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Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?


To inquire into the following:

transdisciplinary theme: An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and
values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human
relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights
and responsibilities; what it means to be human.

Class/grade: Grade 1/2 Age group: 6-8


School: NCIS

School code: 050400

Title: Who We Are


Teacher(s): Lisa Page

PYP Planner

central idea: Our body is made up of different parts that work together.

Summative assessment task(s):

Date: Aug. 22nd- Sept. 30th

Goal: Your task is to create a resource for children to help them understand one way
they can look after their body.

Proposed duration: over number of weeks 6

Role: You are a healthy lifestyle expert who is in charge of teaching children at
schools how to look after himself or herself.

2. What do we want to learn?

Audience: Your target audience will be NCIS students.


Situation: Parents keep telling their kids to do this and do that to look after
themselves, but they never explain why! Your job is to help children understand!
Product, performance and purpose: You will create a book, a comic, or a
slideshow to help teach children ONE way to look after their bodies. You could
choose things like brushing your teeth, exercising, eating fruits and vegetables,
drinking enough water, getting enough sleep
In your resource, you will explain the parts of the body that help you to do the healthy
habit action. Then, you will give children the reasons why it is so important to do this
action by explaining the systems it helps when you do it.
Standards and Criteria for Success:
-One healthy habit will be the focus.
-The parts of the body that help are talked about in order, and there is an explanation
of their role or function. (using time connectives)
-At least two reasons are given for children to do the healthy habit. (using causal
conenctives)
-The reasons mention the system that children are helping to keep healthy when
doing the action.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Related concepts: Living things: body systems
Form: Identifying features and categorizing and describing parts of the body.
Similarities and differences between people. Structure of body systems.
Function: Purpose/role of parts, typical and atypical ways of behaving.
Responsibility: Choices, actions/consequences, childrens rights, what they
can control vs. what their parents insure.
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the
central idea?
- The parts of the body and their roles. (form/function)
- How the body parts work together.(form/function)
- Looking after our body.(responsibility)
What teacher questions will drive these inquiries?
What is the difference between external and internal organs?
What happens to food when you eat it?
What can you do to take care of your body?
What does it mean to be healthy emotionally?
What teacher provocations will drive these inquiries?
1. Videos, 3D diagrams of the body, books from the library,
experiments

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have


learned?

This column should be used in conjunction


with How best might we learn?

4. How best might we learn?


What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students to
engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
TUNING IN (prior knowledge)

What are the possible ways of assessing


students prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?

Prior knowledge activities listed in box 3. Students have options to express their prior knowledge about body parts,
functions, systems and taking care.

Parts: Draw a human and label its parts. List


all the parts of the body you can. Point out
all the parts on your body you know

FINDING OUT/SORTING OUT


Students will compile a list of topic words. Together we build definitions based on knowledge collected.

Function: Brainstorm all the things each part


can do. Explain what each part does in
writing. Act out what each part can do.

Students will watch videos related to parts of the body, systems, typical and atypical functioning, taking care of oneself.

Systems: Create teams of body parts that


work well together. Answer mystery
questions about the function of systems.
(Think, explore, act chart)

Provocations to get them to tune in: experiments, videos, 3D diagrams.

Students post questions on the Wonder Wall. Any student may choose any question and use resources such as
books, prior knowledge or the internet to find out the answer and re-post.

Students will read non-fiction books related to unit of inquiry.


Using pictures of different foods, students categorize the food in different food groups.
Students make observations in different experiments.
Students will learn about and practice food safety in preparing healthy snacks.

Taking care: Draw pictures of you taking


care of yourself.

Students reflect on their prior knowledge compared to their curated knowledge.

What are the possible ways of assessing


student learning in the context of the lines
of inquiry? What evidence will we look
for?

GOING FURTHER:
Parts and their functions:
Students match functions to parts and sort them into systems.

Formative:
Group Discussions

Students match functions to parts and sort them


into systems. (assessment)

Sorting into food groups activity


Body system map
o Summative: See box 1

Students will sort food labels into healthy and unhealthy categories.

