles: Open minded: Respecting/understanding the values and traditions of other
communities in order to create a positive change that is appropriate/ conflicts and struggles of
Classroom for planning and as ‘headquarters’. Local enviro/community will be others to tailor positive change to what is actually needed. Principled: Having a strong sense
used to implement actions. of fairness, justice and respect for everyone so they can sense when positive change may be
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
needed. Take responsibility for their own actions and recognize ones that need changing.
Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?Assess the outcome of the inquiry by 7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
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. What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

Students were very enthusiastic and committed to making changes in their own lives. • develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to learn?”
They identified that making changes is often a hard thing to do, however, little things (causation/change): Students used books and resources found on the internet to research
add up to create big change. One student had previously done an awareness poster some of the problems that are occurring and the causes behind them. Along with this,
on water wastage that students remembered and referenced. In it, she had included students began to record solutions to help change these problems. Students created
a statistic that said that if everyone in England and Wales shut off the tap when they goals for themselves to do every day to help change one of the problems and took these
brushed their teeth, it would save 180 mega liters of water a day. While reading goals home to track each day. Students participated in experiments and discussions that
books we had gotten from the library, students suggested many actions we could do helped them understand what it would be like to have unsanitary water, or be in a place
easily. More about this under student action. where germs spread quickly, causing to poor health and wellbeing. Students read ‘About
Student were able to explain the positive change of a range of individuals after Us’ pages from various charities to help them summarize what lead the individuals who
looking into biographies of activists, and the people behind some of the charities they started the charities to make a change in the first place. Students also stated some of the
were interested in. reasons they wanted to make change was that they felt empathetic for those suffering,
they wanted to make the place they lived a better place to be, and they were inspired by
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more other changes people made and wanted to do something as well.
accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea. (form/change): Students explored the Global Citizen site and placed different initiatives in
a venn diagram that showed which kind of change it was. They identified that the most
The assessment task could have been linked more to a goal and explaining a goal.
powerful types of change include all three kinds of change (awareness, fundraising and
Students enjoyed having a focus, however their focus topics were still very broad
action) Through research into solutions for problems, students wrote down HOW people
and some found it difficult to cover. More focus could have been made on the action
are creating change. Many times, they mentioned the effectiveness of ‘teaching a man to
section of the report, with a better outline for expectations from that section, including
fish’ vs. ‘giving a man fish’.
examples of people who have helped and the results. They chose charities and
wrote some simple actions, but this could have been more what the summative was • demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
about, with the rest of the report as a build up to be done through literacy the
previous week. Self-Management: Students had to be disciplined and manage their time in order to get
actions up and running in time for our new round of clubs. They make informed choices
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and about what would work and what we needed to work on in order of priority. Students
the transdisciplinary theme? organized all actions on their own. They talked about safety, healthy lifestyle, and
analyzed student behaviours to target their actions so they would be successful.
Students were very adamant about getting others involved in their actions. From
Social Skills: Students worked together to create a bunch of actions they wanted to take
raising awareness to asking for others to get involved, students wanted the school
in the school. They had to plan and respect others in order to make group decisions and
community to be part of their positive change. They spoke about how countries need
be willing to take on different roles in groups week to week. They also accepted
to work together more in order to reach the 17 global goals in time. They used the
responsibility of each action as they were student lead (including the club).
UN as a good example of this, where laws and legislation would be made and upheld
Communication: Students had to communicate with all school staff and students to get
across many countries.
them on board with our actions. They participated in a lot of viewing, listening, reading,
Access to equal opportunities was one of the global goals, therefore students writing and speaking in order to acquire knowledge and make informed decisions.
researched directly into the problems and the solutions that were being made.
• develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
We spoke some about peace and conflict but it was not as appropriate because of
Open-minded: looking into the different word problems or looking at pictures and stories
their maturity and readiness for the subject. One topic we explored was refugee
that explained different challenges the students didn’t face themselves. Most student met
rights and issues. We looked at an app made by the UNHCR that simulated what it
these experiences without judgment, but instead with empathy. Some students had to
would be like to be a refugee and have to make hard decisions. Students spoke
stay open-minded to the actions of others, especially ones that were ‘gross’ including
about compassion as something that helped refugees survive, and linked this
garbage picking and a worm compost bin. Principled: honest reflection on habits after
somewhat to the conflicts around the world today. They were taken by the UNHCR
green quiz taken by each child. Empathy: through research, showing they cared about
and the amount of positive change they are having on the lives of refugees in many
issues and discussing ways to create change. Enthusiasm: for all their actions and
areas of their lives.
projects!
© 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.
This unit has been a blast! Students were enthusiastic about it from the start as
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and it gave them an opportunity to research injustice and DO something about it.
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the They have big hearts and were affected greatly by the problems and challenges
inquiries.: What does positive change look like? Why would someone invest so in the world. Their innovative minds came up with some great solutions, and
much time in creating positive change? How could you create positive change? they absorbed all the information I threw at them. After introducing them to some
These questions were most effective because the students could relate to them. articles to read, students were asking for more and more. They got access
They could state what they had noticed in their own experiences and they opened through our trello board to a list of great news sites for kids, and excitedly
students up to logical reasoning and being rational about big issues. shared new findings with each other in the morning, at UOI time and after school
on trello itself! They all felt very inspired and started suggesting different actions
What student-initiated actions arose from the learning? Record student-initiated they wanted to take. Over the course of an afternoon, we went from reading
actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability to reflect, to choose and to act. about a compost program at a school, to having four plans of action and talk of
*I started to introduce articles as reading for their homework. The articles were about creating a club so the students could get others to join their quest to make a
positive changes or solutions that people are making. The students really enjoyed positive change. This unit helped students think more in depth than just solving
these articles, and asked if they could have more. A few students came in early one solutions with a Band-Aid. The actions they chose were ones they believed to be
day and asked if they could use the computers to look up these articles. They had sustainable, and ones they could continue past our unit of inquiry. All students
seen our new Trello board, and asked if they could post ones they found interesting were excited to be a part of spreading the word of the Global Goals, and one
about positive change on the board. Students began sharing and discussing articles even mentioned her dream that if all of the generations that are growing up now
outside of class time. can get on board with these goals, they won’t know any different and they will be
*We went from reading about a compost program at a school, to having four plans of able to make a huge change in the world.
action and talk of creating a club so the students could get others to join their quest
to make a positive change. Students suggested a plan to collect recycled objects to Throughout the unit, students gave credit to each other for great ideas and
create a Rube Goldberg machine at the end of the year with, they suggested picking changed roles seamlessly to be able to accomplish them together. Most of the
up litter around the school, creating a compost bin for food waste and creating students felt comfortable in all of the roles and did their best in every role to help
recycle bins that focused on collecting paper. After realizing this would be a lot of the team. Students became very independent, requesting to run a club on their
extra work, they asked for permission to run a club and ask other to help. During the own, asking for assembly time to persuade others to help them in their mission
club, students chose places to clean up, they made and checked on the and carrying out duties and checks related to their plans.
vermicompost bin, they collected and sorted paper from different classes around the
As it was something the students were interested and invested in, they produced
school and they used videos to help teach and learn more about the different actions
they were doing. some great writing that can now be shared with other classes as a way to help
*One student came up with the idea to create a solar oven. She was tasked with spread awareness. I’ve seen all of them grow and become more responsible
creating a design, and explanation and a list of materials to build it. On trello, she through the process.
collaborated with other students to collect links and choose a design. She explained
the choices to the class, and the students organized to bring in the materials needed.
The students constructed and used the oven to make a cookie as a treat for their
hard work!
*Students suggested planting plants later on when our compost is ready. They
wanted to plant food plants to cut down on costs of food and be more sustainable.
*One student expressed a desire to share our actions with the wider school
community. With my help, the students started a weekly blog where they updated
others on their progress and posted pictures for people to see.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007