Planning the inquiry

1. What is our purpose?

1a) To inquire into the following:
transdisciplinary theme
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical,
mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends,
communities and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human

Class/grade: 1
Age group: 6-7
School: Domuschola International School School code: 7800
Title: Health and Well-being
Teacher(s): Cam Nicolas, Jash Bersales, Carla Delos Angeles,
Brenn Bavia, Carmina Gutierrez, Dean Chua
Date: August 4 - September 12, 2014
Proposed duration: 6 weeks Number of hours: over 8 hours a week

central idea
Choices affect health and well-being
1b) Summative assessment task(s):
What are the possible ways of assessing students understanding of the central
idea? What evidence, including student-initiated actions, will we look for?

2. What do we want to learn?

What are the key concepts (form, function, causation, change, connection, perspective,
responsibility, reflection) to be emphasized within this inquiry?

Goal- Students should be able to enumerate ways by which they can achieve a
balanced lifestyle thru the choices they make.
Role- You are a fitness enthusiast.
Audience- Parents and friends
Scenario- After discovering the importance of maintaining a balanced lifestyle,
you are urged to make the right choices to be healthier. You want to think of a
plan so that you can be healthy in an area you think you need to improve on. You
also want to come up with a days schedule that shows a balance of choices

concerning the different aspects of well-being.

Product- An action plan with a days schedule (template is given).

Focus Key Concepts: causation, responsibility, reflection

Related Concepts: well-being, balance, choice, influence

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

What lines of inquiry will define the scope of the inquiry into the central idea?
Essence of a balanced lifestyle
The effects of the choices we make on our health and well-being
The responsibility of people in maintaining a balanced lifestyle
What teacher questions/provocations will drive these inquiries?
What does it mean to be balanced?
What does it mean to have a balanced lifestyle?
How does a person with a balanced lifestyle look like, sound like and feel like?
How do our choices affect our health and well-being?
What is our responsibility towards ourselves?

Planning the inquiry

3. How might we know what we have learned?

This column should be used in conjunction with How best might we
learn?
What are the possible ways of assessing students prior knowledge and
skills? What evidence will we look for?
Students draw how a healthy person might look like. Students write a
paragraph to answer the question: What did the person do to become
healthy?

4. How best might we learn?

What are the learning experiences suggested by the teacher and/or students to encourage the
students to engage with the inquiries and address the driving questions?

What are the possible ways of assessing student learning in the context of
the lines of inquiry? What evidence will we look for?
Lines of
Inquiry

What will be
assessed?

How will evidence be collected?

LOI #1:
Essence of a
balanced
lifestyle

Students'
understanding that the
different dimensions of
well-being contribute to
a balanced lifestyle.

- Think 1, Think 2: Students illustrate and write sentences

to show what they think a balanced person is. Think 1 is
completed during tuning in stage of the cycle while Think 2
is completed during finding out.
- CSI: Students choose a color, create a symbol and
sketch an image that they think best represents the
essence of a balanced lifestyle.

LOI #2
The effects of
the choices
we make on
our health
and wellbeing

Students'
understanding that
constantly evaluating
the choices we make
can lead to right
decisions concerning
health and well-being.

- Students create a concept map about good and bad

choices
- Students reflect on their understanding of the effects of
choices and respond to each of these sentence stems:

I used to think

LOI #3 The
responsibility
of people in
maintaining a
balanced
lifestyle

Students'
understanding that
people have the
responsibility to take
care of themselves to
maintain a balanced
lifestyle.

- 2 Stars and a Wish: Students write two things they

understood well from the articles they read and the
advertisements they examined. They also write a wish
related to the line of inquiry.
- Health Plan: Students create a health program that
provides details about the specific actions they will do to
empower all dimensions of their well-being. This program
will be reviewed consistently to ensure its effectivity in
promoting a balanced lifestyle.

