What are your hobbies and passions? How can you use them to discover yourself, warm others, and even change the world? With these questions in mind, the P6 students of Foshan ASJ embarked on an exploration journey for the Primary Years Programme (PYP) Exhibition.
As one of the most significant inquiry activities in the IB Primary Years Programme, the Primary Years Exhibition is themed "Exploring the World and Discovering Ourselves". Over a period of 12 weeks, students focus on the topics they are most interested in for in-depth exploration, learning thinking visualization tools, learning to design questionnaires and interpret data, creating creative exhibits, setting up Model United Nations meetings and other interactive activities, and finally presenting their achievements to the entire school, parents and guests in a wonderful exhibition.
From aerospace to the Chinese film industry, artificial intelligence, international relations, music, the animation industry, and intangible cultural heritage such as lion dance, students combine their passion for different fields with academic knowledge, broadening the boundaries of their knowledge in practice and gaining a deeper understanding of inquiry-based learning.
ATL Skills Demonstrated
in PYPX
ATL (Approaches to Learning) refers to the thinking, social, communication, research and self-management skills that students develop through various academic and practical activities in the IB curriculum. The PYPX (Primary Years Programme Exhibition) provides a valuable platform for students to showcase the ATL skills they have acquired during their research process and their practical application abilities.
At the beginning of the PYPX, under the guidance of their homeroom teachers and mentors, students select an inquiry topic of interest and conduct independent research. They gradually sort out clues, retrieve literature, collect data, analyze data, verify theories and practices, and finally complete the theme inquiry and present their findings.
After determining the topic and entering the preparation stage of the PYPX (Primary Years Programme Exhibition), students need to set the success criteria for their group in terms of knowledge, skills and actions together with their group members. They also need to divide the inquiry tasks according to the actual situation, make reasonable plans and allocate the weekly inquiry tasks. After completing the weekly tasks on time, they need to summarize and reflect, and make certain adjustments and supplements to the plan for the next week based on the actual completion situation. In addition, students also need to meet with their mentors at the agreed time regularly to jointly check the progress of the project.
With the help of their mentors and homeroom teachers, students determined the specific concepts they wanted to explore based on the themes they had chosen, and designed their inquiry threads based on these specific concepts. Guided by these threads, they directed their subsequent research. After determining their inquiry threads, students collected primary research materials according to their respective threads and delved deeper into their topics. They obtained information through methods such as field visits, interviews, questionnaires, and website searches. Some students, with the assistance of their teachers or parents, interviewed experts in their research fields.
During this process, students enhanced their ability to ask effective questions through observation. While collecting information and data, they learned to judge the ethics of media and the methods of thinking visualization, presenting their findings through thinking visualization tools, demonstrating their growing information and communication technology skills.
After systematically completing information collection and theoretical refinement based on the exploration clues, the students entered the crucial stage of practical transformation. They meticulously formulated action plans, designed operational practical activities, and creatively proposed multiple possible solutions. Subsequently, they actively put the information collected earlier and the knowledge learned from books and classes into practice, tested the feasibility of the plans through actual actions, and strived to optimize and iterate. This process not only deepened their understanding of concepts but also exercised their problem-solving, project execution, and teamwork skills. The ultimate goal was to transform knowledge into a tangible force for serving the community and improving real life.
Communication skills are deeply refined and prominently displayed at the conclusion of the inquiry project, with the core manifestation being students' meticulously prepared presentations of their research process and outcomes. This process is far from a simple speech; rather, it is a systematic crucible for cultivating advanced communication abilities: students must thoroughly sort through complex research information, critically filter and logically reorganize it, transforming complex findings into clear and coherent narrative frameworks; they then apply structured thinking to carefully design the content of their speeches and visual aids, ensuring precise and effective information delivery; and through repeated rehearsals, they precisely control the time and polish the conciseness, fluency of language expression, and non-verbal communication skills (such as body language and eye contact) to enhance the appeal and persuasiveness of their presentation. Crucially, students must develop a strong audience awareness, anticipate audience needs, and prepare for interactive responses, thereby exercising their ability to think on the spot and adapt.
Ultimately, this condensed presentation serves as a comprehensive practical test and significant enhancement of students' core communication sub-skills, including information integration, logical construction, precise expression, confident presentation, and dynamic interaction. It marks a crucial ability upgrade from knowledge acquisition to effective communication in their inquiry learning, laying a solid foundation of communication literacy for their future development.
Social skills are immersedly cultivated and comprehensively tested during the preparation for the graduation exhibition. Students are placed in a real dynamic collaborative network, where they need to continuously engage in in-depth communication and effective cooperation with peers, mentors, homeroom teachers, and parents.
