Unit Of Inquiry - Materials

Back in early 2009 when he was in Grade 1, Ilham learned about different materials, how they were used and the different properties that each material had. It was covered under the Unit of Inquiry - How The World Works.

I remember Ilham was learning the same thing when he was in kindergarten back home. We used to read and look at the different materials in the books. I have to admit though... after leaving primary school for soooo many years ago, I found that describing some materials were difficult or rather I was confused !! Yes I did !! I'm ashamed to admit it. The fact that I was in science stream makes it even worse !! All these while I thought when you describe a material, you just need to find a single adjective to explain it such as "hard" or "soft" or "transparent" or "smooth" etc.... The books that I bought from the shop (meant for kindergarten or primary school) always explain the different property in a single way too!!! Sometimes, I came across a material that have conflicting properties such as it might be hard and yet it was smooth to the touch at the same time. I remember having to think real hard before I could decide on a final single adjective to explain to Ilham. How wrong I was !!! I wonder whether I was the only parent who was s****d enough not to understand it... he...he...he... Only when I came here and saw some of their works at school, that it occurred to me that there were many ways of explaining the materials. The materials could have two or more adjectives to explain them and they were all correct !!! When I think back, I think the books at home (and I think the school textbooks too - please correct me on this, I'd appreciate it :D) are misleading and they fail to convey the right messages/information. Some of the terms they use here are so unexpected to my mind like "bendy".

Back to the UOI, the students were looking at properties and uses of different materials. First of all they explored different materials. As they were exporing they asked themselves questions - such as what does it look like? What can I do with it? Then the students went around school to find objects with the properties they had listed and took photographs of them. They then looked at different way they could sort the materials into groups. The students also used proscopes, which allowed them to look in detail at the materials. Throughout this unit the students have put this work into a web blender project. This involved them making a web page, adding titles, pictures and typing in a sentence.

Let's see how they were busy in class doing the project....

Concentrating hard on studying the different materials.

Discussion and cooperation needed...

Sorted into groups...

The followings are the students work which was placed in the "web blender project" which I obtained from the school website. The teacher would choose a few students work to repreent the class. If parents want to see their child's work, they have to click on the child's name.

Page by Alice.

Page by Earl

Page by Ilham.

Page by Nandinee.

Page by Soma.

Page by Tamaki.

And these are the materials as seen through the proscopes...

Glass and plastic.


Metal and stone.

Cardboard paper and wood.

And this is what they meant by "bendy"...

Well... I'm glad that I learned something new even though it was rather late.

:D

Our International Class

This is one of the Unit of Inquiries that Grade 1 learned at the ISA. It is covered under the unit themed Where We Are In Time And Place. Under this unit, the children learned about their personal histories as part of understanding themselves and their place in the community and the world.

Using a certain programme, they completed short sentences about where they were born, what languages they spoke, where they have lived, etc. They inserted their photograph, their flag, added a background colour and manipulated the text font.

This is Ilham's. Note that he believed he once lived in Indonesia which he never did :D

The children wrote their own sentenses , so you will notice the misspelling :)

This is Noah, Ilham's best friend. He's been staying in Japan since he was born that he believed he was Japanese. He loved anything Japan....isn't that cute??

Towards the end of the inquiry, the children were supposed to compile things special to their country and themselves in a box and bring it to class. Over the next few days, they will take turns showing and explaining these items to the class.

We put in money and coins and Ilham drew a paper keris.

The cover was adorned with Jalur Gemilang :D


Notice the blue notebook in the box? What's inside the book....

We put in cuttings of festivals celebrated in Malaysia, photos of wau bulan, gasing and congkak, photos of silat performers and also pictures of KLCC which Ilham took pride in telling that it was the tallest twin tower :D

We had fun doing this and I think Ilham learned a lot too about our culture and country. I took the opportunity to explain to him the traditional games and silat. We even browse the internet to learn silat movements and actually learned a few zapin steps :D

I am truly glad that they had this inquiry. These culture are all around us, but sometimes we are somehow too engrossed in other things that we never realise that our children do not know much about it.

