Unit of Inquiry Idea Bank

By Maggie Hos-McGrane

Living Things,
Habitats and Biomes
About Author

Maggie has over 35 years of experience as an educator, You can get in touch with Maggie via:

including 30 years at international schools in Europe

maggiehosmcgrane@gmail.com

and Asia where she taught PYP, MYP, and DP.

Tech Transformation
Throughout this international career, Maggie has led

curriculum development in the MYP and PYP and in https://www.linkedin.com/in/maggiehosmcgrane/

addition has many years of experience of leading

@MaggieHMcGrane

educational technology in schools.

Currently based in the UK, Maggie is an IB consultant,

school visitor, and workshop leader, facilitating both

online and face-to-face workshops. She has presented

at international conferences including ISTE, Learning2,

ECIS, AASSA, and EARCOS in Asia, Europe, Africa, and

North and South America. Maggie is passionate about

supporting educators to transform the learning and

teaching at their schools. She would love to hear from

you about your understanding of her ebook and how

you intend to apply it in your classrooms.

Foreword
unit of inquiry.
Rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite
resources with other people and other living things.
1 Identifying subjects and scanning the relevant
This section of the Sharing the Planet transdisciplinary theme
is often addressed in multiple grades in PYP schools, with
most younger students focusing on living things and their
habitats and upper primary students focusing on
sustainability and conservation. These units can take both, a
social studies or science conceptual focus and provide
students with an opportunity to reflect on their role as global
citizens and helps them become caring, responsible
individuals.
This resource will walk you through the process of
creating a strong unit of inquiry on living things, habitats
and biomes.
unit of inquiry that is contextualized for your students.
We will follow the following process of creating a strong
curriculum documents.
2 Identifying related concepts relevant to the unit.
3 Using 2 - 3 related concepts to then develop a list
of central ideas for the unit.
4 Unpacking a common central idea example for both
lower and upper primary grades through the lens of
key concepts. Next, using these key concepts we will
develop the lines of inquiry.
5 At the end of this unit idea bank are considerations
and resources to discuss in your collaborative
planning meetings, which will help design a strong
1 Scanning curriculum documents: PYP scope and sequence

If planning a unit with a focus on science, the strand that would connect well is ‘living things’ with it’s focus on the study of the
characteristics, systems and behaviour of humans and other animals, and plants. This strand also focuses on the interactions
between and among living things and with their environment, which could also easily fit into the scope of this unit. Social
studies could also be a subject focus for this unit, with it’s strand ‘resources and the environment’. The sub-strands that work
well with the unit are interaction between people and the environment, how humans allocate and manage resources, and the
positive and negative effects that ensue.

2 Related concepts

Related concepts are the “building blocks” of a unit of inquiry. All subjects have concepts that are narrowly focused, thereby adding
depth to the curriculum. These related concepts can be found in the PYP scope and sequence documents, and for schools that are
required to address national or state standards, you can find related concepts in those curriculum documents.

Following are related concepts, found in the science and social studies scope and sequence documents, that can be used to build
central ideas for this unit:

Animals Plants Adaptation Biodiversity

Interactions Ecosystems Habitat Resources

Renewable Non-renewable
Sustainability Pollution
3 List of central ideas
People’s choices can affect other people, plants
Central idea examples built using the related concepts
and animals.

Lower primary

When interacting with natural habitats, humans make

These central ideas are mostly concerned with living things
choices that have an impact on other living things.

and their environment, and focus on concepts such as balance,

choice, adaptation and survival. Here are some examples:

Life on Earth is dependent on a balanced relationship

among living things.

Characteristics and behaviours of living

things determine their survival.

Upper primary

These central ideas are mostly concerned with people’s

The place in which living things are found usually

choices and actions, utilize the concepts of environment,

provides them with what they need to survive.

biodiversity, sustainability, balance, ecosystems, and often

involve the key concepts of change and responsibility. Here

Living things share resources to grow and survive.
are some examples:

Living things adapt to their environment in

Humans play a role in the balance of ecosystems.

order to survive.

Human interaction with a habitat can affect

Plants play an essential role in our world.

the balance of its ecosystem.


People’s daily choices impact the health of the
environment.
Biodiversity relies on maintaining the
balance of organisms within systems.
People can engage in practices and actions that
support the sustainability of the Earth’s resources.
Human behaviour contributes to the changing
environment.
People have a responsibility to address
environmental change.
4 Key concepts and lines of inquiry
Using key concepts to build the lines of inquiry
Having identified a central idea, teachers turn their
attention to the key concepts that can be used to
structure or frame student inquiries. Broad, open-ended
questions, linked to the key concepts, will help determine
the lines of inquiry. The key concepts focus students’
thinking, allowing them to go deeper with their inquiries.
They also connect across disciplines, making each unit
truly transdisciplinary.
While each key concept has its own generic question,
teachers can also ask these with a particular disciplinary
focus that matches the units of inquiry. Narrowing down
the key concepts will drive the unit and will help teachers
write strong lines of inquiry.
Some schools unpack the same central idea across
multiple grade levels in the PYP through the lens of
different key concepts.

Let’s dissect the following central idea example and see how it could look different across different grades.
Humans play a role in the balance of ecosystems.
With lower primary students, teachers might like to focus on the following lines of inquiry:

Form The components of an ecosystem

Function The growth and life cycles of plants and animals in the ecosystem

Change The impact of humans on different ecosystems

With upper primary students, different key concepts could take this inquiry deeper. In this case the lines of inquiry might be:

Form The characteristics of different biomes

Connection Similarities and differences between local and global ecosystems

Responsibility How people can act to conserve natural environments

Perspective People have different views about preserving the environment

5 Resources and considerations

The IB, in its PYP Collaborative Planning Process for learning

and teaching, emphasizes making flexible use of resources.

