OCAC Middle School has hosted their IDU learning Exhibition on June 14th 2024 for this academic year, where teachers and students together shared their learning objectives, contents, learning experiences, assessment and products.
Interdisciplinary unit is a classic MYP pedagogical tool to break the boundaries of single disciplines, by which students can use different knowledge and skills to solve real problems in real life. After analyzing and synthesizing these knowledge and skills, students get to think further: how did we construct and apply knowledge in different disciplines? What different and diverse perspectives have come up? And how does IDU learning provide a unique way that allows us to communicate and take action?
In the exhibition, all the integration purposes and designing are presented in details, and students have done a great job interpreting their learning outcomes with their product. Let’s zoom in, and to know more about each IDU project:
G6：Wildlife Crossing-Protecting the Biodiversity (Biology + Engineer) Students learned about animals and their living environment; got to understand the importance of Biodiversity. Then they used engineer knowledge and skills to design the models of wildlife crossings.
G7: Drama writing and performance: “Wild Wonderful Animals” (English and Performing Arts) Students explored a variety of texts about animals in English Acquisition and Performing Arts classes; they learned some basic performing skills on stage; then they created their own play with variety of animal characters. In the exhibition, we can see different language level play scripts from students, and one group of students from G7.7 have performed their own play The Fight against Monkey Mike, which contributed a lot of laughter among audiences.
G7: “Manchester in my lungs!”—Writing a research report and project proposal in Industrial Revolution Era (I&S + English: Language and Literature) Students learned about people’s life at that historical era, practiced on how to do a historical research, and also how to create an authentic report and proposal.
G8: Installation arts exhibition: “When Chinese Painting Meets Chinese Language and Literature” (Chinese + Visual Arts) Students read some classic texts in Chinese classes, exploring how authors expresses feelings and ideas by certain techniques while they learn and practice the traditional Chinese painting skills in visual art classes. This big installation is combined with students’ art work with Chinese interpretation on how did they transfer their understanding from a Chinese text to traditional painting. Some expat students have been learning Chinese as a second language. In this IDU, they read texts about seasons; learned and practiced on Chinese traditional painting, then they tried to interpret their creation on both painting, culture and Chinese language.
You can also watch the little video clip to know more about the event.
This IDU exhibition is an event for teachers’ professional development, where they share good ideas and practices; a celebration for students’ learning, where they can make the outcomes visible; a communication path for school and parents, where better understanding is built upon. We want to show sincere appreciation on all the students and staff who have made the event happen, and let’s look forward to another prosperous academic year!
