Our Primary Years Programme Exhibition Story!

Our Primary Years Programme Exhibition Story!
Bio of the authors:

My name is Mariam Islam and I study in Grade 5, Abdul Kadir Molla International School. My hobbies are reading and inquiring about new facts. I enjoy sharing my knowledge and organizing information for presentations.

I am Israt Jahan Tanisha. I am a student of grade 5, Abdul Kadir Molla International School. I am social and love accepting responsibilities for a positive change. I like to help everyone.

Hello everyone! It’s Mariam Islam and Israt Jahan Tanisha. We are from Grade 5, Abdul Kadir Molla International School. Today we’re going to talk about the PYP Exhibition and our journey!

First let’s see, what is the PYP Exhibition? In a PYP exhibition where students independently dive deep into issues through inquiry and come up with creative action taking. Learners’ agency is the heart of it.

Now let’s see how the process works. It all started with provocation. Here are a few strategies we used to write down our understanding following the provocation:

● Hot Potato:

Honestly, this strategy requires imagination. We imagined tossing a hot boiled potato. We tried to toss (actually write) our ideas quickly on the paper. We showed our quick understanding about the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG).

● Color-Symbol-Image:
This strategy is full of creativity. We had to think of a color or colors, then symbols and images which demonstrate our basic ideas on a specific topic. This time we showed our excitement for the PYP Exhibition. It was such fun to see how people interpreted the PYP exhibition in various ways. Most of us had different answers which portrayed clearly that we all are unique. We drew and described our drawings at the same time!

● Burning issues:
Here we wrote about the most serious issues which need to get eradicated. Some of us wrote what is the most effective Sustainable Development Goal that can help our world according to the current situation and others wrote about the issues that need to be taken care of later compared to the significant ones. At the end, we chose to stick with five actions for five issues.

● Issues of Me, My Community, and My world:
Here we tried to connect one issue which we come across within us, our community and the world. It is easier to take action if we can relate issues.

● What issue is important for me:
Now here is an interesting one. We had to pick an issue which seemed most important to us. Sustainable Development Goals need to be met by 2030. Practically we cannot solve it all together. So after a long interactive session, we chose one we wanted to work for.
● Parallel Thinkers:
As thinkers we worked parallelly. How? Based on our interests we sorted our names under Sustainable Development Goals parallelly. Then the groups were formed under various SDGs.

● RIQ strategy:
It helped us to form questions we want to work on. On Google slides we presented what we could relate to, get insight into and come up with burning questions about our chosen Sustainable Development Goals.

● SMART Goal:
Here we could get a wonderful chance to use a very useful online tool ‘Nearpod.com’ and learned how we can make actions SMART. We checked that:

S- Is our action specific?
M- Is it Measurable?
A- Is it Actionable/ Achievable?
R- Is our action Relevant?
T- Is it Time-Bound?

● PDCA Cycle:
We have used the PDCA cycle to show our improvement in taking action. PDCA stands for Plan, Do, Check, Act. With this strategy, we could bring changes in our plans if anything did not seem workable. Mistakes can be corrected through this cycle as it repeats over and over giving us chances to reach the goal.

● Explanation Game-
The explanation Game is not just any game but a learning strategy. Here we can write about a topic more expansively. In the explanation game, there are different tears /layers where we keep writing. The layers represent levels that we complete.

● Feeling -Action-Solution:
This task touched our hearts and our brain. Oh…you didn’t understand, let me explain! Feeling leads to action taking and finding a solution to a problem.

● S.A.I.L. Strategy:
With the S.A.I.L. strategy we experienced a mix of everything! We shared ideas about our plan for the PYP exhibition, then asked others what they thought about the idea, next we collected the ideas and at last reflected on our learning.

Most important thing that we want to share with you is that in our unit, we understood academic integrity and its significance. We used the internet for research to enhance our knowledge and develop our own ideas but we used citations.
……………………………………………………..

Fun Fact – On the same day we had a session with Ms.Jasmane Frans. It was also our first guest speaker session offline in this unit!

Guest speakers-
One thing we found common among all the guest speakers is that they all were highly experienced and passionate about their work. They give us tons of information.

Moreover we all are very appreciative of not just the guest speakers but also our homeroom teachers for setting up the session and making it all possible!

We would like to mention who had been our guest speakers and mentors:
Guest Speakers:
1. Jasmine Franse
2. Raunith Manuel
3. Zannatul Salsabil
4. Emily Hui
5. Subhajit Mukherjee

Mentors-
1. Fahmida Khan
2. Sadiah Shams
3. Tayeba Zahra

Research phase-

One thing is for sure researching is such a big part of the exhibition. You see… we did not know this before but when we did we started working right away and started researching intensely.

Now you might be wondering what SDG our group is working on? We have shared our whole experience but not the SDG!

It is a joy to share with you that as a team we chose Clean Water and Sanitation. Which is SDG number 6. This goal is to ensure clean and affordable water for all. This is also related to urbanization, water system and water quality issues, and much more!

An SDG which stands for sustainable development goals we made by the UN with 169 targets. They have agreed to accomplish these goals by 2030. The only way we can help is by taking ACTION!

How is it transdisciplinary?
During the PYP Exhibition other disciplines are integrated such as V.A (Visual Arts), Language (Arabic, Bangla, French) etc.

We have shared so much information but let us share our opinions about the PYP exhibition and what it’s all about!

Mariam: The PYP exhibition to me is where we celebrate and showcase our learning.
Tanisha- PYP exhibition is a very important event. In PYPX we showcase our learning in front of our learning community.
Ariean- A time when we collaborate and creatively think.
Taibur- Expressing our ideas and aiming to succeed.
Alif- A time when we explore the whole world and we learn to inquire, I will never forget this time.
Hossain- In the PYP exhibition we show our learning, ATL skills, and )IB learner profiles.
Fahim- Where we focus on our agency (voice, choice, and ownership.

Now here is one special line we will never hopefully forget –

With the PYP Exhibition, we have shown where we’ve grown!

Our Actions:

We took small actions every day and we captured it. Action is very important. When we take action it is evident that we learned something.

Here are some actions we took:
● Raising Awareness
● Stop Wasting Water
● Reusing Grey Water
● Making Water Purifiers using recycled materials.
● Taking Survey
● Researching more about the topic
● Making 3d models of well – planned Urbanization and Water System
● Making Website

Lastly, The most important and exciting part. We started making websites and Google slides! This was our main focus since this is where we get to express all our work and research we have been doing. We are preparing for the presentation now. Every day we took a single step forward to the PYP Exhibition.

It was a long journey. We tried to keep records of our each task by writing reflections in our special PYP Exhibition journal. It helped us to document our learning. If we check that journal we can understand what we did every day. We made our journal colorful and presentable.

The main focus of this PYP Exhibition is to make us better global citizens. We have to make this world sustainable. To make this world a better place we need to change ourselves. Our decisions and choices matter a lot. Can we work hand in hand? Yes! We can! Our single step can make a difference. We are the future leaders.

We are very excited about the big day! Just a few more days left. We are hoping for the best. We are excited and also nervous. As an International Baccalaureate (IB) learner it is a very important and special event for us. Where we showcase all our profiles and skills.

Thank you, everyone and that’s all for today!