Students will choose a Paralympic athlete and create a hero poster for them to raise awareness and support.
Parts working together:
Students will create a map of a chosen body system, including labels of all the parts.
Create a comic of activities they do through out the day and explain how each system is used.
Looking after our body:
Students will divide up a paper plate and use pictures taken at the grocery store to sort food into groups.
Students will list different ways to take care of our body and then write their function on a body map.
Students will use a venn diagram to express their responsibilities vs. their parents and shared ones.
Students will plan and lead an exercise session for the class.
Students will write an explanation piece to try to explain the benefits of a healthy choice.
Students will come up with a way to track how much water they drink a day.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

St

4. How best might we learn? Continued


DRAWING CONCLUSIONS/REFLECTING
Students present their explanation healthy choices piece of writing to the school at assembly.
Compare their responsibility been diagrams and add to their own.
Students will reflect on their capabilities and be able to provide solutions for problem they encounter. (one to one conferences)
ACTING:
Students may watch the Paralympics at home or during free time.
Students may choose to make healthy snacks at home after school.
Students may lead exercises with others outside on the playground.
Students may drink more water, or make other healthy choices to take care of their bodies. Take on more responsibility.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the attributes of the learner profile?
Transdisciplinary Skills:
Communication Skills: Students will view and read information to learn about the body. They will write and present an explanation text about healthy
choices. (speaking, reading, writing, presenting)
Social skills: Students will take responsibility for taking care of their bodies and respecting others (accepting responsibility, respecting others)
Self-management skills: Students will practice small exercises they can do anywhere, learn about food safety and learn about taking care of the body and
making good choices. (gross and fine motor, safety, healthy lifestyle, informed choices)
Attitudes:
Respect: Self and others physically and emotionally by making informed choices.
Commitment: to taking care of our bodies and minds. Commitment of automatic systems and what happens when they malfunction.
Profiles:
Balanced: Balance of a healthy lifestyle and still enjoying yourself. Importance of wellbeing.
Thinker: Thinking about how to correct the body when something is not functioning properly. Taking care of yourself and solving health problems.
What opportunities will occur for specialists to integrate with the Unit of Inquiry?
PSPE: Students will explore how exercise and physical fitness contribute to a healthy lifestyle (responsibility). Links will be identified between different
activities and body systems used. (Function/Form)
Chinese: Name of body parts in Chinese and the actions that are related to these body parts. (form, function) Classroom instructions linked with senses.
(function)
Visual Arts: Who is an artist and what is our responsibility in the art room? (Responsibility, form)
Performing Arts: Taking care of instruments/materials and ensemble playing. (Responsibility, function)

5. What resources need to be gathered?


What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

Books: NCIS library books and selection of personal books. Research and experiments.

People: Videos of experts on topics surrounding taking care of yourself. (nurses, doctors, meditation practitioners)

Visits: Visit to local hospital to see how people are taken care of etc.

Videos: List ongoing as accumulated throughout topic.


o

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_eVG45_iF9U (How the Heart Works) this channel has other videos on the systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-s5iCoCaofc (Exploring the Heart)- this channel has other videos on the systems.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaLvxVnn8Yg food groups song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEN4UTbovKM processed food, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du1TDSJ2sy0 fresh and frozen

How to brush properly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDZXSMU2lAk,


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DstSL3I--9I
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwrsL-lCZYo&index=5&list=PLRmb5AxU-JXgajvrrcozhkhMeSWa0XI0Z

o
o

Websites:
http://www.choosemyplate.gov/kids
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/nutritionforkids/games/foodgroupsgame.html
http://www.foodafactoflife.org.uk/Activity.aspx?siteId=15&sectionId=64&contentId=56 make a healthy lunch box

digestion

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students


understanding of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved
in the planning and teaching of the inquiry should be included.

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:

Students were able to name most body parts and organs throughout the unit.
Because a lot of the names and information were new to them, they sometimes
need prompts or more time to recall new names. The working together part was
demonstrated as they took part in the science experiments. They would often tell
you what was going to happen next, or tell you how the system process would
progress, before it was conducted. They have shown understanding through
writing that the nervous system is the boss of all things that happen in your body.
One student has begun speaking about parts working as teams when he is
referring to different systems.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have
a more accurate picture of each students understanding of the central
idea.
More of a focus could be placed on the concepts of function and form instead of
responsibility. This way, they could discuss and show their knowledge of body
systems (how the parts work together)
Students all chose to use the computer as it was new for them. Because of this,
they needed a lot of support with how to use a search engine to get pictures,
and also, how to use powerpoint. The final project was still theirs and they did a
great job at presenting it to the school at our assembly.
In general, the project really boosted their confidence and helped to show them
what they can achieve.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central
idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
The central idea: Our body is made up of different parts that work together. Fits well
with the personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health part of the
Transdisciplinary theme. I think that the lines of inquiry could be changed a bit in
order to get more at the mental, social and spiritual health areas under the concept
of responsibility.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

1.

