Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
Class/grade:
6
Age group: 10-11
To inquire into the following:
- transdisciplinary theme
Share the Planet
An inquiry into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources
with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships
within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict
resolutions.
Central idea
School: Capilano
School code: 7817
PYP planner
Title: Adaptations
Teacher(s): Belinda Harnden and Rameses Langston
Date: January 2013
Proposed duration: 6 weeks
Living things adapt.
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?
Summative
The students will be asked to create a living organism that is uniquely adapted to
live within the Capilano Elementary School grounds. They will have to draw a
labeled diagram and produce a field guide indicating how the organism is adapted
with respect to the key concepts.
Key Concepts: Function Causation Perspective
Assessment tool: rubric and self-reflection (could be a journal response OR
interview)
Evidence:
 student’s ability to connect their organism’s adaptation choices with
survival in a given environment.
 student’s ability to consider the interactions of the organism with other
living things in order to share the resources available in the environment.
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Related concepts: Role
Consequences
Opinion
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
An inquiry into:
 the characteristics of adaptations
 what drives adaptations
 human interaction with living things
What teacher questions will drive these inquiries?
1.
2.
3.
How do living things adapt?
What drives adaptations and what are the consequences?
What roles do humans have on the adaptation of living things?
Provocation: View DVDs on Planet Earth. Observe/discuss wide array of organisms presented in
varied environments. Examples – red kangaroo, glow worms, tree frogs, deep ocean bacteria
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
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?
1.
2.
Deconstruction of the central idea, what are living things?
Student journal responses to the Planet Earth provocation
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Inquiry 1: Adaptations
 research of an animal of choice in relation to adaptations of that animal,
summative
Evidence: identifying and classifying the adaptations, inventing a fictional
organism adapted to Capilano School
Inquiry 2: What drives adaptations
 Research regarding adaptations in a variety of guided reading, texts, mini
inquiries
Evidence: student knowledge regarding adaptations in general, and their
explanation of why organisms are the way they are
Inquiry 3: Human interactions with living things
 Mind Map – students record the roles that humans play in the adaptation
of living things
 Summative
Evidence: Students’ abilities to identify multiple instances of human’s role, class
discussions of the consequences of human interactions with living things,
summative explanation of adaptations necessary for survival of an organism in
Capilano School
-
Biome in a box research project incorporating food webs research: to describe in
detail the adaptive characteristics (physical and behavioural) of any living
organism; incorporate classification (taxonomy), field guides
biome investigations (group presentations, fishbones comparing biomes)
Discuss human roles/impacts on living things – brainstorm in a T-table some ideas
and their effects
Microscope activities, looking at organisms and microscopic phyla, parts of a cell
Outdoor school activities – potato creatures, biodiversity, eagles, salmon
Dragonfly Pond – debate
Clay/plasticine models of organisms and their biomes
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
-
Knowledgeable: researching their personal animals, journal responses, video
responses, learning microscope skills
Thinker: researching their personal animals, journal responses, video responses,
class discussions on impact of human-natural world interactions
Social Skills: project presentations (written and oral) to the school community,
group and class discussions,
Thinking Skills: researching their personal animals, journal responses, video
responses, inferring impact of humans
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
www.flashearth.com (or Google Earth) BC Science 6, Outdoor School, variety of nonfiction books for research: biomes, animals, Project Wet, Project Wild, www.smithsonianzoo.org;
www.oag-bvg.gc.ca; www.geog.ubc.ca/richmond/city/inventoryphotogalleryfungi.html, DVDs: Planet Earth, Website www.biotopics.co.uk/newgcse/competition.html, “bullfrog” article
and Dolphin Mystery video, various pamphlets & posters, Ted talks – Crow vending machine
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Outdoor environments for observations, explorations, and connections: North Vancouver Outdoor School; Burns Bog
Classroom space and computer lab used for everyday activities
School Community: invite classes to view and inquire about biome in a box dioramas
Delta estuary real-life example for proposed development project. (Google Earth)
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Reflecting on the inquiry
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
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.
The students grasped the idea of adaptations and why living things need to adapt
in order to survive.
