3. B. From a PYP Coordinator’s Perspective
Thinking about ‘Where We Are in Place and Time’, our theme for this year’s PYP Exhibition, causes
me to wonder just how we have managed to arrive in this same place in what feels like such a short
time. Last year’s Exhibition seems to have only just finished and yet here we are again. It’s good to
be reminded then, that this time of the year is quite an exhilarating time and definitely something to
look forward to for students and teachers.
Once again the 8th floor corridor is an exciting place to be, abuzz with the
sounds of busyness. Teachers have genuinely taken on the role of facilitators, as
students work in collaborative groups supporting and challenging each other.
The real work behind the Exhibition is happening now, a week out from the
scheduled date, as groups begin to organise and sort their data, with the aim of
drawing conclusions and developing new understandings to share. The
‘pressure’ of speaking with knowledge and understanding to an authentic
audience is the catalyst for a full commitment from all students.
It is heartening to witness authentic learning happening in a comfortable,
supportive environment. Students are taking risks in their learning, using
creative, logical and reflective thinking, demonstrating a range of
transdisciplinary skills and personal attributes, and using each others’ strengths
to their advantage.
As the summative assessment of their entire journey through the Primary Years Programme, the
Exhibition reflects each and every child as a learner. There is no doubt the Exhibition brings out the
very best in students and we see them show their real potential. It is a learning journey for them and an
authentic ‘report card’ for parents. Parents, and also future teachers who visit the Exhibition, will see
each student’s capability as a learner: their conceptual knowledge and understanding, their ability to
communicate effectively, their problem solving skills, their presentation skills, their vocabulary, their
confidence ....... and so it goes on.
As the culmination of the knowledge, skills, attitudes and attributes developed over the course of each
child’s time at CDNIS, thanks are extended not just to the teachers in Grade Six but to all teachers
who have been responsible for these students throughout their schooling so far.
Congratulations to the Grade Six students for their enthusiasm as they have been engaged in this
process and all teachers responsible for helping them to be the learners they present as today. All are
sure to be AMAZED!
Pauline Dooletté-Cox
PYP Coordinator
4. C. A student response to the transdisciplinary theme: Where We Are in Place and Time
I welcome you all to this Exhibition and thank each and every one of you for being here to witness
a moment. This is the moment. This is a memory that will forever be locked in your minds. This is
a moment that is so precious, because you all know that it will never come back again. Ever. A
moment of time. A moment that will pass as soon as it has come.
Moments are easy to miss; but so hard to capture. One will not notice that they have used and
wasted a moment - a fragment, an element, a piece of time. Moments are precious things that we
hold dear to our hearts. Or, perhaps this is meaningless to you. You do not care for these moments
and continually waste them. You should treasure these moments. Time is a thing that comes and
goes and never looks back, like a ghost, slowly fading before your blank eyes - you’re not aware
that it’s there, but when it’s gone, it is already too late.
Moments are merely dust particles compared to time, just as a drop of water is to the Pacific
Ocean. You may think that time passes so slowly, so achingly slow; how the seconds so slowly
pass into minutes, tick, tick, and tick; into hours, the 24 that make up
a day; days turn into weeks, months, years of history. Time is so
foggy and hazy that we do not know it. Time merely gives us a cool,
quick kiss on the cheek that evaporates as soon as it is there. As it
fades away before we know it, years have passed and the once
brilliant shine of richly coloured hair on your head is now turning
grey, to white.
Remember when you were younger? Remember that you had, not an
Email account but a letter sent to you? Remember how you would
use your pen to write letters to overseas friends, excited by the
prospect of receiving return mail, not moments but a few weeks
later? You may still recall watching black and white television, or
stooping down to listen to the old radio. You may still recall playing
chess not against a computer, but against your neighbour from across
the street. Think about that now. It still remains a fragment of your
time, but a fragment permanently engraved into your memory along
with thoughts of how the past was so different from nowadays, how it used to be so good.
Time passes so quickly that once you turn your head, something has already changed. Years turn
into decades, decades turn into centuries, centuries turn into hundreds of years of history,
forevermore growing thicker, thicker, and thicker, as the past slowly retreats to the back of your
minds, though never entirely.
Our ancestors would write on bamboo, as they slowly engraved tales and happenings, word by
word. Or maybe your ancestors were different. Maybe they would write on parchment with ink
and quill pens. Or maybe they had unwritten languages, represented by paintings, drawings, or
even colourful combinations of thread, clothing, and beads.
