IB PYP Exhibition
PYP Exhibition:
This is the form for mentors to fill out: Mentor Interest Form
The exhibition itself will take place on June 2nd. It is an all-day event which is visited by all students grades 4 - 8. Immediately after school, parents, grandparents, etc. are invited to the exhibition.
The Exhibition is a culmination of a semester of exploration, research, inquiry, writing, learning, and wonder. It is similar to a science fair, but projects are not judged or given awards. Students research topics related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This years’ topics are:
Life on Land
Life Under Water
Health
Hunger
Water and Sanitation
Poverty
Education
Gender Equality and Women’s Empowerment
Expertise - Mentors do NOT need to be an expert in any of the above areas to help students think of good questions, explain their ideas, or focus their inquiry.
Time commitment - Mentors will meet with the group either in person or online for 30 minutes every other week during the school day.
Mentors will not mentor their own child's group, but for a group of your child's classmates. The reasons for this include:
Students will be learning how to email adults and set up meetings. Each child needs this experience, so no student should be having this conversation with their own parent at the dinner table, for example.
Students experience an increased level of professionalism and formality when meeting with a mentor who is not their parent.
It is important that all students experience the same level of input from a mentor. A child who is mentored by a parent might receive a different level of engagement or coaching if the mentor is a parent. This experience would skew the experience of the research group as a whole.
Role of mentor
A mentor helps the students set and meet their goals by asking questions, suggesting resources, helping to interpret difficult information and facilitating interviews or telephone calls.
Students will be working in groups of 3 students for one overall topic. Each student will research their own question within that topic. There will be one mentor per group, not per student.
For example, here is one topic and three student essential questions they were researching within that topic from last year. This group had one mentor who met with all of the kids at once each time they meet:
UN SDG topic: Life On Land -
Sub topic for this one group: Life in the Amazon Basin
Student 1 - what is humans' impact on animals?
Student 2 - what is the impact of tourism in the amazon?
Student 3 - how does deforestation impact native animal habitats?
Some examples of mentor participation include the following.
Members of the school community are encouraged to identify areas (knowledge, skills and interests) where they could support the students, and an inventory of “experts” is developed. Students contact these experts and arrange support as needed.
Each group of students is assigned a mentor who will support the group through the process leading towards the exhibition. Groups will meet with their mentors on a weekly basis or as needed. The mentor will help guide the students and help them monitor their progress, assisting them in setting new goals. Ultimately, the students are responsible for the completion of work.
The mentor’s primary role is to act as a guide and resource in the accomplishment of specific tasks during the exhibition process. Mentors have a purely advisory role. They do not make decisions for students, do any of the work themselves, or grade any student work.
The students are responsible for contacting and organizing meetings with their mentor. The mentors are encouraged to meet the students at least three times in the beginning stages of the exhibition but may reduce their involvement over time to increase student responsibility. They are not involved in formal assessment but are encouraged to make anecdotal observations and to give feedback to the students and teachers.
PYP Exibition Overview:
The Primary Years Programme (PYP) exhibition represents a significant event in the life of a PYP school and student, synthesizing the essential elements of the PYP and sharing them with the whole school community. As a culminating experience it is an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the International Baccalaureate (IB) learner profile that have been developing throughout their elementary years’ IB experiences.
In the students’ final year of the PYP (grade 5), students are required to engage in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems.
Purpose
The PYP exhibition has a number of key purposes:
for students to engage in an in-depth, collaborative inquiry
to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning
to provide students with an opportunity to explore multiple perspectives
for students to synthesize and apply their learning of previous years
to provide an authentic process for assessing student understanding
to demonstrate how students can take action as a result of their learning
to unite the students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community in a collaborative experience that incorporates the essential elements of the PYP
provide an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP
relate to people, the environment and their learning; these attitudes should be evident throughout the process
provide opportunities for students to engage in action; students should demonstrate an ability to reflect on and apply their learning to choose appropriate courses of action and carry them out
represent a process where students are engaged in a collaborative and student-led, in-depth inquiry facilitated by teachers and mentors
