What are the Grade 10 students working on?

 

Every Wednesday, during PIE, the Grade 10 students gather in MP1 in order to touch base with teachers, and with each other, about their MYP Personal Projects. This is a time to collaborate, to get advice, to document progress and just to get on with their projects.

In this Buffalo Voices Podcast, on AISM Radio, seven of them chat with Sam Sherratt about what they're doing for their MYP Personal Projects and how it's going so far. Enjoy listening to Elisa, Hayden, Helen, Sydney, Tyra, Misa and Daniel talk about each of their very diverse projects!

AISM Radio · Buffalo Voices - Grade 10 Students and their Personal Projects

Grade 8's Short Films

 

During their English lessons, students in Grade 8 did a whole unit on Film. Either in groups or on their own, either in campus or in other parts of the world, the students developed concepts, wrote scripts, selected music and sound-effects, chose locations, filmed and edited eight amazing - and very different - short films.

You can watch all of the films in the Grade 8 Virtual Film Festival below:

Grade 6 Seven Modern Wonders of the World

To conclude their inquiry into ancient civilizations, geography key themes, map making skills and settlements, Grade 6 students carried out a research and decision-making activity, to produce a list of their own Seven Modern Wonders of the World, following their inquiry into the original ancient modern wonders of the world, created by the ancient Greeks. Each presentation of the Seven Modern Wonders of the World had to have their own set of criteria, by which the students who created them, considered them to be a 'Wonder'. In turn, the class collaboratively devised a set of criteria by which to judge each others' presentations of their Seven Modern Wonders of the World. Special mention goes to Belva and Cala, and Laia, whose two presentations were deemed to be the joint winning presentations by their class of peers. 

The question is, which presentation of the Seven Wonders of the World do you consider to be the most wonderful?

Here are some examples of their presentations.

Akira, Jae, Mohamed and Oskar:

Polly, Theo and Michelle:

Laia:

Heather:

Belva and Cala:

Lucas and Jacques:

 

Grade 3 Students Taking Action for Change

 

Dynamic duo, Chica and Zayli, in Grade 3, have been working on their passion project every week on Flex Fridays. Their plan is to raise money for Mozambican schools that need more educational materials or to done to organizations that provide clean drinking water to children - they're still deciding! They are raising the money by selling products made of Capulana material.

Chica and Zayli intend to continue with this project next year, when they are in Grade 4, and so they want the community to know about the project and keep an eye out for it next school year!

Grade 8 Students' Science Research Published Online!

 

Grade 8 Students at AISM explored how scientists use evidence to study the process of evolution. They took part in an academic research process and wrote about what they discovered. This magazine is the result of their efforts. It is 100% researched, written, edited, laid out, and published by students. Take a look and see what they were curious about when exploring evolution. The results will blow you away.

Please click on the image or on this link to see the magazine.

Grade 6 "A Little Bit of Stomp" Performances

 

Grade 6 students have been combining story-telling and the creation of rhythms using everyday objects. It started out as a fairly simple musical project, but the students' imaginations,  creativity and desire to explore and experiment with costumes and props turned it into something bigger and better than the original plan!

Here's the Grade 6 Virtual Theatre showing, for one week only... "A Little Bit of Stomp"!

Amazing Grade 8 Human Rights Essays

For their final summative assignment in Individuals & Societies, the Grade 8 students were asked to produce a formal research essay using criteria adapted from the Grade 12 Extended Essay rubric to explore and evaluate a chosen human rights topics of interest. They were asked to use peer-reviewed academic journals to inform their research as they followed guidelines adapted from AISM's Big 6 Research Planner.

Here are some examples of the work they have produced (click on the images below to go to their work):

The Grade 12 IB Diploma Visual Art Virtual Exhibition is live!

 

This year, five Grade 12 students did Visual Art for their IB Diploma. Fortunately, they were able to invite their parents on to the campus to come and see their exhibition in real life, and most other grade levels in the school also came to see it. However, because of the current restrictions, the whole school community were not able to come. Now, through the virtual gallery, you are4 also able to explore the students' art work and learn more about the Artists, their methods and their artistic intentions.

