Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
To inquire into the following:
Sharing 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 resolution.
Central Idea
Living things impact and are dependent upon their ecosystem.
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?
Students will choose a picture of one animal. Describe the physical components of
the habitat in which that animal lives. Tell where the animal gets their food, water,
shelter, and space within the ecosystem. Describe what changes have living things
made to this animal’s ecosystem that affect it. Students will list actions that humans
can take to help conserve the ecosystem.
A teacher-made rubric will be used to assess students’ understanding of an animal’s
food, water, shelter, space, changes, and responsibilities on a scale of 1 to 4.
Class/grade: 2nd grade
Age group: 7-8
School: Roberts Elementary
School code: 02254
Title: Sharing the Planet
Teacher(s): 2nd grade teachers
PYP planner
Date: 10-8-2013 revised
Proposed duration: 2 hours a day over 6 weeks
2. What do we want to learn?
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection,
perspective, responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Change, causation, responsibility
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Components of ecosystems

How ecosystem are changing

Our responsibility to conserve ecosystem
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
How do animals adapt to changes in their environment?
What would happen if one part of the food chain is missing?
How can humans help conserve ecosystem?
What things can we do in our daily lives to help with conservation?
Why should we care?
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?
Students rotate around the classroom, observing ecosystem posters, and writing and
drawing things they know about each ecosystem. (grasslands, polar, ocean,
freshwater, rainforest, desert, woodland forest)
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Formative Assessments:
*Students will take notes on the components of the polar ecosystem and the other
lines of inquiry in order to construct a class project.
*Students will work in small groups to take notes about the food, water, space, and
shelter available in a self-selected ecosystem in order to create a group project.
*Students will write informational paragraphs summarizing their notes. They will
describe the food, water, space, shelter, adaptations, geographic location, food
chain, and animals. These paragraphs and connected illustrations will be turned into
a group project for each ecosystem.
*Based on their research, children will reflect on how humans and other living things
have affected and could further affect their chosen ecosystem. They will decide upon
a few options that individuals can take to conserve the ecosystem. These reflections
will be part of their presentation.
*Students will present their habitat project (components of habitat, how it’s changing,
and how we can take action to conserve) to the entire class.
* Through a class discussion, we dissected the central idea for the meanings of the critical words
(“impact” and “depend upon”).
* Brainstorm about different types of ecosystems. Have students list on charts what they know and
what questions they have about that ecosystem.
* The teacher will model research skills with the whole group by using the polar ecosystems as
examples.
* In small groups, students will self select an ecosystem to research, gather information about, and
present to their class (must include 4 components of a ecosystem, changes and responsibilities).
While watching presentations, students take notes about the other ecosystems. The ecosystems are:
grasslands (savannah and prairie), rainforests, deserts, oceans, freshwater ecosystems, woodland
forests.
* After researching, students will identify elements missing in each ecosystem (scarcity) and how
animals have adapted for survival.
* Students will create dioramas or other visual presentations to illustrate the components of their
ecosystem.
* Students will identify relationships within food.
* Create a food chain. Start with a producer (plant) and work up through at least two consumers up to
a “top consumer” (at least 3 total).
* Using the food chain (above). Add strands to create a food web.
* Students pretend to be a particular animal in their ecosystem (writing with personification). If you
lived in a ecosystem how would you survive? The first paragraph describes the ecosystem, trying to
persuade people to travel to your ecosystem. The second paragraph tries to persuade people to
conserve your ecosystem.
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?
Research – Students will use a variety of resources to learn about an ecosystem of their choice.
Social – Students will work collaboratively in groups to create a presentation about their research.
Self-management – Students will plan, research, create, and present a product.
Learner Profile – inquirer, thinker, caring, communicator
Attitudes – respect, cooperation, empathy
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
www.mgbnet.net, Why Are the Polar Ice Caps Melting?, various leveled readers on ecosystem, www.nationalgeographic.com videos, Brain Pop videos (habitats, natural
resources, reduce reuse recycle)
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Science Lab learning experiences, field trip to the Houston Zoo (Students will attend the class about ecosystem. Following the class, students will visit the
various exhibits to identify animals and their ecosystem), field trip to the Katy Prairie Conservancy
© 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:
Students presented information that they had researched to the rest of the class.
They created a visual representation of their research. They were able to explain the
basic concepts of food, water, shelter, and space within each ecosystem. They took
research notes as well as notes while others were presenting.. The summative
allowed the students to apply the information they gained.

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection.
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.
Concepts form, change, responsibility, causation
Find ways to incorporate more technology and/or computer work. Find more ageappropriate online resources and literature. We also want to make sure that we
bring all summatives together and grade them together. While going through the
research process, we need to focus more on teaching the students how to categorize
their notefacts. This seems to be a step that needs more emphasis before students
can create a finished product.
Change: through research students learned about the changes within their
ecosystems due to human activity
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
The students were able to articulate how the ecosystems were changing and
what their responsibility was. In the rainforest group, the students had a long
discussion about how the area has changed in Brazil due to clearing the land for
the cattle, but at the same time stopping the clearing of land would also stop the
economic growth of the area. There were also discussions about the American
plains and the changes that have occurred (reduction of buffalo) to farm land.
Students realized that with only 3% fresh water on the Earth, if we don’t take
care of it we will be in trouble. Deforestation, oil spills, and over fishing were also
topics that were very controversial.
Form: learning about the components of ecosystems
Responsibility: class discussions about how to take care of the environment; science
labs about ways they can help
Causation: through research students learned about what causes the changes within
their ecosystems
Transdisciplinary Skills Research, Social, Communication, Self-management
Research: students used books, web resources, Planet Earth videos to research
Social: students worked in cooperative groups to research and present findings
Communication: students presented information in written and oral form; jigsaw at
end of unit for all student experts
Self-Management: students had to plan and complete a collaborative presentation on
their ecosystems
Learner Profile and Attitudes Inquirer, Thinker, Caring, Communicator, Respect,
Cooperation
Inquirer and thinker – students used their research skills to learn about the
components and how ecosystems are changing
Cooperation and Respect: during group work, students had to respect each other’s
opinions and view points
Caring – students became aware of and learned more about the harmful effects of
human actions on the ecosystems
Communicator – students communicated their learning in verbal, visual, and written
formats
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
Reflecting on the inquiry
8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?
9. Teacher notes
Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight any
that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
When there is more time available, students could set up informational booths or
visit classrooms to inform other grade levels about how to conserve ecosystems.
If desert animals went to the rain forest would they die?
Teach continents and oceans before research begins.
How do animals protect themselves?
Teach renewable and nonrenewable natural resources. Conserving water at home.
What is the most dangerous animal in the desert?
A full week for research was appropriate. They worked for at least 45 – 60 minutes
daily.
How can humans live in the desert if nothing grows there to eat?
Which continent has the most freshwater?
What if predators eat all of their prey?
Why do bears climb thin tall trees?
How many trees are cut down each year?
How can fire be good for the prairie?
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.
The students created seed balls while at the Katy Prairie to reseed the grasslands in
a local area.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
While doing research, we can divide up the grade level laptop cart - so each class
will have 5 additional computers in the room.
Research: How is it changing? What are our responsibilities? How can we conserve
the natural ecosystem that exist?