IST 4R

IST 4R

What Happens in 4R

Solar Impulse: Around the World in a Solar-Powered Plane

Something exciting is brewing in Grade 4.

We’ve been invited to participate through Google Connected Classrooms in a Virtual Field Trip to meet, interview and learn from the pilots of the Solar Impulse, the world’s first plane to fly solely on solar power.

The Solar Impulse: The world's first solar-powered plane designed to circle the globe. (image from http://www.howitworksdaily.com)

The timing couldn’t be better. We’re deep into our explorations of energy and electricity and a group of students have been enthusiastically exploring solar energy in terms of it’s form, it’s advantages, disadvantages and applications; as well as it’s function, how it works.

Next week a few members of the group will be involved in a trial connection with the Solar Impulse education team, ensuring that the technology to support our Virtual Field Trip is ready to roll. Over the week, the solar energy team will spend time learning about the project and developing questions for the pilots, in time for our meeting with them on Friday, April 11.

Have a look at the Connected Classrooms Hangout page, and find out how you can tune in to watch!

Watch this video and visit the Solar Impulse site to learn more about this amazing project.

Have a look at this recording of a past Hangout with a Solar Impulse Engineer to get a better understanding of what a Virtual Field Trip is all about.

The Great Energy Debate Game

In the pursuit of understanding how use of energy resources affects environmental sustainability, students researched different energy sources.

Teams plan their strategies for the next round of play.
Teams plan their strategies for the next round of play.

They familiarised themselves with the advantages and disadvantages of their energy source, as well as some challenges and benefits of others. Then, with our panel of esteemed judges, each energy source made its case. Every round, teams could choose whether to name an advantage of their source, to advance their team, or to identify a disadvantage of another source, to pull another team backwards. After 5 rounds we had no winners, so we wrapped up by recording video responses to four questions.

Their reflections on the debate game are divided into these four videos:

Why isn’t there an obvious winner in this debate on sources of energy?

If this debate continued, would there be a winner?

Why do we use energy sources that have a negative impact on the environment?

Other than environmental, what are some factors that we consider when choosing energy sources?

Student-led Conferences

Student-led conferences are a highlight of every year in a PYP school. They are a chance for students to guide their parents through some examples of what it’s like to be a student each day, by sharing some learning experiences together.

Take a look through the slides and add a comment as a reflection on your experience. Don’t forget to use the Comment Rubric on our blog’s Blogging page to help be sure you’re a comment ninja!

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Grade 4 trip to Rex energy and muhimbili

Grade four is learning about energy, so Ghati’s father made us come to where he works so we could learn more about energy or solar power. First we went to where he works and he shoed us many different sizes of solar, we saw a tiny one, we saw a medium one and we went to Muhinbili to see the large one.In 4r before we went we had to bhhu (we wrote about what we knew about solar energy) and when we came we had to bhhurrrrrrr (we wrote about what we learnt about solar energy). And it was a fun day plus we all learnt about solar energy. by:Kadidiata.

What is Genius Hour?

On Monday, I mentioned to the class that I had a big surprise in store for them.

On Tuesday, it arrived. 4R is going to join in on the learning experiment known at Genius Hour or sometimes, 20% Time.

Students walking in the door were put into groups of 3 or 4. They were instructed to choose a table, get a laptop, turn in on, then close it. I told them “I’ve heard of something new. It’s exciting, it’s being done in schools around the world, it’s all about inspiration and I think we’re ready for it.” Then we watched this video from the awesome Kid President:

I wrote on the board: What is Genius Hour? What is 20% time? “Take 15 minutes to find out as much as you can about these ideas, then be ready to share with us what you’ve learned.”

Groups got down to business.


Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

They found a ton of sites, videos and descriptions of what Genius Hour has looked like in other classrooms across grades and around the world. These are a few of the videos they looked at and eventually shared with the rest of us:


After their quick inquiry, students returned to share findings, clarify understandings and pose questions. The first question was “Can we start today?”

The answer, was “Yes.”

Before we can throw ourselves into our projects students will need time to thoughtfully consider which of their passions they might like to explore. What sorts of questions and inquiry might support them to deepen their skills and understanding? This would be a good week for students to speak with their families about what ideas they have in mind.

Here’s what students can expect:

  • 1.5 to 2 hours to work on their project per week at school.
  • It can be worked on as much as they like at home as well
  • Any passion might qualify. It can be a topic to learn about, a skill to acquire, a problem to solve, a product to produce and likely many others…
  • Most passions should be expressed as questions
  • Each passion proposal will need to be teacher-approved
  • Each student will develop and follow a learning plan
  • Each student will be expected to share in a reasonable time frame, preferably in a way that can be shared globally through our blog
  • The assessment will mostly focus on attitudes and self-regulation in inquiry

When developing questions on your passion, try this thinking routine:

Routine from Making Thinking Visible. Image courtesy of http://sonyaterborg.com

 

The Photo Exhibit

What a day!

In addition to our Poetry Cafe, grade four shared and celebrated our abilities to communicate through visual arts with the opening of our photo exhibit. Each student thoughtfully selected one PYP Learner Profile trait and developed a strategy to use their understanding of the language of photography, through elements of composition and photo editing, to express the trait in an image.

Visitors to our exhibit were invited to make their own interpretations of our photos and submit feedback forms. We’re curious to hear their ideas, and whether they had the same understanding that we did of our images. Click through the images below for more!

The Poetry Cafe

As a way to share our progress and learning throughout our poetry studies (in connection with our “How We Express Ourselves” unit of inquiry), fourth grade decided to host a poetry cafe. What started as a small idea, grew quickly! After taking a look at this example, 4R became very enthused with the various roles they could play (from waiters and chefs, to DJs, videographers and greeters). We divided ourselves into a range of teams charges with room design, table design, food and drink planning and more. Students took full ownership of the event, creating signage, advertising and menus as well as baking all sorts of treats to share on the day. When the room was finally ready it was truly transformed, from a classroom, to a jazzy cafe.

The following photo set and videos feature the poets sharing their work. Enjoy!