Each Exhibition group was responsible for creating a poster board which outlined their inquiry. The poster board had to include the following: a catchy title, the central idea, lines of inquiry, student questions, evidence of research, ex. graphs, the action plan, photos with captions and PYP attitudes, skills and profiles. The groups made fantastic poster boards that showed a lot of planning and effort. The boards were part of the Exhibition presentation in the hall and will soon be put on permanent display on the third floor of the school.

Two weeks ago the issues facing the elderly Exhibition group went to Abbey Field Retirement Home. When we got there we introduced ourselves to the residents and told them why we were there. It was quite tricky to do this because we had to speak in a very loud voices because one man was deaf. We paired up with one or two elderly residents and we spent time talking to them. Ivan’s partner was a professional cyclist, which was amazing and my partner was a professional driver.
We interviewed the residents and found out that they were all different and interesting people. They helped us with our Exhibition Action Plan. We have decided that a good way to help elderly people is to set up a partnership between Southbank and a retirement home. Students could visit residents and help them to feel less lonely.
If you are reading this and you are thinking about making a difference in the lives of elderly people, well now you can! Why don’t you call your grand parents today? Or if your grandparents live close, why don’t you help them go shopping at the groceries store? Elderly people need help and everyone can make a difference so why don’t you start today?

The technology group has interviewed teachers to get their opinions on technology. We made a movie with clips from the interviews. We took one question from each interview for the movie. It was surprising that the teachers mostly said that technology has a positive effect on kids. However, they also were worried that some children spend too much time using technology. The movie with these interviews is about two minutes long. It includes Mr. Bain, Mrs. Treftz and Chris Andrews. These interviews helped a lot with the problem that we are researching. We found out that there are a lot of ways that technology can help kids learn at school, for example the Smartboard, digital photos, imovie, and iweb.

Our group has been very busy in the final stages of the Exhibition. For our Action Plan we want to set up a student council at Southbank Hampstead. Since we won’t be here next year, we want to help as much as possible with setting up the student council for next year. So we have planned to go to each class and ask for any volunteers for the student council. The candidates will have to create a small speech explaining why they are good for the job and what they will do to improve the school for kids. So far we have talked to 3rd and 4th grade. Today we will be supervising the vote to choose the 4th grade reps. We have scheduled to meet with grade 3 for Tuesday. But we still have to elect reps from grades 1 and 2.

On May 29th, the Kids Under Pressure group went to Doctor Wengrowe’s office. Ryan’s mom drove us there. We were there for thirty-five minutes. We asked him about the effects of pressure on kids. He told us sometimes pressure can cause headaches, dandruff, eczema and nausea. Also he told as about how to manage pressure. We learned that the best way to manage pressure is to try to relax, watch TV or do something else that you like doing. The group thought it was a useful trip.

Each Exhibition group is responsible for their Process Book. Inside the folder are the 8 Steps which are completed during the Exhibition Process. The 8 Steps are:

Step 1 - List the Facts: Students list all the things that they already know about their issue/problem and then write what they still need to find out.
Step 2 - Research: At this stage, group members brainstorm the different sources that they can use to find out more. This can include things like experts, books, organizations, experiments, surveys etc.
Step 3 - Restate the Problem: In step 3 the group is asked to re-write their problem/issue in 5 different ways. This is to help the group look at the topic from different angles and determine what is the real problem to be investigated.
Step 4 -Brainstorm Solutions: The group uses this opportunity to write down as many ideas for a 'solution' for the problem that they are investigating. They need to be as creative as possible!
Step 5 - Decide on the Criteria: Once the group has brainstormed several possible solutions, they must then work out how they will rate each solution. The group comes up with several criteria that will be used to determine whether the solution is good or bad. An example of a criteria is, 'will this solution make a difference?'
Step 6 - Rate your Solutions: The groups will rate each possible solution using a list of criteria and a scoring chart. The solution with the highest ratings are the best solutions.
Step 7 - Finding a Solution: At this point, the group discussing the ratings and decides which solution they would like to look at for their action plan.
Step 8 - Plan of Action: Now it is time to put together an action plan. Group members work together to write an action plan for how their solution could be put into place. Although the group does not have to carry out the solution, they need a clear action plan put into place.

In addition to the 8 steps, the group also uses the Process Book as a place to keep other items such as: notes from mentor meetings, surveys that have been collected, emails from experts, summaries from interviews, printed research from the internet, newspaper articles, bibliography information, budget records, and completed graphs.

