Theme 4: Circle of life

In this fourth theme “HOW THE WORLD WORKS” which the central idea is All living things have life cycles characterized by physical change and changing roles having the unit title “THE CIRCLE OF LIFE”, students did various activities covering the three inquiries namely Pictures of living things’ life cycle, Explanation about the stages of physical changes occurred in the life cycle and Role(s) of each of the stages and the reasons that make it possible.

In doing those activities the students are given opportunities to demonstrate values such as commitment, curiosity, independence and creativity, develop skills like Thinking skills, Self management and Research skills. We also encourage the students to reflect the qualities of profile; Knowledgeable, Inquirer and Communicator. In addition to that, we encourage our students to understand the theme with their own multiple intelligences. Thus, our students have various ideas to share their understanding about this theme, such as make a presentation, a puppet show, riddles, etc.

Some learning experiences that the students have undergone which should be connected to the inquiries were that each group concentrated on the topics “The life cycle of plants (seed and non-seed), animals (give birth and lay eggs) and human”. Having explored the topics and written their observation results in their daily science journal, the students exchanged their findings by visiting different class and presenting their findings and also sharing their experiences in working on it. As summative assessment the students wrote a scientific report in a form of a booklet containing information about the coverage of those three inquiries mentioned at the first place.

Theme 3: Fair Play For All!

Hi! Good to see you again this new year with new hopes and dreams..Sorry to keep you waiting for this post. There were lots of ‘academic things’ that needed to be done, but let’s head on, shall we!?

We have completed our third theme, which focused on social studies entitled ‘Fair Play for All’. This theme ran from October 8th until November 19th. The Central idea for this theme was that different value systems can affect social justice. To understand about this central idea, we set up some lines of inquiry; what values are, the principles of human rights and social justice, and how personal and institutional behaviors and attitudes affect each other. After this theme is finished, we hope that the students will have an enduring understanding that people have different values that affect social justice. We have loads of activities to show you!

We started the theme by watching a movie entitled ‘Over The Hedge’. The story was about a group of hibernating ‘Amish-like’ animals (relying solely on nature) which had an unexpected encounter with a ‘city’ raccoon. Along the way, their values finally changed on how they look at things, especially others. A good movie to teach about values in life!

From that movie, students made a comic-like reflection about the value(s) that changes, and what characters from the movie had the major influence on those changes. Then, they shared the changes of values they really experienced in their life. After watching the movie, they know that values can change over time, depending on the situations they meet.

We had a discussion with students on how institutions accommodate the difference of values in life. They said rules and law could accommodate them. To check their understanding, we made a timeline about the parts of their life (watching TV, eating breakfast, etc.) which are affected by rules and law. It turns out, almost all aspects of their lives are affected! It kind of surprised them! Let’s see what they had in mind!

Related to this theme, November 20th is ‘Children’s Rights Day’ which is also a form of celebration of human rights. So, we set up some activities related to this day. We made some banners reflecting the celebration of this day, and we had a fundraising activity by selling badges for Rp 5,000 each, and were able to collect Rp 3,150,000 from students and teachers of SBR. WOW!

This fund was donated to the Bina Harapan orphanage in Bogor City. We visited them on December 7th. Besides donating the money and stuff that we collected (many thanks to the parents who supported this activity by donating some items, like rice, books, etc.), we also played games with them! Look at how our students were having fun with the orphans!

Theme 2: Building our traits

Whilst the 1^st theme focused on social studies, the 2^nd one focused on science. The 2^nd transdisciplinary theme was ‘Who we are’ with the title ‘Building our traits’

This theme ran from September 3^rd – October 5^th, with the central idea ‘Our physical features and characteristics are inherited from our predecessors’. The enduring understanding expected from this theme is that every organism grows and reproduces and their traits are passed along to future generations.

To get the students in tune with the theme, we asked them to bring their family photos and compare physical appearance between their family members (skin color, eye color, etc.). Grade 5 teachers then explained to students that physical appearances are the effects of our genes inside our cells.

