Academic
PYP Exhibition
The perfect beginning to a lifelong journey of learning
The IB PYP Exhibition is a culminating learning experience in the final year of the International Baccalaureate PYP which is Grade 5 at LIS. It is a collective involvement of the IB community that engages students in an in-depth inquiry and provides them with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning.
In the PYP exhibition, students demonstrate their understanding of an issue or opportunity they have chosen to explore. They investigate through exploration and questioning, in order to attain a great understanding of the topic. It is a collaborative inquiry that starts from personal interests and passions, and extends into real world local and global issues. It provides a platform for students to display the skills, attitudes and behaviors developed throughout their schooling experience in the IB PYP.
All exhibitions are student-initiated, designed and collaborative.
Student-initiated: Students have a role in choosing the issue or opportunity to be explored; the transdisciplinary theme(s); the development of the central idea; the lines of inquiry; and identification of the crucial and related concepts that will drive their inquiries. They identify what knowledge they will need to acquire, and what expertise they will need to develop.
Student-designed: Students design their learning goals and establish the criteria of what success will look like for them. They co-design strategies and tools with teachers, mentors and peers to document and self-assess their learning, and evaluate the success of the exhibition.
Collaborative: The exhibition unites the students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community. As students are diverse, some will engage with the exhibition in groups while others will engage individually, supported by teachers.
All students take an active role in all aspects of planning, inquiring, investigating, communicating and assessing their learning in the exhibition. The teachers and mentors will encourage students so that they take independence with discussions, planning and give them a voice to make a difference in the community.
The key purposes of the exhibition are:
- For students to engage in critical thinking skills, discussions with others.
- To provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate agency and responsibility for their learning
- To provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate the attributes of the learner profile in authentic contexts
- To provide an authentic process for students to monitor, document and present their learning
- To provide students with an opportunity to synthesize and apply their learning
- To unite the students, teachers and other members of the learning community in a collaborative experience
- To provide an authentic context for students to reflect on their PYP education
- To support the well-being of students by celebrating their transition to the next stages of their education
- To provide an authentic task for the community to evaluate its implementation of the PYP
- To provide students with an opportunity to engage with the broader learning community and celebrate their achievements.
The exhibition is based on a local or global issue or opportunity, from which teachers and students develop central ideas. The issues or opportunities are complex enough to be addressed through a range of subject knowledge and skills. At the beginning of the exhibition process, students and teachers extensively discuss local or global issues and opportunities that have meaning to them and connect to the school or local contexts. These discussions spark ideas, interests and directions for student inquiries.
In the academic year 2018-19 students of Grade 5 at Lancers International School, inquired into Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) laid by the United Nations. https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals.html
Some of the SDGs included Good Health and Well-being, Quality Education, Decent Work and Economic Growth, Gender Equality, Clean Water and Sanitation, Life on Land, Sustainable Cities and Communities and so forth. The PYP exhibition allowed students to explore multiple perspectives on these Sustainable Development Goals by interacting with mentors around the globe to gather relevant information and synthesize and apply their learning to reflect on their journey.
