PYP Exhibition

“Knowledge isn’t life changing. The application of knowledge is.”

The students of grade 5 have eventually pursued this spirit as they worked collaboratively for their IB PYP Exhibition. This year’s grade 5 IB PYP Exhibition was organized under the transdisciplinary theme “Sharing the Planet” An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict resolution.

The Exhibition is a culminating PYP experience and reflects all the major features of the programme. Students are expected to exhibit the attributes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile.

It’s where students take their skills and knowledge and apply them in authentic and meaningful contexts which develop the whole child including the attributes of the Learner Profiles. Using and applying learning for a cause is believed that in interacting with real-life contexts students are brought to a deeper level of understanding of the issue.

Within their groups students chose real life issues which were of interest to the theme. They came up with an issue of the depletion of nonrenewable resources. After a good brainstorm, they framed their own central idea, i.e., Energy can be transformed and conserved to support human progress.

Once the central idea and the lines of inquiry were decided and finalized, the students approached their mentors and began to work under their guidance. Each student accessed a range of online and offline resources, books, encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, interview transcripts and field trip findings to decide upon a personal topic of their own. Students formulated concept questions linked to their topic and then had to select notion that they would have to platform the indulgent of on the final two days of the exhibition.

Once the students had enough, data, information and facts, they began with making models, charts, powerpoints, comparative tools and projector based presentations. They revised all their data keeping in mind the lines of inquiry and the concept.

Students simultaneously worked in groups to practice for a skit, dance and a song that addressed energy issues all over the world.

After weeks of firm determination by each student under the guidance of their mentor… individually presented their understanding of the topic and the concept they chose to focus on, to parents and the school community. They also put up the skit, song and dance that they had had been practicing since days on end. Their efforts were appreciated by one and all. The students showcased great enthusiasm and creativity in their presentation… but moreover, they showed a deep conceptual understanding of their topics at hand.

In a nutshell, the exhibition proved to be a journey of discovery and learning; of deep realization that we humans, animals and plants reside on a planet which owes its life to a finite resource called water. It dawned upon the students that humans were responsible for the depletion of nonrenewable resources, its mismanagement and scarcity. They awoke to the dreadful reality that if the same practice continues, future generations would face the risk of sustainability and survival. To end on a good note, the students awoke to the fact that the future of the planet lay in their hands and in the hands of all others who share the same planet.

Facilitators: Home Room Teachers

Some moments: