final report

-         PYP Exhibition is a word we all have been hearing from the beginning of the year. As we take a lovely walk down the memory lane, we still remember how we much we were excited. We just simply couldn’t wait for our inquiry process to begin. We were enthusiastic about the mentor meets, the displays and mostly the presentation day. Even though we were getting used to the process throughout the year. We have truly started our inquiry process after the winter break and to be precise on the 16^th of January. Now I will take you into the past and show you the process of our inquiry through this report.

 Unpacking the Central Idea – 16^th of January

To complete this task we got randomly divided into groups according to our grade levels. Then we were given the theme descriptor we had to unpack. We also got a central idea checklist that helped us make our central ideas better. Then we put on our thinking caps to re-frame the central idea and create one of our own.   

Logo & Moto designing - 21^st January

We were informed that the exhibition needed a logo and a motto so, we were asked to make logos and support them by mottos. The logo should have all the parts of our theme descriptors and should cover most of the social issues we were working on. We were told that one of our motto and logo will be taken to use on the final day. We all tried our best to create nice logo’s and the motto just glued everything together.

Academic Honesty - 5th February

Academic honesty is a big part of the IB curriculum and the exhibition was no exception. So, Mr. Sanjeeb kindly agreed to come and speak to us about plagiarism, citation and all the other fields of Academic honesty. He introduced us to a few sites that can reveal plagiarism and this made us take the session more seriously. He also told us about a few websites that cannot be trusted and a few that we can rely on.  He told us about the importance of acknowledgements and that they are a must always and should never be forgotten. He also spoke about how important the role of originality plays in our lives. This was a very helpful and informative session.

Priority Pyramid - 17^th February

A priority pyramid is a tool used to assess what suits you the best and what you are interested in the most. This tool was given to us by our form-tutor to divide us into our exhibition group. There were six issues and they were – Women rights, Bullying, Racism, Global food crisis, Depletion of natural resources, and the rights for the disabled. We had to prioritize and jot down which issues were most important to us and which issues we'd like to be a part of.

Questioning -18^th February

For this activity we first got divided into our PYP exhibition groups. Then MS.Archana gave each group a book from the library. Then by just looking at the cover page and title the group had to make questions on that book. Then MS.Archana introduced us to different kinds of questions - fat questions, open-ended questions etc. Then ma’am in detail explained to us how to make questions and which questions are suitable for inquiry. Then we all made questions together but now we concentrated on making questions on the 8 concepts.

After that, just to collect our thoughts about the issue together we all made a mind map on our issues, jotting down whatever idea we had about it before commencing with our research.

Team Work - 4^th March

This session was taken by MS.Naini as she kindly agreed to come and speak with us. First ma’am showed us a few questioning cycles.  Then we had a discussion about making smart questions on the 5 w's and 1h. Subsequently we spoke about researching on Google. We discussed how we are really wasting our time by typing down the whole question in the search bar. For example, if your question is 'How many students study in the AKAH?' Then instead of typing it all down you can just type 'Strength of AKAH.' This is a good way to save time. We also saw 3 videos; they were really cute and funny. Two of them were about how working in a group is better than working individually. The 3rd one was about how we shouldn't give up; how we should be geared up for everything that is coming our way. These videos gave us glimpses of what was predicted to come.

Action - 12^th March

Ms. Latha, The Junior school principle took our session on action. She spoke about 4 types of actions. They were, ‘Direct Action’, ‘Indirect Action’, ‘Advocate Action’ and ‘Research Action.' 'Direct Action' is action that impacts another person or impacts the environment. 'Indirect Action' is action that impacts the community. 'Advocate Action' is action taken to spread awareness and 'Research Action' is action taken in the field of education. After having a clear understanding of what each of these were. Then we were asked use the thinking strategy 'Think-Pair-Share' to discuss one action we could take for each type of action. Then we discussed the action dart board. We spoke about how our actions impact ourselves, our family, our school, our community and our government. Subsequently, we watched a video; it was called 'Boomerang'. It was about how if someone helps you, you must help someone else and that person should help another person. This way the world will be full of humanity and it will truly be a beautiful place to live in. This gave our session a smooth ending.