Enjoy!

www.dpartexhibition2021.aism.co.mz

The Buffalo Trail Podcast - a CAS project

 

Grade 11 students Beamlak, Rylan and Isabelle, have been developing their Creativity, Activity and Service project in the form of a podcast. Through the Buffalo Trail Podcast, they are aiming to inspire curiosity, listen to and share different perspectives and increase the communication between different grade levels in the school.

You can listen to their podcast on Spotify:

 

You can listen to their podcast on iTunes:

 

... and we are also hosting the podcasts on the AISM Radio Soundcloud account!

AISM Radio · Buffalo Trail - Gerson and Jae Young

The MYP Personal Project Virtual Exhibition is Live!

 

Grade 11 students did an amazing job with their Personal Projects, with a very wide variety of topics being explored through this milestone experience.

Please get comfortable and spend a bit of time exploring the Virtual Exhibition so you can get a sense of what the students did, read some of their reports and see some of the products of their projects.

personalproject2021.aism.co.mz

Buffalo Voices Podcast - The Grade 11 Core Retreat

Grade 11 students just had a Core Retreat in which they were able to dedicate some time to the Core of the IB Diploma. This is made up of Theory of Knowledge (TOK), the Extended Essay and Creativity, Activity and Service. 

In this podcast, Sam Sherratt finds out more about the retreat, what happened and what impact it had by chatting to Gabriel Di Mauro (IB Diploma Coordinator), Rui da Silva (Extended Essay Coordinator), Colleen Fletcher (CAS Coordinator) and two Grade 11 students, Rylan and Jana.

AISM Radio · Buffalo Voices Podcast - G11 Core Retreat

Grade 10 Inquiry into the Sustainable Development Goals

Grade 10 are currently presenting the work they've done during their inquiry into the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), with the outcome of the inquiry being a sustainable, actionable solution to a local issue (which is also a world-wide issue related to SDGs).

The context for the unit of inquiry was to develop an understanding of the impact of the linear economy globally, and to consider how the UN SDGs can overcome global issues, within a local context, with students carrying out personalised inquiries and creating sustainable solutions and action. This inquiry ties in with the transition of Grade 10 to the IB Diploma and High School programme in two ways: to mirror an inquiry into the UN SDGs as per the Environmental Systems and Societies Internal Assessment and to engage students in Creativity, Activity and Service (CAS) experiences, building a foundation for continued action in Grade 11 and Grade 12.

The unit of inquiry began with guest speakers from within the AISM community. Niall Tierney spoke about the history of the UN SDGs and his own involvement in developing them and implementing them. Florentine Bourdeaux spoke about the application of a circular economic model of industrial production in Maputo at the Beluluane Industrial Park, working on transforming the park into an eco-industrial park. Colleen Fletcher and Jasmine Howell spoke about the importance of sustainable action (economic, social, environmental), based on indigenous knowledge bearers, the Compass Model and spheres of influence.

Here are a few examples of the presentations the students have put together.

Ashutosh and Arvind's work focuses on sustainable, affordable water filtration systems for the local community in order to promote Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG6) and to counter the use of single-use plastic and climate change:

Sanjana, Saira, Maria Clara and Georgia's work focuses on making organic hand sanitizer to support the Health and Well-Being (SDG 3) and Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) of a local school in order, ultimately, to influence Quality Education (SDG 4): 

             

Margret's work focused on Clean Water and Sanitation (SDG 6) and ensuring sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a focus on Mozambique:

Madeleine's work focused on seeing if solar paint is a plausible innovation to develop Affordable and Clean Energy (SDG 7):

Grade 10 Student's Poetry is Published!

 

Olinda, in Grade 10, blew us all away with her powerful poetry during the MYP Personal Project Exhibition and during the Buffalo Talks Author's Night a few months ago. She even impressed author Mia Couto so much that he invited her to join him and other authors at the Fundacao Fernando Leite Couto right then and there during the event!

The next part of the Olinda's story as a Poet has just happened, with two of her poems being published in the Minfo Femme magazine.

You can read her poems on pages 16 and 17 below.

Congratulations, Olinda!

