Planning the inquiry
1. What is our purpose?
To inquire into the following:

Class/grade:
3E/3F
Age group: 8-9
School: German School Singapore
School code: 30029
transdisciplinary theme WHERE WE ARE IN PLACE AND TIME
An inquiry into orientation in place and time; personal histories, homes and
journeys; the discoveries, explorations and migrations of humankind; the
relationship between and the interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations,
from local and global perspectives.

central idea - ALL CIVILISATIONS NEED THE SAME THINGS TO
DEVELOP AND SURVIVE.
Title: Ancient Civilisations
Teacher(s): Landrum/Perkowsky?Matechuk
Date: May 3rd – June 17th
Proposed duration:
PYP planner
7 weeks
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?
Part 1 – Formulating questions and collecting research on class-chosen
civilization to learn about it. Create a three dimensional model of a scene or
building from an ancient civilisation (Egypt, Greece or China), including a variety
of elements of a civilisation. (form)
What are the key concepts to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Part 2 – Write a mock autobiographical account (“day-in-the-life-of”, recount, etc)
of someone who would be in the scene in the ancient civilisation. (perspective)
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
Part 3 – Students of different classes will view the others’ models and read their
autobiographies from the different ancient civilisations. (connection)
Part 4 – Students identified 3D shapes from their models.
TD Skills on rubric – Research – Formulating questions, Presenting research
findings, Communication – Speaking, Writing
Form, connection, perspective


Elements that make a civilisation
How civilisations develop
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
1.
2.
3.
What makes a civilisation?
How can we learn about the way of life and beliefs of ancient
civilisations?
How did ancient civilisations change over time?
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?
We talked about the definition of civilization. We briefly talked about
some of countries that have gone through the period of civilization.

Timeline of key events – Sumerians as first civlisation )see BrainPOP)

Comprehension reading skills – Reading A to Z text – Mysteries of the Lost
Civlization

Exposure to non-fiction text related to many different civilisations and class-specific
one

View BrainPOP videos and answer questions related to presentations.

Use websites like BBS and Mr Donn to collect info about different elements of various
ancient civlisations.
Discussion: Talk about the common elements of civilizations?
We looked at ancient civilisations and made a comparison between now
and then. BrainPOP and TeacherTube have several relelvant videos to
watch.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?

Elements that make a civilization
o

Students record their findings in a note taking sheets. The
notes includes information regarding ancient civilisations and
their lifestyles
How civilizations develop
o
Students research and present information about a particular
civilization of their choice. Students must answer key points of
a civilization (see teacher question)
What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of
the attributes of the learner profile?
Transdisciplinary skills:
Research skills : Collecting, Recording and Presenting Data

Answering own questions based on class-selected ancient civilisation, in preparation
for summative task

Timeline of significant events in ancient civilizations
Summative Task - TD Skills on rubric – Research – Formulating questions, Presenting
research findings, Communication – Speaking, Writing
Learner Profile: Knowledgable

Organiser about elements about culture. Mind Maps for brief introduction to a variety
of civilizations. Learning about class-specific civilization.
Attitudes: Curiosity
Answering own questions related to class selected civilisation and choosing own elements to
include in 3D model.
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?

Ancient Civilisation books, travel brochures, DVD’s, TeacherTube, BrainPOP videos, Magic School Bus “Show and Tell”, BBC website, Mr Donn website, tons of
NLB and school library books
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?

Pyramid built in class out of boxes, Museum visit (March 2010- Singapore National Museum, Ancient Egypt workshop and exhibition)
© 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:
ALL CIVILISATIONS NEED THE SAME THINGS TO DEVELOP AND
SURVIVE.
- brainstorming elements of a civilization. Students already had a good
grasp of these at start of unit. Some teacher prompting was needed to
cover fully, but reference to culture unit at start of year helped.
- front-loading about different civilizations at start of unit – BrainPOP and
BBC website and library books. Wayne did this in ICT as well.
- integrating at least 3 elements into summative task model and
biographical writing.

develop an understanding of the concepts identified in “What do we want to
learn?”
In each case, explain your selection.
Form – learning the elements of different civilizations, the first civilization, via
BrainPOP, BBC Schools, Discovery Steaming, teachertube and Mr. Donn
videos, Magic School Bus (archaeology) for intro to artifacts, books, etc.
Connection – seeing other models from different classes, comparing to their
lives, any exposure to any Ancient Civilisations
Perspective – writing the mock autobiography, reading others’, learning about
the beliefs of Ancient Civilisations
- looking at 3D models from other classes to compare, IDEA FOR NEXT
YEAR- can do a triple Venn diagram to illustrate differences and
similarities.

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.
Presenting research findings – as shown in model and autobiography, and
explained in oral presentation
-oral presentation of model and with autobiography showed how well the student
understood central idea. Some kids can make little cue cards to go with model to
help in remembering research related to model.
Communication – Speaking – practicing oral presentations in class and then
sharing sessions with other grade three classes.
- Some kids added imaginatory elements to their models which did not
accurately reflect their research. This needed more teacher feedback to deter.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea
and the transdisciplinary theme?
WHERE WE ARE IN PLACE AND TIME - An inquiry into orientation in place
and time; personal histories, homes and journeys; the discoveries, explorations
and migrations of humankind; the relationship between and the
interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global
perspectives.
Interconnectedness – how basic elements in all civilizations are related or
connected
Place and time – looking at maps of where Ancient Civ.s were, timelines,
dates of significant events, BrainPOP
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?
TD Skills on rubric – Research – Formulating questions – in research booklet ,
preparing for summative task, questions to research
Writing – taking research notes in preparation for model building and writing the
autobiography

develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
Learner Profile: Knowledgable – learning about class chosen civilization,
answering own questions, learning about other civilizations in class sharing
sessions
Attitudes: Curiosity – formulating and answering own questions leading up
to summative, answering questions throughout unit about civilizations in
general
Creativity- building model through a variety of materials to simulate actual
buildings, structures, etc.
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.
Good unit for the end of the year as much independence needed for
research and creating the model.
Why did they have so many gods and who were the most important?
NLB books are very good and a good selection in our own library.
Why were the pyramids made?
How did mummies stayed preserved?
Did Moses go to Egypt when he was a man?
Subject
Portfolio
(Y/N)
ART
N
What were the pyramids made of? Why were they built?
What is difference between a Mongolian and a Hun?
Why did the Greeks build temples?
clay pottery, ancient artifacts - create, fire, glaze,
fire
Greek vases, Chinese characters, Egyptian
hieroglyphs
Why did the Silk Route stop being used?
What foods did they eat?
Activities to Support Units
GMT
N
Story writing time travel adventure/diary
GSL
N
Focus on Egyptian civilisation - kids, clothes, life,
food etc.
Why did the cities fight against each other?
GFL
N
No connection
What kinds of tools did farmers use?
ICT
N
typing skills, BrainPOP, BBC Schools – Indus, …
MUSIC
N
didgeridoo, origin of instruments
PE
Y
portfolio task, Olympics games
What did their writing look like?
What kinds of houses did they live in?
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.
2.
3.
What makes a civilisation?
How can we learn about the way of life and beliefs of ancient civilisations?
More focus can be put on this area.
How did ancient civilisations change over time? More focus can be put on
this area.
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.
Sarah brought in Egyptian clothes.
Several did research outside of class time.
Many brought in books.
Perrine brought in pyramid models.
©
© International
International Baccalaureate
Baccalaureate Organization
Organization 2007
2007