To learn about the cell, we discussed each of its parts and functions (mitochondrion, nucleus, chromosome, etc.), and types of cell division. To give students some information about cell division, we watched videos of mitosis and meiosis and asked them to create a model of cell division from any materials they could find.

MITOSIS & MEIOSIS VIDEO

Then, we brainstormed with the students: If a cell were a city, what buildings should each cell part represent? This brainstorm activity led to a student project called THE CITY CELL ANALOGY. They created a city model, where the buildings represent cell parts and their functions. After our students had finished, they held a simple exhibition among our three parallel classes. See how enthusiastic they were!

Then, we got more specific. We discussed about some traits which are directly affected by our genes, for example attached or free earlobes, tongue-rolling ability, straight hairline or widow’s peak.

After that, our students created ‘The Tree Traits Project’ where they projected their traits in the form of leaves and attached them to the ‘branch of traits’. Confused? Have a look-see for yourself! (To learn more about the 'Tree Traits Project', please click here)

Our students were so curious, they asked questions, like Why do one part of our body has different shape than the same body part of other people’s? We then explain to our students that we have dominant genes and recessive genes, and, interestingly, we can predict the traits of our predecessor and offspring, by using a Punnet square. (If you want to try an on-line punnet square, please go here, and if you want to find out more about genetically controlled traits, please go here).

This is an example of how our students predicted the offspring’s traits by using Punnet squares.

After they understand about the use of Punnet square, it was time for the fun part! Our students were asked to create superhero parents, and they had to determine which powers (from the mom or dad) are dominant and recessive. Then, they predicted their offspring’s traits by using the Punnet square. Watch out! Here comes some of our Superhero Families!
(To learn more about the 'Superhero Traits Project, please click here)

And last, we asked parents to help our students for their final project of this theme. The students were asked to make a slide show presentation about their physical features and characteristics that are inherited from their parents. The slide show included the background theory of traits passing, similarities and differences between them and their family, and the dominant and recessive traits of their family with an explanation about the inheritance of traits in the family with a Punnet square. Let’s see our ‘young scientists’ in action!

Theme 1: On the Move

Our 1st transdisciplinary theme was 'Where We Are in Place and Time' entitled 'On The Move'.

The theme ran for 5 weeks, from July 30th - August 31st 2007.

The Central Idea of this theme is ' Throughout history people have been on the move, with wide-ranging effects on themselves and on the indigenous populations'. With this central idea, we hope the students could get an enduring understanding that migration is caused by certain reasons and has impact on the migrants and on the indigenous population.

To start the theme, we had a warm-up activity to get the students 'tuned in' with the theme. We watched a movie called 'Journey from The Fall', about a family who had to flee their country (Vietnam) because of the war. It's a very moving story.

We asked our students to respond to this story by writing a letter to the main character, Mr. Long & family, and expressing their feelings about the migration and what they would have felt if they were in his place.

After that activity, the students were asked to create a mind map about how their family migrated. Also, the students had an interview with some of the school community members who had migration experiences. The products of this activity are mind maps and comics. Here are some examples of their work.

To enrich their exposure to this theme, we had an excursion to two areas in our city (Bogor) which has experienced a deep impact caused by the migration. Those two areas are Kelurahan Babakan Pasar which is the 'China Town' in Bogor city, and the other one is the Arab settlers in Kelurahan Empang.

The students had their share of experiencing direct interaction with some of the community members by interviewing some of the people there, most of whom are direct descendents of their ancestors who migrated there. The students also could see some of the proof of assimilation, such as in culture and architecture. Here's how we had some fun doing it!

In the end, after all this hard work and fun, we wrapped-up this theme by performing a summative assessment by making a Power Point presentation of a fictional migrant's journey. The Power Point presentation consisted of background of the character, homeland condition, new destination attractiveness, reasons for moving, and hopes and reality after migrating. Our students are so creative! Let's take a look on how they presented it!