Presentations - 14^th March

This morning, Ms.Lisa took our session. It was on presentations. She started of the session by asking us “Do any of you know what glassophobia is?” seeing our blank faces she understood that none of us had the slightest hint of what it was. She then said, “It is the fear of speaking, public speaking.” After we had comprehended this piece of information we commenced. We then saw a video of a presentation epically failing. It was hilarious! But it really showed us a pathway. One was how you could be prepared and know your stuff and take to the road of success. Whereas the other one was the path to failure. I believe, the gentleman in this particular video chose the incorrect path. Subsequently we were asked to reflect on a recent presentation we did. We were told to think of 1 star and 1 wish. We had a good discussion on this. We understood what we could have done better and I don’t think any of us will be making those mistakes sometime soon... After this we saw a video on a presentation Steve Jobs had given. We were asked to observe him. After examining him, we had a dissertate. We spoke about his body language, how he was audible, how he made eye contact with the audience, how he was prepared etc. We also observed that because he was so well prepared he also managed to add in some humor which got the audience’s interest even more piqued. After this we saw another video in which a lady told us about the do’s and don’ts of a presentation. A few of the do’s were, have expression, be confident, have clarity, have a good pace etc. A few of the don’ts were, avoid slang language, avoid crutch words (hmmm, uh etc) don’t stop if u makes some mistakes etc. After this we had a mini-discussion of techniques to calm ourselves down before a presentation. Subsequently, we discussed about group presentations. How we must be open-minded and give everyone a turn to speak. We also spoke about how we must cover up for mistakes someone else makes and try and make the presentation as smooth as possible. This ended our session. We learned a lot from it and I’m pretty sure that if we continue to follow the guidelines Ms.Lisa gave us, then this presentation and every presentation in the future will turn out splendid!

Creating the Matrix - 18^th March

Today we divided up into our exhibition groups. The groups that were working under Ms. Safura, went with her and the groups that were working under Ms. Arpita stayed in  class. All six groups worked on creating the matrix for their topics. The matrix contained, the ‘Lines of Inquiry’, the ‘Key Concepts’ the ‘Related Concept’, the ‘Learner Profile Attributes’, the ‘Attitudes’, the ‘Strands’, the ‘Subject Focus’ and the concept your issue really concentrated on, for example ‘Access to equal opportunities’, ‘Peace and conflict resolution’ etc. We decided upon having a common central idea for all the groups instead of having one each.

Mentor Meet - 19^th March

Mentors are teachers from the PYP who will guide you through the inquiry. Our mentor is MS.Vidya. We had a session with our mentors for the 1st and 2^nd period. We discussed about our issues; what we already knew, what we had to research on etc. Then we made a list of things we had to do and assorted roles to each of us. For example, someone would manage the blogs; another person would take care of the surveys etc.  We also discussed how we could take action; the places we could go to, the people we could speak to, fund raising activities etc. Last but not the least, we chose three time slots throughout the week, where we could meet up with our mentors and discuss how the work is going. This would also be the time to get all the help and guidance you needed from your mentors.

Now that you got to know how we were geared up we will move on into our inquiry…

1st Mentor Meet! - Thursday, 9 April 2015

Our 1st Meeting with MS. Vidya [our mentor] -

We were very excited for our first meeting with MS. Vidya it was on the morning of 19th march. On this meet we decided a lot of things and that includes our meeting slots, our jobs and the vacation homework as our spring vacation was just two days away

After the spring break…

Another Day

Progress - 8th April 2015

Today we made progress by doing various things like - getting started up with our blog, segregating work for the next few days and writing down the matrix in our notebooks.

Today we did not have a mentor meet because MS. Vidya was busy. We will have our next mentor meet on Friday. 

Thursday, 9 April 2015

More n More!

Going further- 9th April

we have started working on our topic rapidly, we have commenced research on the first line of inquiry 'Right's of Today's Women'. We have also found some case studies talking about NGOs or women who fought for their rights or were rescued. 

Our meet without Ms Vidya

 

 

 

Discussing about the essential agreements and trying to come up with places that we can research about. This research would be about the rights given to women in these places.

Monday, 20 April 2015

Working on the Exhibition!

Today we have made a good amount of progress in our exhibition related work. At the beginning of the session we all continued with our first line of inquiry research, then we as a whole, discussed our theme display for the exhibition with our form tutors. Later in the mentor meet period, 'the Upright Women' group and MS. Vidya further talked about our research progress, the theme display and how to go about it. We also discussed about the Nirbhaya case which happened in India.

 

 

Wednesday, 6 May 2015

Moving forward

While working on the exhibition time just flows by.As hectic as it is we also enjoy it a lot. Inquiring on the women rights is helping me understand about the issues and denial women face.
We are currently inquiring into the role of women in the society,our second line of inquiry. Our group is still brainstorming and gathering ideas on this statement. We also finished our formative assessment where we wrote news paper articles on women rights in different countries. Along with this we are also getting started with our display ideas for the first line of inquiry and focus point. Here are the ideas...
For our focus point we are getting a mannequin and dressing her up to represent the different problems women face. Now coming to the first line of inquiry we are using dolls and puppets to make our presentation creative and conceptual. Finally, we are going to a field trip on Friday  to this organization called voice 4 girls. These people through their camps make women aware about their rights and also help the victims re-establish their lives.
I hope our field trip will be informative and that we will succeed in all efforts to make this exhibition work for us. 

