In the past eight weeks, students in Year 5 have been conducting inquiries. Each group chose one of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals to explore and present.
Children selected the following five goals based on their interests: "Zero Hunger," "Good Health and Well-being," "Reduced Inequalities," "Climate Action," and "Life on Land."
During today's exhibition, they showcased their extraordinary learning outcomes to parents, students, teachers and Dr. Koong.
They demonstrated their abilities in inquiry, collaboration, expression, communication, self-management, creativity, empathy, and problem-solving. As the eldest students in VPA primary years, they set a great example for their younger peers.
Let's now take a closer look at the specific goals they explored!
Our Year 5 students became aware of the presence of hunger-stricken individuals in the world. They conducted research to understand historical famines and discovered a poverty-stricken country in Africa called Burundi.
Therefore, they decided to explore how to help Burundi overcome poverty. Through their research, the students discovered the importance of infrastructure development in the country. They came up with three major recommendations: improving agricultural income, constructing dams, and building roads.
With the assistance of our art teacher, they created a detailed and three-dimensional diorama using various materials to express their ideas.
Furthermore, they organized various activities to raise awareness about food waste. They designed a quiz game and prepared a variety of tea drinks and ice cream, adding a lot of fun for the guests who came to support them.
Some children were particularly focused on health, so they chose to delve deeper into healthy lifestyles.
They conducted extensive research, collected data using charts and graphs, wrote papers, and even created a clay model of the food pyramid to enhance their understanding of healthy lifestyles.
The most interesting part is that they programmed a game about healthy eating using Cospaces. Both parents and younger students had a great time playing it.
VPA has always been committed to combating bullying on campus and has long been leading activities and campaigns in this regard. This group of students, who are interested in reducing inequality, delved into the issue of bullying once again and expanded their research to the highly prevalent problem of cyberbullying in today's society.
They chose a unique and creative approach to express their ideas - writing stories and creating comics.
Children's creativity and hands-on abilities exceeded our expectations!
Climate change has been a topic of great concern for people around the world. The global warming due to industrialization has sounded an alarm in the hearts of every global citizen.
These four students from our fifth grade also wanted to take action on climate issues. They researched and gathered information, created charts, and gained an understanding of various forms of environmental pollution and the causes.
They even created artwork using waste paper and discarded plastic bottles, aiming to raise awareness that we can turn trash into treasure by transforming waste materials into works of art! It's worth noting that they embellished their display boards with recycled paper as well!
Besides humans, various forms of life inhabit the land, and protecting them is also one of our responsibilities. This group proposed ways to minimize harm to animals and advocated for the use of synthetic fur as a substitute for animal fur.
They studied the issue of animal extinction and how we can address such problems, urging everyone to make a collective commitment not to harm animals and our environment.
This group of children also created a small game to share the knowledge they acquired with others in a fun and interactive way.
In addition to urging all teachers and students in the school to sign a pledge to contribute to global sustainability, some students also collectively discussed and signed essential agreements at the beginning of the project.
During these 8 weeks, children faced many challenges that required them to step out of the classroom and find solutions to complete their group projects.
It is natural that disagreements and moments of conflict arose along the way.
But what they gained goes beyond the knowledge and work showcased here. They acquired invaluable learning methods, the spirit of collaboration, and friendships that will last a lifetime since the age of 11.