It is important to make thoughtful use of resources, both in

and beyond the learning community, to enhance and extend

learning. The following considerations and resources have

been included for your reference:

Time Technologies

People Learning spaces

Places Physical materials

 Time

Ensure that you plan for extended blocks of time to Build in time for development of approaches to learning
deepen student inquiry and collaboration.

(ATL). Skills that would work well with these units include:

Create opportunities to share, reflect, celebrate Thinking Skills

learning and plan time for students to take action. Lower primary - Forming decisions, generating
ideas, considering new perspective
Upper primary - Analysis, evaluation, application,
reflection

Research Skills
Lower primary - Information literacy: gathering
and recording, evaluating and communicatin
Upper primary - Media literacy: consuming and
processing, considering perspectives, evaluating
the reliability of sources and communicating
ideas using different media
 People and Places

Invite experts to speak and connect students to Online virtual trips add value to the learning experience of
learning in authentic ways. This can be done both face students. Here are a few that children might enjoy:

to face as well as connecting to experts using tools

Africam - Live safari cameras
such as Toddle, Skype or Zoom. There are many NGOs
Discovery Education - Virtual field trips
that are involved in projects focussed on conservation
Dublin Zoo - Webcams for the African safari, penguins
of the environment and having speakers from here
and elephants
share their knowledge can lead to deeper inquiries for
Monterey Bay Aquarium - 10 Webcams to view sea life
students.
National Aquarium Baltimore - Virtual tour
Visit places in the community such as natural parks
San Diego Zoo - Virtual zoo for kids
and wildlife organisations.

Wolf Conservation Center - Webcam zoo for

information on wolves.
 Technologies - Lower Primary

There are a number of online resources that will support students’ inquiries of living things, biomes and habitats.

Younger children will love the read aloud video based on Eric Carle’s book The Tiny Seed, which will help them

understand the life cycle of plants.

The food chain game, the food chain quiz and drag and drop activities which focus on food chains across ecosystems

can lead to deeper inquiries in this age group.

BBC has developed a series of short movies around habitats that can be used in the classroom, and the different levels

of the food chain habitat games will also appeal to older students.

These National Geographic Kids resources can be used to get students to inquire into basic survival needs of animals.

This BrainPop video about humans and the environment can inspire student action towards saving the planet. Brain Pop

Jr has an activity about classifying animals that helps students understand how animals are categorized based on their

physiology.

This animal fact guide might be useful for students who are researching individual animals. Enchanted learning also

provides facts about endangered animals and Zoobooks has photos and interesting facts about different animals and

birds.

 Technologies - Upper Primary
There are many videos and websites about sustainability and conservation issues
that older students may like to use in their inquiries.

Topics Videos Websites/Infographics

Deforestation What is Deforestation National Geographi

CNN Explains Deforestatio Mongaba
Deforestation Animatio Rainforest Allianc
Deforestation Effects on Climate
WW
Greenpeace

Climate Change

National Geographic Global Warmin NASA Climate Kid

Could 1º Change the World National Geographic

Greenhouse Effec
Global Warming

Water Water Changes Everythin Save Water Infographi

Save Wate Drip, Drip, Gon
Water Conservation - Indi Why Waste Water?

The Miracle Water Village

 Learning Spaces and Physical Resources

Examples of provocations or learning experiences that can work for this unit are as follows:

Example 1: The objective of this provocation is for
students to see how much water they consume on a
single day for their daily chores. For this, you can have
students research about whether they can live out of a
5 gallon bucket of water for a day. As a visual aid, set
the bucket in the classroom and gradually start taking
water out of it showing the consumption; for example
Example 2: In this provocation have students carry a full
bucket of water from one point to the other. The objective
of this activity is to help students understand the plight of
other children in the world who have to walk for several
hours a day carrying water to their homes. Journaling about
their experience while doing the activity and discussing
them within a group can lead to deeper inquiry.

water they consume for showering, cooking, drinking,

flushing the toilet and so on.

Children’s literature can also be a powerful tool to support units about living things, habitats and biomes.
The Lorax
All the Water in the World

By Dr. Seuss.
This book chronicles the plight of the
environment and the Lorax, who is the
titular character and "speaks for the
trees". He confronts the Once-ler, who
causes environmental destruction.
A River
A Long Walk To Water
by Marc Martin
By Linda Sue Parker
This is a beautifully illustrated book about a
young girl who imagines a journey down the
river she sees from her bedroom window. The
text is calm and dreamlike, the illustrations are
enchanting and full of details which help
students visualize the story beautifully.
By George Ella Lyon
This is a lively and inspiring book of poems
that weaves together facts about water and
the need for water conservation. The book
will help student learn about the water cycle
and explain it using a wealth of vocabulary.
This book talks about water conditions in
South Sudan, Africa. The story is told from two
perspectives, a girl named Nya and a boy
named Salva. The story helps students
understand the importance of perseverance
and resilience through an important topic of
water scarcity.
Reflection

“
The more reflective you are the more effective you are.

by Hall and Simmeral

Reflection is a great way of understanding the effectiveness of the planning process,

what worked and what can be done differently.

After executing the unit, as a next step, you may reflect and share your reflections on the planning process.

You can use our reflection template available in our unit planner.

Share
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