Evidence: depth of knowledge and learning presented during the biome in a box
presentations and student understanding of their own animal; also students were
able to reflect on adaptations during the summative task
.
Evidence: Students further explored the central idea through personal inquiry,
project development and discussions. These instances provided abundant
individual and collaborative assessment feedback of student concept attainment.
Evidence: The addition of Predator Prey concepts during Outdoor School had a
significant impact on learning. Students inspired by the activity initiated new
questions and student inquiries. The integration of learning and physical activity
contributed to an enthusiastic learning environment.
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.
Include a student conference to discuss details of human impact and adaptations
of their creation
Stress that the new organism must be imaginary and significantly different from
existing organisms while still being realistic
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
a)
b)
c)
d)
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
- develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
Function:
- Animal research & biome in a box creation – students had to examine and
apply the role an animal plays and how it behaves
- Microscope and cell activities
- PE Adaptation games “Predator- Prey”– physical examination of the role of
various living things
Causation:
- Animal research & biome in a box creation – examining animals and how they
are impacted and how they impact other living things, inclusion of food web
- PE Adaptation games “Predator- Prey” – discussion of the reasoning for
changes to games
Perspective:
- summative assessment – students had to examine a scenario from another
living thing’s point of view
- PE Adaptation games “Predator- Prey”- opportunity for students to walk in the
shoes of animals
Social Skills:
Collaborative group research and TPS opportunities – students developed
communication and knowledge acquisition skills, presentations to school
Thinking skills:
- animal research & biome in a box creation – students had to examine and
apply the role an animal plays and how it behaves
- develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
in the reflection piece, a majority of students discussed:
the connection between living things and adapting to survive
the summative task was successful on many levels, pairing a very familiar
biome with creative skills
connection between human impact and living things
student enjoyment of creative learning engagements e.g. diorama,
summative, potato creatures, Predator Prey
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Knowledgeable/Thinker:
- animal research & biome in a box creation – students had to examine and
apply the role an animal plays and how it behaves in the context of a food web
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.
Student Questions:
What are forms of adaptations?
Will we keep evolving and will we feel anything?
How are plants and animals classified?
How do changes in the weather cause animals and plants to adapt?
Is it getting harder for animals to adapt because of what humans do?
If things didn’t adapt would they all die?
Do the genetics of a living thing affect their adaptations?
What are the significant causes of adaptations in living things?
What is our responsibility towards helping living things survive?
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 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.
Actions taken:
- Students developed a variety of ideas for independent action based on unit learning
- Resources such as books and additional websites were brought in by students
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
9. Teacher notes
1. Re-look at the biome in a box rubric2. Include more about the human impacts by bringing in examples in the news
as well as examples from past events (i.e. oil spill, Great Pacific Garbage
batch)
3. Potato creatures worked well- constructed at outdoor school- promoted
valuable student connections to the central idea
4.Take a field trip to the aquarium or zoo to give students an opportunity to see
the animals and enclosures first hand (can be applied to their own creations)
5. Introduce new video series ” Galapagos” to support inquiry into Charles
Darwin and the impacts of tourists visiting the islands. Do this in collaboration
with the grade 7s (Where we are in place and time)
6.Needs more of a focus on the third line of inquiry on perspectives incorporate more role play activities as well as various perspectives
7. Short central idea – no difference from the longer “ Living things adapt in
order to survive”
Interesting – brings up that whole ‘single word CI’ conversation. I think
it made no difference because it is still using the concept in the same
way. Perhaps the central idea could be broadened to encompass
other types of adaptations – businesses, sports teams (could use in
PE – invasion game strategy etc.) social adaptations…
8. Incorporate more of the Transdisciplinary Theme, perhaps how changes in
human technology drive animals to adapt; for instance how the growth of cities
drives cockroaches to flourish, scientific knowledge about evolution and
adaptations could be used to reduce the impact of people on the natural world,
or how humans can benefit from studying animal adaptations
9. What activities could we do at Outdoor school to better incorporate our lines
of inquiry?
10. Move the unit back to “Share the Planet” theme and place technology unit
in “How the World Works”