Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose? Class/grade: two Age group: 7-8

To inquire into the following:
School: LWIS Hazmieh School code: 060141
transdisciplinary theme: How the world works?
An inquiry into the natural world and its laws; the interaction between the Title:
natural world (physical and biological) and human societies; how humans
Teacher(s): Rana Fneish- Maha Kaaki- Tania El Kattar- Ghadir Sbeity-
use their understanding of scientific principles; the impact of scientific and
technological advances on society and on the environment. Claudine
 central idea: Human beings have devised ways to prepare for and cope with
natural hazards. Date: September 2018

Proposed duration: over number of weeks 4 weeks

Summative assessment task(s)
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ understanding of
the central idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions,
will we look for? 2. What do we want to learn?
Students write a reflection based on their understanding of the central idea What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
(open-ended task). responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?
Assessment tool: Rating Scale
Students work collaboratively in groups of three to create detailed posters form ‫ال ّشكل‬
on natural events. Each member of the group has a responsibility to Causation‫السّببيّة‬
develop and deliver one of three aspects in an oral presentation: the Connection s
causes of, the effects of, and the human response to the natural event
(performance assessment).
What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central
Assessment tools: Rating Scale
idea?

Lines of inquiry
What will we look for? - Reasons why natural hazards occur
Evidence that shows students’ understanding of why the natural hazards happen, what - The impact of natural hazards on the environment and on living things
their cause is, and how humans respond to it. - How people cope with natural disasters

What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?

. 1- What is our responsibility when preparing for a natural hazard?
2- Why do natural hazard happen?
3- How do people cope with natural hazards?
Provocations
Exploration table
Artifacts to stimulate thinking for discussion
 Read a story with questions
 A power point that shows different natural disasters around the world
Reflecting on the inquiry
3. How might we know what we have learned? 4. How best might we learn?
Planning the inquiry What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the students
This column should be used in conjunction with “How best might we learn?”
to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?
What are the possible ways of assessing students’ prior knowledge and skills?
What evidence will we look for? What is the international Red Cross?

The difference between a natural disaster and a natural hazard is that a When you hear someone talking about the “All Hands” organization, what do you understand? All
natural hazard has the potential to cause damage to people, but doesn't Students start to wonder about the different natural disasters and write them on the “I wonder” Wall.
necessarily, while a natural disaster is a natural hazard that affects
human populations.  Students explore the major natural disasters which are, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, tornadoes
and tsunamis.
Write dangers that may threaten human life. What do you see?
-Tuning in: Invite a guest speaker (a forest guard) to introduce and stimulate the inquiry about how
Ask students to list various dangers that occur in nature and how they affect humans adapt to the changing Earth by preserving forests.
humans and the environment. Which kind of dangers mostly cause the
destruction of people and the environment? -Finding out:
- Learners identified the different natural disaster in different regions of the world.
Learners will conclude that natural hazards are the disasters created by - Students viewed related artifacts, power points, videos and displays to generate different
nature and that will eventually lead to their destruction. questions
Sorting out:
Can we stop such dangers? Why and why not? If not how can we cope with - Read different books on volcanoes, earthquakes and tornadoes. Discuss facts about each
them? disaster and label its different parts. Conduct earthquake simulation in the classroom of how
earthquakes have different levels.
Dangers can be diseases, wars, nature, and bacteria. The dangers that affect
Going further:
humans and the environment at the same time are the natural ones. Students choose the type of investigation to carry out such as: designing the Richter scale and
Ask the learners to write their answers. testing it.Other investigations could include visiting the lab to conduct experiments on volcanoes,
tornadoes and hurricanes.. Students used lab reports to reflect on investigations. Visiting the school’s
What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of nurse was only an asset to enrich the learners’ knowledge and push them to generate more
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for? questions
Making conclusions:
Consider the impact of the natural disasters and how they can change the place of their occurrence.
Learners were able to conclude that safety measurements should be followed. The safety kits were
Lines of inquiry strategy tool
introduced and it pushed them to design special machines that could stop the natural disaster when it
Reasons why natural Performance task Grading occurred as the Freezing machine that could freeze lava or the tsunami wave as they occur.
hazards occur What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the
development of the attributes of the learner profile?
The impact of natural Open ended Rating Scale
Thinking skills
hazard on the Acquisition of knowledge: vocabulary development and gaining facts
environment and on Research skills
living things Observing: during the hands-on activities students will use all the senses to collect information
How people cope Open ended Rating Scale Communication skills
Presenting: oral presentations, putting together informational brochures on different natural
with natural disasters disasters

