PYPX Exhibition 2022

The PYP Exhibition occurs in the last year of primary school where we all choose our own central idea based on an issue that we feel passionately about. A central idea is a conceptual understanding that is a global issue, could be true anywhere in the world, and is timeless and transferrable. We spent quite a bit of time in the tuning-in phase of our inquiry, considering issues that relate to the Transdisciplinary Theme ‘Sharing the Planet’ (you can see the issues we considered over there on the display wall). We had to ignore the temptation to follow the crowd and we tried to choose issues that were unique to us and that we felt we wanted to act on. After we had finalised our central ideas, we began asking ourselves questions about them. We became masters at writing deep questions to unpack big ideas. After this we changed the questions into statements, and they became our Lines of Inquiry.  

Next we began the finding out phase of our inquiry. During this phase we thoroughly researched our lines of inquiry to find out more about why our central ideas are worldwide issues and how we could take action. During this we learnt how to define questions and search terms, and this helped us to come up with useful answers and information. We were introduced to our mentors at this point, who helped us through the exhibition and who kept us on track and pointed us in the right directions for information and resources. Having mentors helped us to feel seen and nurtured throughout our learning process. We were fortunate to go on an immersion excursion during this phase. We visited the UTAS Stadium, the Launceston Waste and Recycling Centre and the new UTAS library space and Inveresk precinct. Most students could take and learn something from this excursion that connected with how we Share the Planet with each other.  

We then moved on to the sorting out phase of the inquiry where we organised all the information and pulled it all together. Some of us spoke to experts to find our extra professional knowledge about our central ideas and lines of inquiry. It also helped us to understand from a primary source how our issue really relates to the real world outside of school. Talking to experts really helped us to find answers. We learnt that if you ask really good questions, you find out rich information. To help us bring our information together, we had mini workshops on survey techniques, email etiquette, the use of Excel for graphing and conducting interviews. We put all of our new skills to work. We chose ways of displaying our information through the use of written genres that we had learnt throughout primary school and interactive methods that would engage an audience.  

Finally, we’ve been thinking and planning about the action component of our inquiries. This is the ‘so what?’ This answers the question about ‘What is the point of learning this?’. As you visit us today, please feel free to ask us what we hope to do with our learning. Actions can be big and small, but all action adds up and is important.  

My inquiry is about how Childhood events can impact someone’s future. Through my research and learning I have come to an understanding that opportunities like this can impact a person as they grow. As you wander around, you can read our reflective thinking. You can read about what we have learned about, what we have learned to do and what we have had to be during the PYPX journey. 

Thanks for listening to our introduction and we hope you enjoy visiting us all during this session. Guests, please feel free to do your own reflection at the table near the entrance. We will all come back together at the end for the closing. 

Thank you all again for coming today. We hope you have learned a great deal from us and our displays and that you leave feeling inspired to make positive changes too.  

A process like this is made possible through a whole community effort. We would like to thank Mrs Wilson, Mrs Langley, Mrs Youl and Mrs Calvert for guiding us through our PYPX journey. We would like to thank our mentors for their time and for helping us along the way. We are grateful to experts for giving us extra information and to our parents for also assisting our learning. Thanks once again for taking the time out to listen to us. Have a wonderful rest of your day/evening.