Congratulations, you have almost made it to the end of PYP! Throughout your time in the Primary Years Programme (PYP) here at FS (or other schools) you have been learning how to do things for yourself. You have been learning where you can go to find answers: using books, websites, people, experiments and more! You have been learning how to sort through this information such as finding key words, deciding what is most relevant and looking for evidence in pieces of texts or images. You have been learning how to present your knowledge and understandings in many different ways such as through writing, visual art, drama, dance, music and technology. You have been learning to work effectively in groups: how to share ideas, to write action plans, to compromise, to listen to others and to self-assess. Stop and think for a moment about all the learning you have been doing in your elementary years - you are already pretty amazing!
The Exhibition
The PYP Exhibition is an opportunity for you to put all of this learning into action and prove yourself! It is a special Unit of Inquiry where more of the decision making is handed over to you. You get to choose what you want to learn about. You get to decide how to find out about your interest, how to sort through the information and how to summarize what you have learned. You also get to choose how to present your findings using writing, the arts and/or technology.You also get to decide how to take action - to do something about what you have learned.
Guidelines for students as outlined by IB
The Process
The exhibition holds a place of special importance in the PYP, and you will be working on it for some time. Participating in the exhibition will demonstrate your learning in the PYP. The exhibition will involve others (for example, you may work in a small group or become involved with an organization outside the school), and your participation and your work will be assessed. Your teacher will assess your planning and learning, including your reflections, the methods you use, the way you link your exhibition to the transdisciplinary themes and any forms of action that you engage in as a result. Your teacher or mentor will share with you the criteria for this assessment.
The development of the exhibition will include the following:
1. Discussing possible real-life issues or problems to be investigated
With other members of your learning community, take some time to reflect on the transdisciplinary themes and the inquiries that you have been involved with over the past few years. This could result in discussions, about issues or problems you have noticed in your school or local area, which could lead to an in-depth inquiry. These issues could be directly connected to your school or local area, and they may also be relevant to children in other parts of the world. You should talk with your teacher about your ideas and questions to see if they could become the basis for your exhibition. Your teacher and the other students may have ideas too, and you should give all the ideas careful consideration before making a final decision.
2. Posing questions that help to define the central idea and to decideupon the lines of inquiry
When the issue or problem has been selected, you will need to have a basic understanding of the issue and be able to explain why it is important in order to investigate it in more depth. Some ideas for exploring the issue include the following.
Discuss your ideas with different people, both inside and outside school.
Visit a local site.
Identify and look at available books and resources.
Consider how the issue connects to the transdisciplinary themes.
These explorations could help you to form a better understanding of the issue and to develop a central idea to explain the significance of your inquiry. Thinking about the PYP concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective, responsibility and reflection) that are related to this issue could help you construct questions to guide your inquiries. It is useful to identify the lines of inquiry you will follow in order to explore your questions and develop your understanding of the central idea. The central idea, lines of inquiry and questions will help you to stay focused during this investigation and help you find out about your exhibition issue.This may be the first time you have been involved in such a detailed investigation. It is important that you (and your group) have a discussion with your teacher and/or mentor to see if your ideas are realistic and achievable.
This is a huge project so you are expected to acquire a deep understanding.You must really know about your issue before you present your findings. In order to get a really deep understanding you should look at your issue through several of these PYP concepts. One expectation is to inquire into different people's perspectives about the issue.
3. Planning the exhibition
Now that you have decided on the purpose and scope of your inquiry, you can plan the next part of the process. You should write down ideas for how you will explore and develop your understanding of your central idea and questions within the defined lines of inquiry. In your group, ask questions such as: Where do we find the materials and resources we need? Who might have useful information? What kind of experiences might inform our inquiries? Do we need to carry out any experiments? Do we need to prepare a questionnaire or survey? What kind of technology will we need to have access to?
Choose sources and resource materials carefully; by looking at a variety of different sources, you can improve the quality of your exhibition. Other sources can also help you: a reference book might have a useful bibliography; the person you interview might have a further suggestion for your inquiries; an experiment might lead to other investigations. When you have found a source of information, it is important to consider the possible bias of this information and how useful it is going to be.
