Inquiry: Our Systems, Our World, Ourselves
New big idea: Organisation and classification helps us understand the world
Initial big idea: “A system set of parts working together or interconnected to form a complex whole.”
As the students have been moving through the Expand phase of our inquiry, they have explored different connections, particularly the connections between different systems.
Students who began with an interest in the nervous system, inspired by curiosity about gymnastics and the impact of exercise on their heart rates, have gone down paths to explore the connections between feeling nervous and the physical response in the nervous system. They have identified that the nervous system is made up of parts that have systems within them, such as the heart system and found out about the different parts and how they work together to pump blood, producing some of the physical symptoms of nervousness.
Our curiosities into the natural world continue to be ignited by students’ observations in the world around them. Interest in fungi was further spread as students spotted some small mushrooms in the garden bed outside the neighbourhood and discussed how they were different to the fungi they had researched to consider the connections between fungi and their habitats, such as their role in supporting trees and other vegetation.
Students have also developed more awareness of the different ways that they can find information through online texts, interviews, videos, books, conducting experiments, observations and drawing. Additionally, we have now introduced our second big idea, “There are many ways in which we organise and classify the natural and human world in order to understand it” and reflected on how students have been considering organisation and classification in how they develop their ideas and record their research findings.
Students are excited to share their progress in developing their understanding of our Inquiry at the assembly on Friday!
As learners the students have been reflecting on their growth as readers, writers, mathematicians and in response to our inquiry. They have begun to document these with examples of evidence and also think about what their next steps are.
