Year 6 Pacific Plus Showcase

This week Year 6 Pacific Plus students shared their inquiry-based learning projects at the Pacific Plus Showcase, the culminating activity of an extended process of inquiry. Students in the extension program were challenged to ask a question which would motivate them to deepen their understanding of the world. They completed self-directed projects with the aim of answering their question and sharing their findings with an audience. From writing the question to setting up their display and explaining their findings, the students worked independently to plan presentations and problem-solve challenges they encountered. Questions included:

•          How would human society change if we lived underwater?

•          What is space time and how does it connect to singularities and wormholes?

•          What would the world be like with no fear?

•          How do animals’ different features affect our perception of them?

The afternoon was a wonderful display of students’ in-depth transdisciplinary thinking and learning.

Year 8 Pacific Plus Showcase

In the Year 8 Pacific Plus program, students were challenged to explore two themes: ‘A World Renewed’ and ‘A World on the Margins’ and to collaborate to create a celebration of learning. With little more than this challenge as a stimulus, the six Year 8 students developed three complex inquiry-based projects focused on unsolved mysteries and human mistakes. Their curiosity activated, they designed an escape room and a Minecraft geocaching challenge for students from the Year 6 Pacific Plus program. Once they had ideated, designed, tested and refined their challenges, the Year 8 students invited Year 6 Pacific Plus participants to complete them. The result was a high-energy, cognitively demanding morning for all students and we congratulate all young learners for their engagement with the challenges.

On Thursday, Year 3 students will be taking part in the second phase of the learning process, where they will be guided through the benefits of making mistakes. In a series of well-planned activities, they will learn from the older Pacific Plus participants that the beneficial side-effect of an ‘error’ is the development of foresight, critical thinking, and problem-solving.

Mrs Jo Belchamber, Head of Learning Middle College