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

A Time Travel Project in Grade 7

In Individuals & Societies, Grade 7 students are learning about exploration and the increasingly inter-connected world that resulted from these explorations. They did a case study of Marco Polo and used his journals to as a primary source of information about his experiences. In this creative project, they traveled back in time and put themselves in Marcom Polo's shoes as he encountered some of the wild animals, advanced systems and the use of resources that were present in China in the 13th Century. 

They used the costume room in the Auditorium in order to look as convincing as possible, the used the green screen and a digital camera to take the photos they needed for each situation, they found appropriate background images, they cropped the original photos using editing software and then layered the cropped images on top of the background image. Finally, they used Instapainting to convert the image into something that looks like a painting or drawing because, of course, cameras didn't exist in the 13th Century! 

Here is their work in the form of a digital book! Please click the link to take a look.

  

Time Travel

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.com

Knowing Our Students

 

AISM teachers started the new school year by using a variety of strategies to get to know their students. Gathering information about the students helps us:

• to be connected with who they are as human beings
• to understand how they like to learn and how they don't like to learn
• to get a sense of the things that motivate them and don't motivate them
• to learn about the things that interest them and don't interest them
• to find out what they see as their learning strengths and things they feel less confident about
• to learn about their goals, principles, beliefs and values

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 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):

The Grade 12 Extended Essay Exhibition 2021 is live!

 

Click on the image to visit the Extended Essay Exhibition

Grade 11 and 12 students go through the process of planning, writing and publishing the extended essay as part of the IB Diploma Programme. This is an independent, self-directed piece of research, finishing with a 4,000-word paper.

The extended essay provides:

• practical preparation for undergraduate research
• an opportunity for students to investigate a topic of personal interest to them, which relates to one of the student's six DP subjects, or takes the interdisciplinary approach of a World Studies extended essay.

Through the research process for the extended essay, students develop skills in:

• formulating an appropriate research question
• engaging in a personal exploration of the topic
• communicating ideas
• developing an argument.

This year, AISM students have written essays about topics ranging from the ideal diets for basketball players to the relationship between childhood experiences and criminal behaviour, from the discrimination and exploitation of minorities to Turtle nesting in Mozambique, from the effects of social isolation to Korean cuisine and social media! The diversity of topics is amazing, and something our school, and this cohort of students, can be very proud of.

Crucially, the extended essay is a powerful reminder of how important it is for students to be curious about the world, to develop strong interests and to develop the skills involved in personal inquiry.

Please enjoy exploring the Extended Essay 2021 Virtual Exhibition!

Research, our Librarian and a slice of the PIE!

For three days last week, our whole-school Librarian, Leah Ittner, Zoomed into the Grade 8 classes during PIE (Personalization, Intervention, Extension) time to introduce the learners to the library resources and databases that are available to them for their research. Reminding students that anyone can make a website, it is important to use the carefully curated databases to get reliable facts and information about topics. She also showed tools that can help learners cite their sources easily, translate texts into any language, and listen to articles in order to support with comprehension. 

"The students responded really well to Leah’s openness and general disposition. Many are thinking about reaching out to her for support because they thought she was so nice! It was a great kick-off to our research process" said Peter Hennigar, Grade 8 Science Teacher and Advisor.

Here are the Slides that Leah used in order to share this information with Grade 8 students.

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!