Tuning In:
1. Human graph: How often do you eat vegetables? (never, once or twice a week, 3 or more times a week); How often do you
exercise? (never, once or twice a week, 3 or more times a week); Which summer class did you enroll in? (none, sports, arts,
academics); How often do you go to church? (never, once a week, occasionally); How many friends do you have? (1-5, 6-10,
more than 10); What do you do when youre sad? (I cry, I talk to someone, I dont talk to anyone)
2. See-Think-Wonder: Students look at an image, and answer the following questions in a group: What do you see? What do
you think is going on? What does it make you wonder about?
3. Graffiti: The students are divided into small groups. Each group is given a large sheet of paper and colored pens. Each
group outlines the body of one member of the group. Students grafitti their paper with words, phrases or drawings that
represent how a certain part of the body is healthy. Their works are displayed for a graffiti walk and is continued during the
finding out stage.
4. Students watch the videos of Pyramid Power vs. Junk Food Bandits (parts 1,2,3)
5. Rocket Writing: The five dimensions of well-being will be written on sheets of paper and will be placed in different stations
in the classroom. The students go around the classroom and write down what they know about this dimension.
6. Think-Pair-Share: Students watch a video clip that shows an unresolved problem. Students think of a solution to the
problem and share their idea with a partner.
7. Healthy VS Unhealthy: Students illustrate what they think are healthy and unhealthy means.
(continuation: please see attachment A)

What opportunities will occur for transdisciplinary skills development and for the development of the
attributes of the learner profile?

Now I think...

A. Transdisciplinary Skills
Thinking Skills: ANALYSIS- Students have the opportunity to explore the different dimensions of well-being and see how
these dimensions are interrelated. They come up with their own meaning of a healthy person based on their analysis;
EVALUATION- Students make judgments whether their own choices and other peoples choices help in achieving a balanced
lifestyle.
Social Skills: ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY- Students assume a share of responsibility as they work in groups in
gathering information about health and well-being; RESPECTING OTHERS- Students share their own ideas about healthy
choices and listen to others thoughts as well.
Research Skills: FORMULATING QUESTIONS- Students develop questions on what they want to know about what it
means to have a balanced lifestyle; OBSERVING-Students observe to notice relevant ideas on promoting well-being.
B. Learner Profile: BALANCED- Students develop into being balanced as they come up with their own plan that guides
them into having a balanced lifestyle; RISK-TAKER- Students develop into being a risk taker as they try out new and different
choices or activities that help them become balanced.

5. What resources need to be gathered?

People
nutritionist (Jemimah David)
fitness expert (Edel Andrew Federiso)
runner (Coach Rio Dela Cruz)
a person who changed lifestyle for health reasons
guidance counselor (Teacher Jime)

Places
Physical: Crossfit
Eastwood BGC
Mental: CMA Mental
Arithmetic

Literature
Berenstein Bears
Too Much Junk
Food

Audio-Visual
Hand Hygiene
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7LUOFKEShU
Pyramid Power vs. Junk Food Bandits (parts 1,2,3)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAqZ5yxgTp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAqZ5yxgTp0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWUq9PUYYLw

Reference Books
My Pals Are Here Science 1A
& 1B
Philippines Pride Teachers
Resource Material 1

Websites
http://kidshealth.org/kid/
http://www.aboutkidshealth.ca/en/j
ustforkids/pages/default.aspx

How will the classroom environment, local environment, and/or the community be used to facilitate the inquiry?
Different expert speakers will be invited and places that promote fitness and health will be visited. Students will be asked to bring books, magazines and other reading materials about health and a balanced lifestyle. These materials will be placed in the reading and UOI corner.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Reflecting on the inquiry

6. To what extent did we achieve our purpose?

Assess the outcome of the inquiry by providing evidence of students understanding
of the central idea. The reflections of all teachers involved in the planning and
teaching of the inquiry should be included.
Through the different interviews and field trips that we had, the students became
aware and had a clearer understanding why people eat healthy food and exercise.
It gave them clearer a picture about the central idea. The processing that the
teachers did, including the single subject teachers, helped the children to
understand that the choices they make affect their health and well-being.
How you could improve on the assessment task(s) so that you would have a more
accurate picture of each students understanding of the central idea.
The action plan and the days schedule was an effective assessment as it
encouraged the students to assess their current practices, and come up with ways
by which they can improve.
Nonetheless, students would have been able to show their own understanding of
the unit better if they were not provided with a pre-made template of a schedule
which might have limited their ideas. Students could have been given the chance to
present their own schedules uniquely.
The I Am Balanced activity was effective as it catered to both visual and tactile
learners. It gave the students an opportunity to show their understanding of what
being balanced means and it helped them reflect on their own choices as well. This
assessment tool would have been more effective if the students were given an
opportunity to assess their peers and to discuss suggestions for each other.
What was the evidence that connections were made between the central idea and
the transdisciplinary theme?
The connections between the central idea and the theme were evident as students
were able to explore the different dimensions of health and reflect on their own
lifestyle choices in light of these dimensions. Students were able to identify the
dimension of health which they think they need to improve on.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

