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!
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:
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?
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 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"!
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):
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.
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:
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):
As Sam promised, here are the things that he referred to during the recent Association Meeting.
Here are the new IB Standards & Practices. They describe all of the the elements of a successful IB school. We use them to develop strategy, identify priorities and reflect on our practice. A team from the IB comes to the school every five years in order to do an evaluation visit and measure how the school is doing according to these standards and practices. It is normal for schools to be at different stages of development and evolution in the various aspects of the IB Standards & Practices.
Here is a video showing all of the attributes of the IB Learner Profile. Being and becoming these attributes is the higher purpose of an IB education and so it is important that all adults in the community of an IB school are aware of, know, understand and have high expectations for themselves and each other to demonstrate these attributes at all times.
This video is a great overview of the Ruler approach to emotional intelligence that we will be implementing throughout the school in the next couple of years, starting next academic year.
Here are the links to the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition, Grade 10 MYP Personal Project Exhibition and Grade 12 DP Extended Essay Exhibition... three major milestones in an IB education!
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.
