So what have we been up to?

PYP Inquiries, Mt Pleasant School

By Yani R - Room 12

Year 8

Our PYP inquiries are an opportunity for us to take charge of our learning and delve into an area we’re interested in individually or within small groups. These inquiries spark our curiosity and encourage us to learn independently. We are set broad guidelines to follow and goals to achieve, then the rest is left to us.

So far this year we have completed one unit of inquiry in T@TT, around the idea of ‘Where we are in Place and Time’. In this inquiry we focused on the question; What is Exploration?

Then, we were able to chose any area of exploration we were interested in, and we began looking into these subjects. We brainstormed some questions we could ask, such as:

How does this field of exploration affect the community? Or, What new understandings has this field of exploration brought about?

After that, we used resources such as books, websites and videos to gather information about the field we had chosen, and answers to the questions we had set ourselves. We could interview experts in these areas, or even do a little bit of exploration ourselves.

To wrap up our inquiry, we made a display of what we had learnt. We made timelines of the history of these areas of exploration, and wrote journals from the perspective of a person exploring our chosen field of exploration. Then we shared the information we had gathered with our classmates, and learnt about what they had researched on. It was wonderful to listen to all the things they had learnt, and find out about all the different things everyone had found out about.

Now we are in the middle of our new inquiry,  in which we are thinking about ‘How the world works’, or more specifically jobs and careers. We have looked at ourselves as learners and learnt about our character and learning strengths. We have made inspirational quote posters  and continued our work around ‘Growth and Fixed Mindset’.

Next we will be interviewing adults about the job they do, and asking questions about their jobs, and the path they took to get there. We will also be thinking about our dream job, and investigating them to see whether or not these jobs suit us, and what life choices we will need to make to do these jobs.

At the end of this unit inquiry, we will all share our conclusions using a presentation called ‘Pecha Kucha’. In a Pecha Kucha presentation, 20 slides are shown for 20 seconds each, the presenter talks along with the slides and this provides a quick, easy way to share information. For our Pecha Kucha presentations, we will all show 10 slides, for 20 seconds each, about a job of our choice. I'm excited to see what everyone else will learn about, and also find out about a job myself.

I always have fun in inquiries, and enjoy working on them. They show us what it means to be Thinkers, Inquirers, Communicators, Knowledgeable, Open-minded, Principled, Caring, Balanced and Reflective. They show us how important these learner profiles are, and what effects they have on the world around us.

-Yani R