PYP Exhibition

When do year 6 students begin to think about their PYP Exhibition?

From the very beginning of the academic year, the stage is set for students to be international-minded and agentic learners. One such provocation was the short video we watched – Wangari Maathai’s “I will be a Hummingbird”. The PYPx 2020-2021 was a showcase for students to be agents of change, no matter how small.

This is a celebration of collaboration that brings together the learning community: the student, the classroom teacher, the parents and the mentors. This 8-week long journey was a time to explore, document and share understanding of issues close to their heart.

Under the umbrella of the transdisciplinary theme ‘How We Express Ourselves’, Year 6 used the Arts to share their message to ‘Heal the World’. They chose a range of issues from clean water and sanitation, pollution, video games, space travel, video games, animal relationships with humans, travel in the time of CoVid, Artificial Ingredients and Sports and Wellbeing and brought into the spotlight the cause- effect, impact on society and the need for action.

Together the students collaborated to decide on a common central idea with their own Lines of Inquiry and concepts. Their big idea, ‘We use our talents, skills and knowledge to take action and make the world a better place’ rang loud and clear during the exhibition.

Armed with their personal planners and support of their teacher and student mentors, the inquiry process could begin. Hours of research, and the feedback from their mentors and teachers fueled the inquiry and drove their message across to the audience. Our students met several setbacks found in themselves the resilience to continue after setting higher goals as assessment capable learners.

On the day of the exhibition, each student held the attention of the audience through interactive engagements, insightful facts and persuasion to take action. Their theme Heal the World , and the big idea to use the talents and skills to raise awareness of a global issue was well received.

The exhibition process ended for each student with a peer assessment and self-reflection.

As a learning community, we were witness to creativity, confidence, care and courage in this young cohort of students. Well done Year 6. As IB learners you have inspired all in the audience and outdone yourselves to do the best you can.