“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.” – Coretta Scott King
This is the first part in a three-part series that follows the Unit of Inquiry in P4.
Our MIS community’s knowledge was passed on to our learners in more ways than one. For our Who we are unit on human body systems, the P4 learners inquired into different body systems and the effects of a healthy lifestyle on our wellbeing.
The learning began with a guided inquiry into the digestive system. The use of the Kath Murdoch’s inquiry cycle and the steps for research were modelled to the learners.
Being a learner centric unit, the students used agency in the learning process by choosing the body system they wanted to learn more about. The research began by formulating questions and then moved to the actual gathering of information.
As per the IB: Principles into Practice, “Carefully considered resources extend students’ thinking, research and communication skills during the inquiry process…consider resources in the learning community to further extend their inquiry.” (IBO, 2018)
This is exactly what we did, after going through secondary resources in the form of eBooks, articles, and videos the learners used primary sources from our learning community.
Dr Ravi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon, Dr Varsha Tripathi, a paediatric neurologist, Ms Shweta Deokar, the head of the science department at MIS and Ms. Jodie O’Reilly, the CAS coordinator at MIS were all part of our learning in the week of September 14th – 18th.
Add the pictures here please
Our guest speakers gave the learners a contextual understanding by responding to their interview questions and by making learning relevant to them. To share their learning with the community, the learners wrote news articles and below are some excerpts.
‘I learned more about the heart from Dr Ravi, he explained how it works by drawing the pictures of the chambers.’ Adityavardhan
‘Ms. Jodi said she broke her back when she was doing a jump, I never knew that we could hurt ourselves like this. ‘Jiwon
‘My classmates and I interviewed Dr Ravi Shetty who explained to us heart health problems like a heart attack, and how to keep the heart-healthy.’ Anaya
‘From Dr Varsha I learned that the impulse travels very fast through to the spinal cord from the brain.’ Hayato
‘The interviews were interesting and helpful to P4 students now they could all understand body systems better.’ Jinyul
‘This interview was very informative; I learned a lot about the cardiovascular system and Dr Shetty’s life as a surgeon.’ Miraya
This social engagement allowed the learners to interact with the primary sources and this relationship gave rise to lifelong learning.
Teacher – Anne Bechara
Work Cited
From Associated Press. “King’s Widow Urges Acts of Compassion.” Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 17 Jan. 2000, www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-jan-17-mn–story.html#:~:text=%E2%80%9CThe%20greatness%20of%20a%20community,a%20soul%20generated%20by%20love.%E2%80%9D. Accessed 11 Oct. 2020.
Definition of Learning MIS 2018 adopted from Ambrose 2010
International Baccalaureate Organization. PYP: From principles into practice
“Programme resource center.’ December 2018. MY IB. Accessed. 30
September 2020.11 October 548322020.