4. Gathering the necessary material
Always write down the source of your material. This information will vary according to the type of source consulted.
• A printed text: record the author(s), title, publisher and date of publication • A website: record the website address (for example, http://www.un.org/Pubs/CyberSchoolBus /index.html) • An interview: record the name, address, role of the person and the date of the interview • An experiment: record the equipment and method used, the results and conclusions • A work of art: record the title, artist and reference (museum, recording) if appropriate
5. Recording and reflecting
You will keep track of your accomplishments by documenting your progress in Journal. Each of you will be expected to write a summary of the work you did during the week that was done independently or collaboratively with your group members. You may include pictures that show you and your group working. Documenting when you have used the Transdisciplinary Skills, Learner Profiles and Attitudes during the Exhibition is also a required element needed in your Process Journal.
You will need to reflect on your exhibition in a constructive way. Making regular entries in a journal of all your ideas, decisions and actions to record your progress as you work on the exhibition can clearly show the work you have been engaged in as well as how your understanding of the issue is developing. It should be filled in regularly to show you how your exhibition is progressing. A journal can also be used to show your mentor the progress being made. These reflections should be supported by recorded evidence of the process. This evidence could include photographic and video evidence, interview notes, feedback and comments from your peers, teachers and/or mentors and parents.
6. Presenting the exhibition
Towards the end of the exhibition, you will need to think carefully about how you wish to present the results of your inquiries. You must always consider your presentation from other people’s perspectives.
Be informed about the material you choose to present. You will need to be able to answer any questions about it confidently.
Discuss the presentation with your teacher and/or your mentor before you start working on it.
Use diagrams, drawings and/or photographs to add to the clarity of the presentation.
Look at the examples of exhibitions that other students have done in your school in the past, in particular the formats they have used to present their ideas.
Make sure your presentation is clear, informative and appropriate for a range of audiences.
And, finally, you should celebrate your learning.
It is a requirement that the exhibition is shared with members of the wider school community. There are many formats a sharing event could take, for example, an interactive display, a performance, a debate, or a combination of formats.
The exhibition should include the following.
Examples of written work in a variety of formats and styles: poetry, reports, persuasive texts
Oral presentations, individually or in groups, to the school community
Uses of technology including ICT, working models, designs, science experiments
Performances or compositions in any medium: dance, music, drama, visual arts, film, video, mixed media
If you want to include another language you know well and will help to connect with audience, that is wonderful, but not a must. Your presentation must include English of course. For more information about what to include in the final exhibition presentation, go to the "Arts Component" section under the 'For Students' tab.
Role of student
Students will:
• have an understanding of the purpose and requirements of the exhibition from the outset of the process (guidelines and planning instructions should be provided by the teacher or mentor)
• participate in selecting a real-life issue or problem for the exhibition
• develop the inquiry by helping to decide on a central idea, lines of inquiry and student questions
• collaboratively plan learning and assessment experiences; these should involve independent and collaborative work and students should be involved in all stages of the planning and staging of the exhibition
• carry out an open-ended inquiry into a real-life issue or problem
• demonstrate an understanding of the components of the PYP, in particular the IB learner profile; the students involved in the exhibition should be given an opportunity to demonstrate their learning and the development of the attributes of the IB learner profile
• demonstrate an understanding of the five essential elements—knowledge, concepts, skills, attitudes and action
• select and utilize a variety of strategies and resources to meet the outcomes of the inquiry; wherever possible, students should use a variety of source materials, such as first-hand experiences, interviews, surveys, field visits, artifacts, science investigations, working models, not just book and/or Internet research be academically honest when referring their sources of information
• communicate effectively with teachers, peers and parents
• reflect on the components of and processes involved in the exhibition; they should keep a journal or portfolio of their planning, draft pieces of work, sketches and photographs of work in progress as well as the final product
• carry out self-assessment and peer assessment
• celebrate their learning by presenting the exhibition to the school community.