The mentor plays a very valuable role in the Exhibition process. Each group is assigned a mentor from Southbank staff. The Kids & Technology group has been working with Lisa Gibson, our music teacher. Stefanie Waterman, one of our grade 4 teachers, has been supporting the Kids Under Pressure group. The Issues facing the Elderly group has been working with Candice Buttner and Zoulika Bekhechi, our grade 3 teachers. Finally, the School Council group is being mentored by Vicki Hurd, one of our grade 2 teachers.

The role of the mentor is to…
-Aid and assist their team of independent learners.
-Meet teams once a week for 30 minutes.
-Offer support and encouragement throughout the process of inquiry (i.e., planning, gathering resources, organising data, analysing data, and presenting information)
-Monitor the team’s progress against the established time line.
-Advise on finding and using primary resources (i.e., first-hand accounts, interviews, etc.); encouraging the group to use human resources where possible.
-Help students to develop and maintain an action plan.
-Help interpret difficult information.
-Encourage the students to make regular reflections that include their decisions, difficulties, and areas of new learning.
-Provide regular feedback on team progress or instances when the students have displayed evidence of the student profile, attitudes, or transdisciplinary skills.
-Celebrate the team’s and the other students’ achievement and reflect on the entire process of the Exhibition.
We are very lucky to have such excellent mentors! Thank you for all of your hard work!

The children and technology group went on a field trip last Thursday on the 22nd of May. We went to the O2 centre to ask people about their opinions on technology. We asked people who were going to and from Sainsburys. The exact question was: “Do you think the Internet should be monitored?” In all we asked 77 people. Sixty-eight people said that the Internet should be monitored, and 9 said that they didn’t want the Internet to be monitored. When we asked the people who said no why they said no, they said that it would be risking the right to free speech if the Internet was monitored. Then we asked the people who said yes and they simply said that it was for children’s safety. We learned why you wouldn’t want to monitor the Internet in some ways and what people think about Internet safety. The whole thing was a great experience and we got a lot of information about how people feel about children and technology. This information will help us in creating our action plan.

On Monday the 26th of May we went to visit the home of a 102 year old woman! She told us to call her Granny. She lives in her own house and has lots of loving family members. We learnt a lot during our interview, for example, a lot of elderly people like to stay at home instead of going to a retirement home. Also elderly people can stay fit as we found out that Granny walks at least half a mile to the bridge club and at least half a mile back every day! We brought her homemade cake and flowers. This trip was a very interesting learning experience.

We interviewed Mr. C because he organized and ran the student council at Hampstead last year. During the interview we asked him questions like, ‘who apart from the student council members should attend meetings?’ We think that this interview helped us and gave us information about how to manage our council. We also got some new and fresh ideas to use. A potential challenge that was revealed to us during the interview was that we would need to find a suitable time for council meetings. During the interview we learned that it is a really good idea to film the council meeting and if we think that it was a good meeting and we got a lot done in it, then we should send it to Mr. Bain to look at instead of asking him to come to the meetings. We also filmed the meeting with Mr. C so that if we need to review it for an answer for one of the questions we can just look at the video that we filmed. We also took a great deal of notes. A helpful thing about the interview was that it was in Mr. C’s classroom so we didn’t have to spend time getting there or back.

There are lots of different ways to deal with pressure. And we found out more about this on our trip to Neal’s Yard Remedies. This shop sells lots of natural products and some can be used to help with pressure and stress. It gave us a deeper insight for our group’s research. It was a really exciting trip. Miyuki’s dad Kenji drove us to Regents Park and then it was a long walk to the store but it was worth it. When we got there we all sat down on the couch and the woman who worked at Neal’s Yard gave us a basic outline of how everything works and who she is and how she can help. And then we told her about the PYP Exhibition. She first showed us essential oils and she explained what you can use them for and how they work. The lady also told us that lavender and chamomile are the best because they can be used for almost every purpose. Then we saw glass bottles that they had filled with remedies to help with all sorts of things, including colds. In the end we had an interview and we asked some questions. It was a worthwhile field trip and we learnt a lot about how to deal with stress and pressure. At the end we made our own shampoo by mixing lavender oil and chamomile oil to an already made shampoo. All in all it was an informative trip that made us more knowledgeable about our topic.