7. To what extent did we include the elements of the PYP?

What were the learning experiences that enabled students to:
develop an understanding of the concepts identified in What do we want to
learn?
Key Concepts
CAUSATION- The students were able to understand that the choices they make, whether healthy or
unhealthy, have an effect to their body. RESPONSIBILITY- The students were able to show
understanding of their responsibility in becoming balanced by assessing their current lifestyle and by
identifying which part of health they need to improve on. REFLECTION- The students understanding on
the importance of eating healthy and nutritious food was reflected in the quality of snacks and lunch they
bring to school. They chose to bring snacks like fruits and vegetables and avoided food such as chips and
chocolates.
Related Concepts
WELL-BEING- Students came up with a days schedule that shows different choices for the aspects of
well-being to promote a balanced lifestyle. CHOICE- Students learned about the effects of healthy and
unhealthy choices on their health and reflected on their own lifestyle choices concerning the areas of wellbeing. INFLUENCE- During snacks and lunch time, students assessed their peers food and encouraged
those who had sweets for snacks to bring healthy food instead. BALANCE- Students were exposed to
various resources about the different dimensions of well-being. Through the information they gathered
from books, articles, videos and expert people, they were able to understand that being healthy does not
only mean being physically fit, but being healthy in all aspects of well-being. After learning about this, they
drew what a balanced person looks like and explained what makes that person balanced.

demonstrate the learning and application of particular transdisciplinary skills?

THINKING SKILLS: After gathering information about the different aspects of well-being through reading
articles, watching videos, reading books and interviewing people, the students came up with an analysis
of what a balanced person is. They also evaluated their practices and were able to come up with an
action plan to make better choices. SOCIAL SKILLS: Students worked as a group and accepted
responsibilities in identifying the parts of the body and the factors that make a particular body part healthy.
They also shared ideas on identifying the differences between healthy and unhealthy food and what
makes relationships with others better. RESEARCH SKILLS: During the field trip at Crossfit Manila, the
students asked the gym instructors about the reasons why they need to exercise, the benefits of
exercising, and the different ways of becoming healthy aside from exercising. At CMA Mental Arithmetic,
the students observed how other students solve mathematical problems mentally, and then inquired on
how to have a healthy mind.

develop particular attributes of the learner profile and/or attitudes?

In each case, explain your selection.
Attitudes
CONFIDENCE- Students showed confidence in making healthy choices to promote a healthy lifestyle.
COMMITMENT- Students developed the quality of being committed as they worked on their expert
groups. Most of them had a challenging time reading the articles related to health and well-being.
Nonetheless, the students continued their tasks with assistance from the teacher.
Learner Profile
RISK-TAKER- Students were able to try out varied activities that lead them into a healthy lifestyle, such
as doing exercise routines and practicing arithmetic skills. BALANCED- Students made different choices
for play time. Sometimes they chose to play, but sometimes they chose to read books and exchange
stories with their peers.

Reflecting on the inquiry

8. What student-initiated inquiries arose from the learning?

Record a range of student-initiated inquiries and student questions and highlight
any that were incorporated into the teaching and learning.
What is responsibility?
Why does each person have a responsibility?
Why do I need to be healthy?
What will happen if I dont eat right?
What is health? What are choices?
Why do I need to exercise?
Why do I need to pray?
How do you become someone who is balanced?
Why do you need to have a balanced life?

9. Teacher notes
It was observed that students benefited from the field trips at Crossfit Manila and
CMA Mental Arithmetic. Providing more trips that will tap other aspects of well-being
will help them understand that these other aspects are equally important, thus,
contributing to a balanced lifestyle. If there are no appropriate field trip sites for the
other aspects of well-being, inviting resource speakers who are experts in this area
may be a good alternative.
Some students were able to come up with worthwhile inquiries. These inquiries may
be incorporated in the learning process to provide students with opportunities to
investigate their queries.

At this point teachers should go back to box 2 What do we want to learn? and
highlight the teacher questions/provocations that were most effective in driving the
inquiries.

Introducing the five dimensions of well-being at their age was difficult for some of
them to comprehend. Maybe three dimensions of well-being can be introduced to
them, and the other dimensions can be investigated on their own during the Going
Further stage. That way, the students can focus on the well-being that is most
applicable to their age level. These dimensions can be physical, social and mental.

What student-initiated actions arose from the learning?