Mr Plumbly's House

While going through Ilham's file yesterday, I found some school works which he did in grade 1 at the International School of Amsterdam (ISA). Thought to myself that I might as well post them on the blog.


Ilham joined the school in February 2009, so that gave him a few months in Grade 1 until the middle of June. Luckily he was able to follow the lessons otherwise he would not be going into Grade 2 in August. There was a Korean girl who joined the class in March 2009 but she couldn't go into Grade 2 because the class teacher thought that she was somehow not matured enough and might not be able to follow grade 2's lessons. Her parents met with the Lower School Head to protest but to no avail :(


Anyway, back to the school work, I'm not sure whether this work was covered under Unit Of Inquiry or not. It probably was, but I wasn't sure under which topic. I wasn't that aware of the school's curriculum then :) The students were given a poem/story of Mr Plumbly's House and then they were asked to draw their version of the house on the computer. It was simple enough, but it was interesting to see how each student interprete them.

This is Ilham's version of Mr Plumbly's House

Based on this poem :)

And these are the students works :)

I loved looking at the drawings, I wish I had taken a picture of each of the work, then we could see clearly how creative the students were.

Invention Convention

The Unit of Inquiry on Invention was officially ended with the exhibition of the grade 2 works. Parents were invited to view and querry their child's invention. They were also encouraged to visit other childrens' works as well.

The following questions are sample of what the parents should ask :

What does your invention do?

How does it work?

Who would buy your invention?

How does your invention affect peoples' lives?

Did you work alone?

What was the hardest part in making your invention?

Is there anything that you would want to change?

The children really had a fun time entertaining the parents. They each had a laptop to assist them. It was very interesting indeed. One child had invented Mr Wake Up With Water Machine.

It was a machine designed to pour cold water on your face in the morning !! It definitely will ensure the person wakes up!! Another child had invented a Scooper Pooper, I suppose there is no need to mention about its purpose eh... :) And then, there was this 360 Tooth Brusher, designed to ensure that your teeth are 1oo% clean on all angles. There was this Sticker Chair, designed to ensure kids do not fall off their chair. The idea came to this boy who had his friend fell off the chair and hurt himself.

Last but not least, The Sleep Thousand designed to help people sleep better and not sleep for a thousand days!! So, who was the inventor? My son of course!! I should be honoured because he invented it to help me sleep better at night !! Isn't that sweet of him. He initially wanted to design a robot that can read his mind and help him write in his diary and also a robot that can do his homework for him. Obviously someone do have a problem of writing in his own diary and probably a bit "lazy" to do his homework!! But then, the teacher said the invention must be something to assist and improve people lives and not something that will prevent you from doing your job and responsibility.

Ilham answering questions from visitors

All these wonderful inventions must be patented, otherwise someone will steal your idea and make a huge profit from it. So the ISA had helped the children to get their patents !!

Receiving the patent award for the design of The Sleep Thousand

I think the UOI does foster the idea of being an inventor in the children. Regardless of what they design or how the final invention looks like, it makes them think "maybe I should design this.... to help people....." when they encounter a problem.

Invention

All 2JK students are future inventors!!! It's amazing to see what these children had invented during their 4th Unit Of Inquiry(UOI) - Invention.

Some of the inventions by class 2JK: The 360 Tooth Brusher and The Sticker Chair are just a few brilliant examples...

The theme for this 4th UOI is Where We Are In Time And Place, and under this unit grade 2 students learned about inventions that have changed peoples' lives. Not only they learned about famous inventors such as Leonardo Da Vinci, the Wright brothers and Alexander Graham Bell and their inventions, they also learned about trivia inventions that sometimes we take for granted and never takes notice of. Do you know that women first invented liquid paper? Even the car rain wiper? And also chocolate chip cookies?

They learned how some inventions had changed the way people think and live forever or, that sometimes inventions did not really have an impact on peoples's lives, just make it a lot more fun. That sometimes, inventions can cause loss of lives.

