Planning the inquiry

Class/grade: 3B 2007-2008 Age group: 8-9

1. What is our purpose?
School: Sekolah Ciputra School code: 7179
To inquire into the following:
Teacher(s): Ary, Novi
Starting Date: 23th July
Transdisciplinary theme PYP planner
Proposed duration: number of hours over number of weeks
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 relationships between and the
interconnectedness of individuals and civilizations, from local and global perspectives.

Central idea 2. What do we want to learn?

Throughout time people improve their methods of transportation
What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Summative assessment task(s):
Change, Causation and Perspective
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of the central idea? What
evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for? What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?

Throughout the 5 or 6 weeks unit, students will develop a transport museum (showing the • How people improve their methods of transportation.
history of transport on a timeline; highlighting changes and the reasons for these changes, • Why methods of transportation are improving.
future transport and geographical factors influencing the development and use of this
• Factors affecting methods of transportation used in different areas.
transport) in their classroom. The work performance/style will be based on students’ MI. To
complete the unit, students will guide visitors around their museum and help them discover
how and why people have improved their methods of transportation over time. What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

1. How has transportation improved over time?

2. Why has transportation improved?
Evidence 3. What are the factors affecting methods of transportation in particular areas?
4. Why do some people still use the old system of transportation in some places?
• Clearly explain how and why transportation is changed.
5. What influences people to choose different kind of transportation?
• Explain the advantages and disadvantages of different types of transport in certain
geographical areas.

Assessment tool: Teachers Rubric and Peer Checklist

Learning outcomes:
1. Creates a timeline showing the improvements in transportation
2. Formulates reasons for the improvements in transportation
3. Analyzes the influence of the environment on the development of transportation

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned? (ASSESSMENT) 4. How best might we learn? (ACTIVITIES)

This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for?
• Category of transportation based on their prior knowledge.
• Timeline of transportation improvement over time based on their prior
knowledge.
• Analyzing the depth of students’ questions to find out students prior
knowledge about the UOI and as a base of their further learning
engagement based on inquiry.
• Class discussion about interview result about mostly used old time
transportation.
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of the
lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
• Mind web of transportation
• Venn diagram of walking and bicycling
• Clear concise notes and effective presentation
• Relevant and logical reasons for the development of transportation.
Peer-assessment to analyze independently students own effort when presenting
their research on transportation development museum
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?
• Kinds of transportation brainstorming including the grouping (based on area, machine, year, etc.)
• Triggering questions answering.
• The development of transportation sequencing on a group project (timeline, popup book, flow
chart, etc.)
• Old people interviewing to find fact about mostly used old time transportation.
• Dokar experiencing and casual driver interviewing.
• Various methods of transportation independent experiencing (walking/bicycling/public
transportation) at home with parents support. Record the experience into diary complete with the
explanation and picture as the evidence.
• The detailed explanation of UOI Transdisciplinary Theme, Central Idea, Lines of Inquiry,
Concepts, Related Concepts, Enduring Understanding and teachers questions.
• Movie watching; ‘Bis Air’ and ‘Kereta Api Uap’.
• Guest speaker sharing; talked about old time transportation in Australia.
• Guided research plan student personal inquiry about their chosen interest of transportation;
specific Central Idea, Lines of Inquiry, questions and methods of research finding.
• Independent and guided research finding (books, internet, movies, etc.).
• Note taking of transport improvement (5 - 8 good copies depending students’ competence) -- from
the information and resource sheet, students answer fact sheet (what, who, when, where, why
and other interesting fact) which hen they had to make a your-own-language paragraph complete
with picture.
• Game board making suit to the different areas -- inspired by monopoly, snake ladder and other
games, students decided areas (at least 4) to be used as the game challenge complete with
questions and rules relate to transportation.

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?

ATTITUDES: curiosity, creativity, and cooperation.

SKILLS: Thinking skills, Research skills in making their timeline of transportation improvement and
Communication skills in presenting their inquiry research to the audience.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
• Students’ grandparents; prior knowledge interview about old time transportation.
• Dokar (Indonesian traditional land transportation) and the driver.
• Different types of transportation toys.
• Fiction and non fiction books from personal and library collections related to topic: On the Move.
• Guest speaker; Ms. Helen Shannon’s mother
• Internet: www.google.com www.wikipedia.org
• VCD: Bis Air & Kereta Api Uap

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
• Classroom environment: display of big pictures of transportation, transport toys, transport vocabularies, group name.
• Display of UOI Transdisciplinary Theme, Central Idea, Lines of Inquiry, Concepts, Related Concepts, Enduring Understanding and teachers questions.
• Display of timeline of transportation improvement.

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

Reflecting on the inquiry
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose? (EVIDENCE)
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.
• The concepts and related concepts are relevant and easy for students to understand.
The questions that they developed really showed their depth inquiry. These questions
led us to the learning experiences through discussion and making connections
between what they asked and what they found. (Attached is the hard copy of students
questions)
• Records on the students’ way of working in peer discussion on how transportation
improved from the past until now
• Students were able to plan and choose different types of environment/area for their
group game board. They could implement the thinking skills very well.
• Students could present orally their work of transportation museum (CI, Lines of Inquiry,
improvement of transportation over time) confidently
• Timeline display with students research work in the class, shows a clear picture of
transportation improvement throughout the time
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.
The factual improvement of each transportation was easy to find in the resource. However,
it was difficult to find the reasons why the transportation improved since it was implicitly
explained. It required a quite advanced student’s analysis skill to withdraw the conclusion
which not every student able to produce. Fortunately, they could do in general basis.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and the
transdisciplinary theme?
• The timeline making of transportation improvement by using fact sheets (when, what,
where, why, who and interesting facts) and reasons why it improved.
• The board game making related to factors affecting methods of transportation used in
different areas.
© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007
7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?
What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
• 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.
During the tuning in learning engagements:
• Most students showed a fantastic basic knowledge by brainstorming kinds of
transportation including grouping them into categories.
• They also shared a very deep understanding on answering the triggering questions
and sequencing the development of transportation.
• Riding dokar gave a real experience of a type land transportation which used animal
power.
• The independent activity of experiencing various transportations showed their inquiry
profile as well as being independent.
During the finding information learning engagements:
• The movies ‘Bis Air’ and ‘Kereta Api Uap’ provided information about kinds of
transportation really used in specific areas.
• Some students were independent to do research of finding answers of personal inquiry
of transportation by finding valuable information from websites, Ms. Encarta and books
for their further project.
During the sorting out learning engagements
• Students could categorize transportation based on power uses, with or without wheels,
with or without machine, location where it works (land, water, air) by working
cooperatively and could sort kinds of transportation use in different areas (eq. camel in
dessert).
• Students could use their excellent note taking skills of finding the answer of 5WH
questions and interesting facts questions from the resources previously got.
During the going further learning engagements:
• Students were able to connect different types of transportation in different areas with
the reasons behind it by making a group board game that shows their creativity.
 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.

• Share personal artifacts like toys, pictures and books to school.

• Students’ questions mostly relate to the every transportation; how it works.
(Attachment) www.howstuffworks.com

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.

• Share personal artifacts like toys, pictures and books to school.

• During Guided research planning, they student personal inquiry about their chosen
interest of transportation; specific Central Idea, Lines of Inquiry, questions and
methods of research finding. When they dealt with difficulties, like the limited
resources, they would be given other transport as an alternative.
• Decide suitable transport to use when going to places (school, market, other city, other
country, etc.)

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007

© International Baccalaureate Organization 2007