Learner profile
Inquirers: asking questions and researching information.
Thinkers: thinking creatively and critically about the causes and effects of the natural disastera and
how humans cope with them.
5. What resources need to be gathered?
What people, places, audio-visual materials, related literature, music, art, computer software, etc, will be available?
Many books related to the unit were read in class. Books as Earthquakes, Volcanoes, Tornadoes and flash floods facilitated the learners’ understanding.
How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
The spacious class helped the learners to experiment using a wide range of materials. In the earthquake simulation, the city was built using classroom equipment. The science lab was
such a success and learners were really engaged in the tornado and volcano experiments. Moreover, the support that the school staff offer helps creating a safe and exciting learning
community.
6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?
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.
Homeroom: Throughout the unit, learners learned about the disasters
and related them to other kinds of dangers. They learned that cycles in
nature impact humans and the environment. They could connect the
disasters they learned to real life situations. They designed and
presented a brochure about the causes and effects of different natural
resources and raised awareness. They also raised funds to donate to
Indonesia to support them in their crisis. They visited the Indonesian
embassy to give the donation to the Indonesian ambassador.
Arts: they presented how people feel within natural hazards as one
impact of them
Arabic: learners explored the different natural disasters and people
could cope with the effects of these disasters and the different safety
measures that could be taken.
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.
Learners should be able to differentiate between natural hazards and
disasters, identify each and give examples.
Learners should be capable of pinpointing the effects of each and give
solutions to each.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central
idea and the transdisciplinary theme?
Learners had to investigate into the central theme through research skills
and texts reading. They understood that knowing how different strategies
and ways to prepare for hazards helps people in decreasing their
impacts. They were heard saying that advanced countries should share
their knowledge with not very advanced ones to help them be ready and
cope with such changes,
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?”
 Key concepts
 Causation and change: Students’ conceptual understanding of causation and change were clearly represented
in the examples and explanations of causes of natural changes, and the impact on human response. Students
realized there is a conflict between nature and humans. Within homeroom and Arabic sessions, they read statistics,
and watched reports about disasters. They also presented data of occurrence of disasters visually.
 The teacher and student questions facilitated the learning and the students were engaged and motivated with
each learning experience.
Form: through problem based scenarios across sessions, they found out more about the different hazards and
sorted out ways to cope with them.
 demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills
 Transdisciplinary skills
 Thinking skills
Students moved were capable of comprehending and analyzing the data during the sessions. Questions were posed
relating to the occurrence of a natural disaster: “How would it happen?” “How would you cope with it?”
 Communication skills
Students communicated to generate questions and investigate about the central idea. They
used experiments, lab reports, and presentations to share their understanding.
Communication skills were manifested through reading, writing, listening, writing and
speaking.
 develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?
In each case, explain your selection
Attributes: Caring, Thinker, , Inquirer
Inquirers: asking questions and researching information.
Thinkers: thinking creatively and critically about the causes and effects of the natural disasters and how
humans cope with them.
Caring: learners thought of the responsibility towards helping other people in stress and that we
should all be rescuers when the need calls.
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.
This unit of inquiry was condensed with new info that engaged the students
to the extremes. However, the topics aroused were sensitive for grade 2
1- What is the most damaging disaster? students and caused them huge fear of disasters. Some students began to
2- How many people die in a disaster? have nightmares, and many complains were submitted.
3- Which disaster happens the most? As to planning, the unit was well organized, and it finished on time with the
4- What happens after a disaster? students finishing a brochure as a summative assessment.
5- Do rescuers die in a disaster?
I would like to see more guests to talk about the topic. Inviting a Red Cross
6- If you were surrounded with a fire, what would you do? member is an option.
7- Do we need to prepare for all disasters?
Starting the year with this unit was a bad choice because the kids were
8- If we prepared well for a disaster, how would its effects be?
really terrified. We would like to suggest changing it for next year or to
include it as a part of another unit.
At this point teachers should go back to box 2 “What do we want to learn?” and Planning for a real evacuation plan would be preferable as the real taking
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries. action activity.
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.

Students offered the idea of sending the schools’ principal a letter asking them to
clarify the schools’ evacuation plan in case of disasters.
The letter was as follows:

Dear Ms Samar, 
Our unit of inquiry is about DISASTERS. We want to raise awareness
against any possible disaster at our school. We need to practice to be
ready for any danger. 
We are asking you for an emergency drill to test the readiness of our
school to face any disaster. 
Please take our request into to consideration. We will be waiting for
your help. 
Thank you, 
Regards, 
Grade 2 Students.