They started their unit with a wonderful invention, a laptop, which was invented in 1981 by Adam Osborne. They worked in pairs and recorded their own news report about this invention. Later, they selected and researched their own favourite inventions and created a mind map of the inventions, where they list down its purpose and how it changed people think and live.

Then towards the end of the unit, they were busy thinking and making their very own inventions. Not only they had to make it, they also had to make news report informing people of their wonderful inventions and who should benefit from it. The inventions were then displayed for the parents and other grade 2 students to see.

It was truly amazing to see some of these inventions. For some reasons, Ms Kimura, the homeroom teacher had discouraged the students from inventing robots. Whereas, I noticed that students from other classes do invent robots such as Cleaning Robot, Robot That Entertains Kids, Robot Puffle, Homework Robot etc. Whatever her reasons, her class had come up with such interesting machines and gadgets with such creative names as well : Pooper Scooper, Sleep Thousand, The No Polluter 3000, The Raker 7800, Wake Up With Water Machine, Cavity Spotting Glass and so on.

How do you teach 7 and 8 year olds to create their own inventions?

First, they started by having brainstorming session : What problems do they or people around them have that they would like solved.

Then, they decide what to invent.

Once decided, the following elements have to be thought over and answered. What does the invention solve? How does it work? How will it change people think and live? Who will want to buy your invention? How much will it cost? Where can people buy it?

Then, they sketch a rough design, followed by the final design, complete with the materials needed.

And then, here comes the invention.........

Well, the final result may not look as impressive as the final design and definitely needs some improvements, but I guess it's the efforts behind it that's more important....

Unit Of Inquiry - Earth Matters

The element that I found interesting about the International School of Amsterdam(ISA) is the learning of "Unit of Inquiry". Each year the students will learn 6 transdisciplinary themes which are supposed to have global significance intended to help students engaged with their world, whatever that means :) Anyway, the themes are Who We Are, How We Organise Ourselves, How We Express Ourselves, Where We Are In Time and Place, How The World Works and Share The Planets. Each unit of inquiry normally takes around 6 to 8 weeks to complete. Sometimes, they would go on a field trip to visit a place related to the inquiry and/or invite a parent whose works relates to the inquiry to come and speak about the issue, or create a show for the parents to come and see.

Earth Matters is the fifth and current Unit of Inquiry for the grade 2 students. They have started on this new unit about 2 weeks ago in early March. Under this unit, they learn about earth, the solar system and how the world works. Books on the topic are be displayed in each class where the children can easily read and browse. The class is decorated with large balls representing sun, planets and moon.

On the 4th of March, the school had invited a NASA astronaut Steven Smith who happens to be a parent at the school, to give a talk to the grade 2 students. Mr Smith had been to the ISS for five times and had stayed there for six months every time. He had also performed space walks, so he certainly knew what he was talking. The children were very excited and they certainly learned many interesting facts and had a lot of questions to ask to Mr Smith. Do you know that an astronaut wears a diaper when he performs a space walk? No, that's something that I never knew before. The children were hilarious when they heard that and needless to say, many had second thoughts about becoming an astronaut after that !!!

Apart from the space talk, Mr Smith also gave motivation talk to the children. He talked about reaching for your dreams and that one must never ever give up no matter what other people say. Every time you fall or sidetracked from your dream path, you must always get back on your feet, or move back to your dream path and move on. He is a fine example, he had always wanted to be an astronaut. He still had drawings of himself as an astronaut which he made when he was only 8 years old. He had to apply for 5 times before NASA finally accepted his application. He also talked about always being good, always listen to your parents and never do bad things, never do drugs and so on.

On the 12th of March, the children had a fun adventure at the Space Expo in Noordwijk. They went at 9.30 am and only arrived back at the school at 3.15 pm. I couldn't join the trip because the teacher had 5 parent volunteers already. I was too late in offering my services :( I do not know exactly what they were doing there, but they certainly had a lot of activities and a lot of fun....