Formative assessment

Our formative assessment was all about writing a newspaper article on the country you have researched, our task was:- 

Task- Imagine you are a person from the country you've researched about. First speak about the rights there and any variations they have or any big act that took place to get this right. Then give your opinion about it. Is it necessary? Could it be replaced by something else? If yes, what? Does everyone follow this law? Is it spread across the country? And if your country has women that are deprived of their rights then write about how these rights would have an impact on the country? Would it be more beneficial? If yes, in what ways? If no, why?

Discussing about focus point

We were discussing about our focus point and formative assessment presentation in final day and when we were discussing about that we enjoy a lot and have so many good ideas.

Thursday, 7 May 2015

Going on the trip to voice 4 girls

Today we all went to a field trip to the voice 4 girls’ organization. We first interacted with them when they came to visit our school. We had been planning this trip for a long time and we finally went today. All 7 of us with Ms. Vidya started at school at 11:15 am and reached there at around 12:15 pm.
First MS. Sharanya made sure we introduced our self by making us play the simple game where you tell your name and also say an adjective with the alphabet your name starts with. Then Ms. Sharanya and Ms. Anusha made us do a simple activity where they introduced us to the basic stereotypical thinking. 

After this we all conversed about the differences between sex and gender. We all came with the common understanding that sex is something that is natural and it cannot be changed. But gender is something that your society and culture decides. You do have the choice of changing your gender but you cannot flip your chromosomes. If there was a way to flip your chromosomes there will be only one gender in the world today. Then Ms. Sharanya showed us the cycle which explains why women face problems. 

 After this we got to know about the legal rights women have and the different types of abuse from Ms. Vanitha.
We have learnt a lot from the voice staff and we would like to thank them for their wonderful presentation.
As i hoped for the field trip was great and i hope this continues for our group and the exhibition is a great success for us. 

Thursday, 28 May 2015

Guest lecture

Guest lecture with MS. Jameela.

Today on the 27th we had a guest lecture with MS. Jameela. We found it very interesting and informative.

WE learnt many things and a few of the facts are- 

Matriarchy and patriarchy. WE have also discussed some astonishing case studies. We also understood the idea in an advance level by doing basic and fun activities. We would like to thank MS.Jameela for taking the trouble and coming for us.  

 

Now that you have taken a walk through our inquiry process, why don’t you take a look at displays?

First we have the women squares game which is to show the basics of women rights and also to test the knowledge the visitors have.

This game basically has 16 questions and whoever answers the most questions right gets a certificate.

The next thing we want to show are our power chromosomes which are basically a mixture of both female and male chromosome.  We have used this to show equality between men and women. Then we have filled up the space with the basic rights women have.

We have also made three Venn diagram showing the difference between the rights women have in different countries from all over the world.

Our negative focus point takes the form of a mannequin bought by Ishan Memdani and we would like to thank him for that. Here we are showing the negative issues women face in today’s society.

We are showing physical abuse via an acid burnt face. The other side of the face we are showing child marriage. Here are some facts- one third of girls are married before the age of 18, in 2010 67 million women were married before the age of 18.

We are also showing female foeticide and domestic violence via some powerful images and symbols. One of the mannequins arm is showing human trafficking by putting some price tags through it.

The other arm is showing child labor.

Beneath we are showing the tribal women in or country by draping a sari on the mannequin.  This is also showing our main Aga Khan stand which is culture. Finally near the legs we are depicting human trafficking by putting a chain to her legs. Here is a fact-

16.4 million People suffer from forced labor in human trafficking.

The next display we have is our visual thinking routine which is showing our use of the habits of the mind.

We also have our connection to the Aga khan strand which is culture. To show this we made a collage and have named it the melting pot of culture.

The next display we have is basically about women who have made their mark in history now and they deserve to be recognized. We have also put in a bit of past by including the social reformers; the ones that paved the way for all these brilliant women.

We made a few posters with the concept of unselfie to make the poster conceptual.

We all wanted to put in a few artifacts as well so we collected a

1.       Hijab- acknowledging SamiullahKhan for lending it

2.        A badge from the voice4girls organization which is the one we have visited.

3.      A book named ‘Girls who rocked the world.’

4.      An  I-pad  showing the safety app for women  

And

5.      A mobile phone showing the help lines for women

To honor the literature we learn in school we are also showing our integration with the Hindi and English languages.

Then we are showing our experiences during the field trip and the guest lecture. We are also proud to present our action via the self defense booklet we have made.

The last but not the least – our positive focus point – The rock on tree.

Here we are paying our tribute to the women who have been brave enough to do some jobs that were tabooed and also women who had problems of their own but are helping others to lead a bright life.

Hope you found the report interesting and informative.

THANK YOUN