Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
To inquire into the following:
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Class/grade:2E, 2F
Age group: 7 years old
School: German European
School code: 300219
transdisciplinary theme
How we organise ourselves: An exploration of human systems and
communities; of the world of work, its nature and its value; of employment
and unemployment and their impact.
Title: Field to Fork
PYP planner
Teacher(s): White Morton
Date: Feb 21 – April 1 2011
Central idea
Proposed duration: number of hours - 20
over number of weeks - 5
The food choices we make have an impact on people and on the
environment.
Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the
central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look
for?
2. What do we want to learn?
Production (farming, factory, etc), packaging (sustainability), transportation,
marketting of food we buy.
Informed choices - Selecting an appropriate course of
action or behaviour based on fact or opinion.
Children to make an advertisement related to the language arts
(advertising). Encourage the use including fair trade, organic etc. Children
to make it eye catching and include advertising images and slogans.
TD SKILLS – THINKING SKILS, APPLICATION (thinking about old data in a
new way!)
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
responsibility, function, connection
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
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
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How food is produced
How food is marketed
How agriculture changes the land
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
1.
2.
3.
4.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Where does the food we eat come from and how does it get to us?
How is it produced?
How do we make decisions about the food we eat?
How has agriculture and food production changed the environment?
Planning the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned?
4. How best might we learn?
This column should be used in conjunction with “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?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?
TUNING IN 1. Homework – Food diary and look in cupboards and fridge at home to see where the
food we have comes form. Fill in table with food name, country, and continent.
TUNING IN - Discuss CI and Lines of Inquiry to find out what students already
know about topic.
Food collages, 1. Make own recipe in class as a small group, like smoothies, fruit salad, etc and write
procedure of making..
PREPARING TO FIND OUT - Sort snacks one day before recess in different
ways, healthy/.not, food groups, processed/not, continent of origin, etc. Look at
foods that are processed in some way, like yoghurt, granola bar, cookies, etc.
Discuss what we know about how they are made and how they got to
Singapore. RECORD STUDENT QUESTIONS.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
List foods and different product they can be made into. Summative task
research and presentation of findings about how a food is produced from start o
finish.
2. Trip to wet market – recording cost/origin of goods, where food products come from . Children to
use wet market fruit to make fuit salad or smoothie, teacher to bring yoghurt, milk, juice, honey, etc –
make a fruit salad from around the world
FINDING OUT – farming basics – where does milk/wheat etc come from. How has farming methods
changed over time (tractors and horse drawn carts) Where food is produced depends upon location
and climate ( ie rice from Asia because of climate)? Linked to why there is very few Singapore grown
foods. Food graph – of continents our food comes from. Plotted air miles on to paper. Make lunch box
with food taking into account packaging, and air miles/ carbon footprint. Environmental issues –
deforestation for cattle, rice plantations, palm oil plantations ( Mr Leofler) food miles/carbon footprint.
Linked back to wet market and where we brought our fruit and vegetables from.
Fair trade - See Joram for game, Fair trade continuum. One Hen book and website. Possible action
to help microfinance in Africa etc.
GOING FURTHER1. (Organic foods and free range – what is this? What does it mean? Do they have
any foods at home/in suermarket that is organic? Impact of pesticides on the environment.
2. Modelled reading/guided reading look at literature which explains different possible processes one
food can o to and record what is learned on posters. Posters go around from group to group, adding
new info.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
Knowledgeable, inquirer; Thinking skills, Research skills
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available? How will the classroom environment, local
environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Hay Dairies Goat Farm and Aero-Green Technology Hydroponic Gardens (6792 4298), Cold Storage, local market, books from personal teacher collections
How to make an apple pie and see the world by Marjorie Priceman (about getting freshest ingredients for recipe by going to the country that makes the food)
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
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:
Whole class mind map after all the finding out allowed the children to
piece the parts of the unit together to see all the factors that influence food
choices.
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develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
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Responsibility - how consumer’s choices influence what the suppliers
provide. It is our responsibility to make informed choices about the food we
purchase.

Connection – we need a market for our goods in order for it to be profitable
and continued. Roles play about Fair Trade made it concrete that supply and
demand is important. Mind map at the end of all the finding out enabled the
children to make connections

Function – agriculture and how it has changed to meet demands. Flow charts
for this helped children to see it is a much more complex process today.
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demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a
more accurate picture of each student’s understanding of the central idea.
Some children focused on a combined fast food meal found this
challenging. Teachers need to encourage children to advertise simple
food such as carrots or potatoes.
Before summative task commences a trip to the supermarket may be
relevant to look at advertising and packaging as some of the children do
not get to visit supermarkets in their daily lives.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
SELF-MANAGEMENT – Making informed choices. Time management for
summative task.
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THINKING - Application and Synthesis. Using the information they have
learnt and their prior knowledge to can advert.
How we organise ourselves: An exploration of human systems and
communities; of the world of work, its nature and its value; of
employment and unemployment and their impact.
Human Systems – how food is produced, transported and packaged
World of work – Fair trade, micro financing
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Caring for our environment. Inquirer – asking questions. Knowledgeable –
prior experiences and have become more knowledgeable so they can make
informed choices.
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Creativity – making and advert.
Integrity – making informed choices based upon the environment and other
people.
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Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
9.
Teacher notes
Subject
Portfolio
(Y/N)
Activities to Support Units
ART
Yes
Printing and food, carry printing on to the next unit
( maybe recreate a classic piece of artwork!)
How does it get here?
GMT
No
Texts related to food production.
Why are no foods grown in Singapore?
GSL
What is organic? Why is it important?
How is it made?
Where does it come from?
Read library books related to unit, for example/
process of milk, perhaps a portfolio piece
How much is 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.
1.Where does the food we eat come from and how does it get to
us?
2. How is it produced?
3.How do we make decisions about the food we eat?
4.How has agriculture and food production changed the environment?
GFL
no
Veggie/fruit market, write an email about the
market
ICT
Yes
Flow chart how food is produced from field to
table
MUSIC
yes
The children composing a 8 bar rhythm they
select the percussion instrument and present in
concert form to the class. NO LINK TO FIELD TO
FORK
PE
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.
I am going to take my own bags to the supermarket.
I am going to ask my mum to buy fair trade tea.
We are going to check if our eggs are free range.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
No link