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to


learn?
Form: Students used books and online resources to look up names of different body
parts and organs. They made drawings of different features. They also researched a
Paralympian, which helped them understand that some peoples parts dont take the
same form and that form can change. Students used models and pictures to get a
sense of that organs were like on their insides.
Function: Students created part brainstorms about the role of the part. They tested
the function of systems through experiments. They also concluded different functions
of each system after watching videos, conduction experiments and doing readings.
Responsibility: Students created responsibility venn diagrams to show the
responsibilities of themselves and parents. We compared diagrams and considered
the changes that could be made. They made a body poster of healthy habits and
explanations for each one. Students also designed and completed water intake
tracking charts to show responsibility for taking care.
2. demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
Communication Skills: Students had many lengthy conversations about how the
body works, including questions, generalizations and applications of what they were
learning. Their summative task gave them a chance to write about what they had
learned about responsibility and present to the school Social skills: Student water
trackers helped them with accepting responsibility. They had the chance to show
respect for others during their exercise sessions. It is clear that this is an area that
needs more work, as some students did not listen carefully to their classmates.
Self-management skills: Making snack for other students helped them to practice
their fine motor skills. They also practiced different exercises and explored balanced
diets in order to make more informed choices at lunch,.
3. develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Respect: During each others exercise sessions, some students showed great
respect for the leader of the session.
Commitment: the water trackers gave them a concrete way to demonstrate this.
Balanced: Some showed more awareness at lunch time after looking at what a
balanced plate looks like. They chose a better variety.
Thinker: Giving reasons for doing healthy habits (what do they help?) and solving
health problems with action.l

Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

9. Teacher notes

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student


questions and highlight any that were incorporated into the
teaching and learning.

Areas to Add/Change:

Student Questions:
Why are there two nervous words? Nervous like the way you feel
and the Nervous system.
What makes you taste things?
How does your brain tell your parts what to do?
Are involuntary muscles like battery controlled cars?
Why do we have two places to breathe in from?
Why is the small intestine 4 people long?

When creating the body poster map for each of the systems, I drew the parts and
they told me where they went. This way, the representation was clear for them to use
as a reference. They had the opportunity to draw and place major organs of their
bodies on their own life size torso maps, and include with each one, the function of it.

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we


want to learn? and highlight the teacher questions/
provocations that were most effective in driving the inquiries.
What happens to food when you eat it?
-These kinds of questions were helpful to drive inquiry because as a class,
students would hear many misconceptions and then want to work together
to find out the truth.
For provocations, the 3D body system models were very helpful in starting
conversations. A lot of students did not know what the organs looked like or
what they were called. The Chloe and the Nerb youtube videos were also a
favourite as they were helpful in answering a lot of their questions.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?


Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups
showing their ability to reflect, to choose and to act.
Students have asked to take their water trackers home with them in their
homework books to record water intake at home as well.
Students have been talking about their heart rate during swimming lessons and
PSPE lessons.
A lot of sharing of information has been happening at home (I am told by
parents).

International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Although choice was great for the prior knowledge tasks, they took up a lot more
time than expected.

We were unable to sort food labels, as most of them are in Chinese. We resorted to
going further into what the benefit of each food group was.
The exercise sessions were a hit with the kids. They really enjoyed planning them
and they took the challenge of explaining each exercises benefit really well. They
were motivated to write, and very excited to share. More work needed to be done on
respectful listening before delivering.
The biggest success of this unit was during our week of body systems experiments.
As pre-learning, we watched videos, read books or talk about each system while
making a body map of the organs or parts needed for that system. Then, to help
them consolidate and understand more in depth, we conducted a series of
experiments. These were extremely helpful and the language and understanding
they were using by making comments and predictions throughout were invaluable.
We were able to squeeze in a small bit about the responsibility of taking care of our
mental health. They really enjoyed breathing and visualization exercises, and were
able to describe how they were positively affecting their bodies. Yoga could also be
introduced.
PSPE: The 2016 Paralympics began during our first weeks of PSPE, which provided
a great opportunity for students to link body systems and parts to athletic activity and
learning completed in their homeroom. We discussed the function of different body
parts and organs linked to movement and breathing during physical activity and how
leading an active lifestyle contributes to a healthy body.
ART: Students learnt about who they are as artists as we explored the art elements
of line and color. They really enjoyed mixing colors and using lines to create
interesting patterns. They also used the work of Mondrian as inspiration for a primary
colors piece and Miro for an abstract piece on line. This unit was very successful and
students were able to develop an appreciation for these two art elements.
Performing Arts: Students studied the Recorder a member of the woodwind family
of instruments and the basics of stage performance. They learnt how to care for the
instrument as well as how to play solo and ensemble pieces and even how to show
appreciation for a stage performance. Some students experienced some challenges
reading the music notation and memorizing lines of a monologue, but they were very
engaged in this unit of work. They demonstrated a high level of commitment, caring
and integrity throughout this unit.

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