This process goes far beyond simple task allocation; it systematically hones their core social abilities: they must actively listen, clearly express themselves, and respect diverse opinions in the collision of viewpoints; learn to negotiate, build consensus, and share responsibilities fairly in division of labor and cooperation; jointly analyze problems, pool ideas, and work together to find innovative solutions when facing challenges; and ultimately, integrate collective wisdom into the conception and arrangement of the exhibition booths for the primary school project exhibition. This high-intensity, multi-role collaborative practice not only effectively enhances students' teamwork efficiency and ability to solve practical problems, but also conducive to the formation of students' sound personalities who know how to care, adhere to principles and are good at communication.
After twelve weeks of in-depth thinking, exploration, documentation and creation, the students have arrived at the grand moment of the Primary Years Programme Exhibition (PYPX). PYPX is not only a concentrated display of learning outcomes, but also a celebration of the learning journey. It comprehensively presents the students' process of inquiry and their rich harvests. It vividly interprets the IB curriculum's emphasis on holistic development and student-centered education, laying a solid foundation for students in terms of inquiry skills, depth of reflection and action.
At the Primary Years Programme Exhibition, the students prepared three programs: the drama "Mulan", the performance and chorus of the theme song "Imagine" of this PYPX, and "We are so proud of our school". These are not only celebrations of the upcoming conclusion of the Primary Years Programme learning, but also concrete actions of each group's exploration.
▲We are so proud of our school
Moreover, each group of children needs to give a brief bilingual introduction to their group's exploration content to attract everyone to visit their booths. All members of the learning community - parents, teachers and students - witnessed the amazing exploration achievements and growth transformation of the sixth grade students.
As they stepped from the spotlight of the stage into the elaborately arranged group booths, the entire space instantly transformed into a vibrant and profound interactive expo. At this moment, they confidently took on the roles of young presenters and curators, proactively approaching each visitor and clearly and vividly explaining their research process, core findings, and key information collected. The booths were transformed into immersive learning experience zones - the children ingeniously designed a variety of interactive elements, inviting the audience to participate hands-on, operate, or engage in interactive quizzes, elevating static knowledge displays to dynamic cognitive co-creation, fully demonstrating their communication skills, creative thinking, and deep understanding of the research topics.
The International Relations Group posted posters on campus two weeks before the primary school project exhibition to recruit participants for the Model United Nations conference and set topics. They held multiple rounds of Model United Nations conferences on site.
The Music and Community Group set up an interactive song-requesting div, allowing participants to experience the impact of music on people's physical and mental well-being and the community atmosphere.
The Chinese Film Industry Group used film VR interaction to let guests feel the rise of the Chinese film industry as if they were there.
The Lion Dance Group set up an interactive Q&A div. Participants could learn about the intangible cultural heritage of lion dance through their explanations and introductions and win prizes by answering questions.
The Animation Industry Group displayed questionnaire data and offered an interactive "bachi" winning game to help people understand the cultural and economic value of the animation industry.
The Aerospace Group demonstrated water rockets on site and interacted with the audience to help them understand the basic principles of their operation.
The Artificial Intelligence Group set up different AI interactions to call on people to maintain rational judgment when using AI.
The carefully designed multi-dimensional interactive forms have built a multi-sensory learning environment, guiding the audience to immerse themselves in it from multiple perspectives such as vision, hearing and touch. This is not only the transmission of knowledge, but also the discovery of oneself, the ignition of curiosity and the stimulation of thinking.
At the end of the ceremony, the 6th grade student representatives passed the PYP exhibit banner to the 5th grade student representatives in the spirit of PYP inquiry.
Finally, the primary school project exhibition came to a successful conclusion amid applause and touching gazes. At this moment, the children not only drew a brilliant full stop to their learning journey of the primary school project, but also, through this display full of wisdom and enthusiasm, not only declared to the world their unlimited potential as inquirers, but also helped them better discover themselves in the process of growth and become more humanistic and proactive individuals.
The PYP Exhibition is not the end of the journey of seeking knowledge, but a prominent punctuation mark marking the beginning of a future exploration journey. This year of learning, filled with diverse course experiences, has quietly planted the seeds of curiosity in the hearts of children, nurturing an intrinsic passion for learning and an inexhaustible drive. This profound joy of inquiry and the self-generating thirst for knowledge are the most precious luggage and source of strength for them to calmly step into the next stage of their learning journey and eventually become self-motivated lifelong learners.
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