Show You Care - Be Aware

by Rajee Venugopal

Unit 1 reflection

MYP 3

Global Context - Identities and relationship

(Exploring - Physical, spiritual and mental health)

The students were introduced to the first topic in this unit ’Food Production’ where they organised themselves into different continents and presented their progress in the field of agriculture. It was a very good activity where sharing of information took place to the maximum and ended up in a debate. The complete classroom scenario was like a seminar and the learners enjoyed this. The skills developed through this activity were research skills and communication skills.

An agricultural farm visit was planned to learn about new techniques of farming.

The students’ knowledge about agricultural practices was further extended to a service through farming in a small scale in the school premises. They grew Fenugreek (methi) in a sort of kitchen garden, taking care to water the plants and adding manure from time to time. The end product – i.e. the leafy fenugreek – was handed over to the school kitchen to be cooked and shared with the students and school staff members.

The subsequent topic, i.e. Circulatory system, was focused on taking care of the heart through health, proper diet and exercise. The concept of double circulation became clear even to slow learners through a ‘personification’ activity of parts of the heart and blood circulation system.

The students enjoyed the Summative task that included the ‘GRASP tool’ where students were given the liberty to play the role of a ‘cardiologist’ and to write a news article or design a brochure to create awareness amongst the fellow students about the importance of healthy food and exercise for a healthy heart. This ultimately connected to the Global Context of the Unit, i.e. Identities and relationship and its exploration: physical and mental health. 

The students actively participated in a debate on ‘Should organ donation after death be made compulsory’. They also took the initiative of taking the idea to another level by making ‘Organ donation’ Posters to persuade people to donate organs. Thereby they displayed the ‘Caring’ Learner profile. 

Respiratory system also included taking care of your lungs, avoiding smoking and alcohol to keep your lungs healthy, thereby connecting with the global context exploration.

Students did not show much enthusiasm in this topic as they found the mechanism of breathing difficult to understand.

The students particularly liked talking about the inter-relationship between the different systems in the body.

The unit ended with a brief explanation about Human reproductive system. They were amused to know that it is actually the male gamete that is responsible for the gender of the child and subsequently broke into a discussion about women being held responsible for bearing a girl child and taboos in the society towards a girl child.

By the end of the Unit, students developed ‘Communication skills’ and ‘Caring learner profile’.

Rajee Venugopal