On March 31st, students in Grade 5 held their annual PYP Exhibition. The exhibition is the culminating project for students in the IB Primary Years Programme (PYP) and is a big community event. It is an opportunity for students to take ownership of their learning while inquiring into an issue or opportunity of personal significance.

AISG’s PYP Programme is focused on learning and growing. We develop the whole child through a trans-disciplinary, inquiry approach and place the learner at the center of all we do. We learn through playing, asking questions, being risk takers and trying new things. Guided by the phases of the Inquiry Cycle, students explore, document, reflect and act resulting in an authentic and personalized journey. Watch the video to learn more.

The theme of this year’s exhibition was ‘Together We Can Make a Difference’, and students chose their own topics connected to both the theme as well as the 17 United Nations Global Goals for Sustainable Development. Topics that were chosen included overfishing, climate change, affordable and clean energy, gender equality, racism, and mental health.

 

To help guide their learning for the PYP Exhibition, students are required to have mentors and experts that aid them in the topic they chose. Our students asked teachers, teaching assistants, staff, and administrators to help them in choosing good sources, setting goals and finding out facts, and meeting with them routinely during their research to review their process.

This year, we added parent volunteers to be mentors for the first time and what a great addition it turned out to be! Parents said that they were not only impressed with the topics that were chosen and how deep the learning was for each student, but they were also surprised by how much they learned along with their mentee when doing their own research and finding ways to help. Teachers also helped parent volunteers become better mentors and make this an enriching experience for everyone. And when asked if they would recommend this to other parents, they said in unison, “Most definitely!”

Another first this year was an opening ceremony for the exhibition. All of Grade 5 students performed “It Starts with Me” by Teresa Jennings by being a member in the band, choir, or as a dancer. Then, our PYP Coordinator and Grade 5 teachers shared with the audience the process of the PYP exhibition, the inquiry cycle that guided students through the research process, and introduced the PYP exhibition website, where all of the students’ research is available for our community to learn more about their chosen topic.

The exhibition sprawled across our entire Ersha campus! Faculty, staff, and students in other grades visited the gym, hallways, classrooms, and courtyard, with arrows guiding them from one area to the next. Students with topics relating to the same sustainable development goals were grouped together.

Students came up with creative and innovative ways to display their research and share their learning with their audience. There were various games and activities like board games, puppet shows, trivia, role play and more! It was both educational and fun to get hands-on with learning from our students.

Congratulations to our Grade 5 students on taking agency in their learning and all the hard work they put into a successful exhibition. It’s wonderful every year seeing our students interact and enthusiastically share what they’ve learned with the AISG community.

Click HERE for more information about the AISG IB PYP and inquiry-based learning in the Elementary School.