Mathematical Micro-Inquiry Projects in Grade 8

These mathematical inquiry projects give Grade 8 students the opportunity to transfer the mathematical concepts they have been learning this year into real-life situations.

The one about how much money will you cost your parents is proving to be a popular one!

Which one would you choose to do? Let Francois McCurdy know if you decide to do one of the inquiries yourself and share your findings with him!

How the Zebra got its stripes!

 

Grade 6 and Grade 10 collaborated to put together this brilliant performance of a traditional African tale and showed that performances can still be done in the middle of a pandemic - the production was staged completely outside, masked and socially distanced!

Even more impressive is the fact that the students were able to entertain physical audiences on campus, online audiences through a Facebook live stream and countless other audiences through this video of the whole thing. All sorts of collaboration was necessary in order to make it all happen, showing how powerful drama is as a way of bringing community together.

AISM Earth Day Buffalo Talks

On the 31st of March, we continued our series of Buffalo Talks. These talks are aimed at connecting people in our community with people in Maputo and beyond who are taking action and doing work that reflects our school's mission.

The 31st of March was Earth Day, so the focus was on environmental issues. An inspiring line-up was created and the programme was put together and hosted by our amazing Grade 11 Environmental Committee - Lara and Jana.

Larissa Sousa spoke about the Girls' Education Programme in Gorongoza National Park. Her talk starts here.

Olivier Hamerlynck spoke about the incredible Macaneta wetlands, just a short drive from AISM. His talk starts here.

Dorkhanay Paykhar spoke about the Circular Economy and the work she is doing with the African Circular Economy Network. Her talk starts here.

The AISM MAP Help Center

 

The AISM MAP Help Center has been created as a "one-stop-shop" for all information regarding:

• the big picture of MAP Growth testing
• the implementation of MAP testing at AISM
• the disruptions to MAP testing during the pandemic
• the variables involved for students doing the test this year
• the importance of avoiding emotional reactions to MAP scores
• how to access MAP reports on Managebac
• how to look at an understand the MAP reports

Please make the most of the information on the AISM MAP Help Center as we believe the vast majority of your questions or concerns will be addressed in the content.

If you would like to talk about your child's MAP scores and do some interpretation and analysis together, please feel free to contact Sam Sherratt - sam.sherratt@aism-moz.com

Sharing the Planet in Grade 2

In our Sharing the Planet unit of inquiry, Grade 2 learners have been inquiring into living things in different environments and how humans share those environments with living things.

We met with one of our parents, James Hogg, who is an Environmental Scientist and avid bird-watcher. He shared information about different habitats in Maputo and the birds we might encounter in each habitat. We also  learned about the importance of planting indigenous plants to support local wildlife.

We were also inspired by Jadav Payang, the man who planted a forest, and 2004 Nobel Peace Prize winner Wanagari Maathai, who told the story of the Hummingbird taking action.  We decided to plant indigenous trees and reached out to Ms. Colleen who taught us about the Spekboom plant, a super plant amongst plants!  She kindly shared some cuttings with us that we were able to plant and will be caring for on campus.  

Furthermore, we have been reading poems and stories about different habitats, and the 2H  Hummingbirds decided to write their own to show appreciation for the Earth.

Photo by John O'Nolan on Unsplash

Grade 7 are Spoken Poets and Activists!

The current unit in 7th grade Integrated Arts is "Activism in the Arts". We're looking at some of the visual art, music and performance art that has come out of activist movements around the world. All students created a spoken word poem about a cause of their choosing. Spoken Word Poetry has become a popular performance art among young people especially as they share their voices to help change the world and show their own power for good.

Here are some examples of the spoken word poems that Grade 7 students have been producing.

Zara:

Ver no Vocaroo >>

Kate:

 

Francesca:

Raisa:

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Powerful Poetry by Grade 9 Students

 

Grade 9 students have written, performed and produced videos for a variety of powerful, and personal, poems. These poems have been curated on the AISM Grade 9 Poetry Slam website. 

Click on the titles across the top of the webpage in order to access the pages for each individual poem, and don't forget to click "More" and scroll down the right-hand side of the webpage... there's more amazing poems there too!