Record student-initiated actions taken by individuals or groups showing their ability
to reflect, to choose and to act.
A group of students was observed to encourage their classmates to eat healthy
food during lunch time.
Some students have become aware of the importance of prayer that they would
volunteer to lead the class during prayer time.
There was an instance when the teacher heard one student try to convince her
classmate to take time to rest after playtime and reason out that it is not good to do
too much of something.

International Baccalaureate Organization 2011

Attachment...

A. Learning Engagements
Finding Out

Data collection
Experiences to assist students to gather new information about the topic

Sorting Out

Experiences and texts that add to the knowledge base. Emphasis on gathering first-hand data in a range

of ways (usually shared experiences)

Line of Inquiry 1: Essence of a balanced lifestyle

Gauging, organizing or representing new information

Activities to assist students to process and work with the information and ideas they have gathered about
the topic (including exploring values)
Organizing, analyzing and communicating the information gathered using a range of vehicles (e.g
through Maths, Arts, English, Drama, Music or IT)

Students graph the results of their survey and make a chart to show what they have
learned about the different perspectives on having a balanced lifestyle.

Students conduct a survey within the school community on peoples perception of a

balanced lifestyle.

Jigsaw: Students explore different stations: physical, emotional, social, mental and

spiritual health. They gather information from the various resources available in each
station (e.g. books, pictures, video clips). Students are regrouped to share what they
have learned from each station.

Fitness: Students play a variety of games and inquire into how these lead to a
balanced lifestyle.

Music: Students listen to a variety of songs and then analyze and state their feelings
while listening to them. They then make a conclusion on how music contributes to a
healthy lifestyle.
Line of Inquiry 2: The effects of the choices we make on our health and well-being

Students listen to a story about making choices. (Possible book: Fickle Fiona by

Students go to the following places to gather information:

a healthy restaurant / store
gym/ fitness place

Self-portrait: Students draw their self-portrait showing how balanced their lifestyles
are.
CSI: Students choose a color, create a symbol and sketch an image that they think
best represents the essence of a balanced lifestyle.
Generalization chart: Students come up with a generalization on how music and
game/sports activities contribute to a balanced lifestyle.

Students create a concept map about good and bad choices

Students reflect on their understanding of the effects of choices and respond to

each of these sentence stems:

I used to think

Kate Hanscom) The class discusses the story thru a Think-Pair-Share activity.

Venn Diagram: Students compare a person with a balanced lifestyle with a person
with an unbalanced lifestyle.

Now I think...

Students listen to the following resource speakers to gather information:

doctor/nutritionist
fitness expert
guidance counselor
Students analyze their choices of music and describe how such choices
affect their well-being.

Students explore the concept of choice and relate it to how their choices of
using colors and/or drawing materials make them creative. They then relate
this to the choices theyre doing to become healthy.

The Micro Lab Protocol: After listening to a resource speaker, students group in
threes. The first person in the group shares for 1 minute what theyve learned from
the resource speaker. The other members listen attentively without comment or
interruption. Students pause for 20 seconds to take in what was said. The process
is repeated for persons two and three, pausing for a moment of silence after each
round. As a group, the students make a synthesis of the responses of the group and
present it through a mindmap.
Flow chart: Students create a flow chart showing the effect of their choices in terms
of their health. These choices may be good or bad.

Line of Inquiry 3: The responsibility of people in maintaining a balanced lifestyle

Lifestyle Check: Students evaluate their own lifestyle choices thru a checklist and
give recommendations to peers.

Students read kid-friendly online articles about the importance of maintaining a

balanced lifestyle.

Students study and discuss posters/pictures/videos/advertisements that promote

health and well-being.

2 Stars and a Wish: Students write two things they understood well from the articles
they read and the advertisements they examined. They also write a wish related to
the line of inquiry.

Going Further
Activities to challenge and extend
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated.
Fitness Advice: Students write an advice in response to a letter from a person who has an unhealthy lifestyle. The advice should help the letter sender make the
right choices concerning a health/well-being issue.
Students inquire about their questions that werent answered in the finding-out phase.
Drawing conclusions
Raising new questions, extending experiences, challenging assumptions. May be individually negotiated. Students draw conclusions of what they have learnt. This is an
important time to evaluate the success of the unit and the needs and achievements of individuals. This is where students put it all together.
Students create a generalization chart and come up with their generalization to show what they understood from the unit.

Reflecting and Taking Action

To reflect on what has been learnt and process of learning. It is important that students be given opportunities to act upon what they have learnt. Actions are things that students can themselves and from which
they can see results.

Students share their plan (summative task-product) with at least three persons in DIS and encourage them to make their own plan to have a more balanced lifestyle.