Remember how every kingdom thought they were in the middle of the world? Remember how
5. people used to think the earth was flat? We now laugh at their once “true” philosophies. Individual
people used to be like that too. More than 1500 years ago, a famous physician assumed that all
animals had the same body as humans. For more than 1500 years, people assumed that humans,
like pigs, had the same intestine. It was not until lately did we know the truth: humans are
obviously different from animals. What we think and think we know now could possibly be the
laughingstock of the people of the future. Remember how you would think differently and behave
differently during different stages of your life? That is change.
Different people have different points of view. They view things differently, from different angles.
Or maybe, people viewed the same situation differently, even if they were at the same time. Why?
They were probably of different thinking, different culture, tradition, religion, belief, and
philosophy. Maybe they were of different origin; different nationality, race, tribe, not Christian,
but maybe Catholic, Buddhist, Muslim, Taoist, Sikh, or Jewish. Or maybe not any at all, maybe
Atheist or some other religion.
Maybe the place they lived was different. Place is important as it can heavily influence the
thinking of people. What if you lived in North Korea, or the once Soviet Union, Russia? Or China,
back in the times of Mao Zedong, 50 years ago? Those were Communist countries. People felt
stripped of their freedom. Or perhaps you live here, in Hong Kong, right now, or in North
America. You are free people - you have freedom of speech, freedom of press, freedom of your
opinion. Perhaps those people living in Communist countries felt restrained, trapped, and
uncomfortable. They might’ve had the same opinion as you, only they were forced to think and act
in another way, due to unjust and unfair treatment, perhaps due to complicated politics, allies, and
selfish leaders.
Maybe your family was once put into concentration camps that forced people to think the way
others would want you to think. Maybe other countries such as Canada allowed their people to
roam freely, think, say, and write what they wanted to write. Maybe they were - free. Maybe
people thought differently due to different politicians, maybe it was due to the environment or
childhood experiences.
You may have all heard of the current issue regarding Syria’s conflict. It is war, violence, anger,
and dispute. Russia is helping Syria’s president to supply his side with weapons, bombs, and
military force, while the civilians watch in terror and suffer. Maybe Bashar al-Assad’s allies,
friends, and supporters think that he is right, fighting his own country. Maybe it is our opinion that
it is inhumane, a sign of an irresponsible president destroying himself, literally. One cannot
imagine the leader of a country destroying his own people.
No matter where we are, or what time we are in, we are all humans but we all think differently.
Perhaps it is because of our generation, perhaps due to our personal profile, perhaps because of
where we come from. We are all different.
I know about the people from a long time ago; they are different from us now. I can sense the
people of the future; they will think differently. The world is divided into many regions; these are
similar to the boundaries of thinking, in a way. People are different, because of who they are.
People are different, because they are from different places and different times. People are
different, because they simply are. And doesn’t that make the world an interesting place for us all
to appreciate.
-Joanne Liu, Grade 6
6. 1. Russell Christo, Jackie Chan, Clifford Chan and Souichiro Himuro
The shock we felt learning how SARS could spread so quickly and kill so many people motivated
us to learn about other major diseases and to discover the impact they made on the world. We
were curious to uncover the secrets about preventing the diseases.
The research we did included four different pandemics and epidemics: SARS, AIDS, malaria
and the bubonic plague. These major diseases were devastating and some are still happening
right now!
Jackie, Clifford, Russell and Souichiro
The concepts our group has chosen to investigate are form and change. We chose form because
we felt we needed to understand the diseases themselves. We selected change because we
wanted to learn the changes in the ways that people and societies have reacted to these
diseases over time and how this knowledge can help us to be prepared and protected from these
types of diseases in the future.
The action we will perform is that we will teach younger students about different diseases and
the way they affect humanity. We will also teach them a lesson on hygiene and why it is so
important, and try to make them understand that we can never predict when a disease is going
to come.
7. 2. Yu Han Tang, Nicole Chau, William Harris and Joanne Liu
As a group, we believe it is important to know about diseases pandemics that have happened in
the past or are happening now, and how they can be prevented through our actions. We are
focusing on the four disease pandemics: The Black Death/Bubonic Plague, Tuberculosis, SARS
and the Avian Influenza (H1N1 and H7N9).
Through this investigation, we want to find out about how disease pandemics have impacted our
lives today, how medical technology has affected them, and how we can prevent them. We are
interested in how both past and current diseases have impacted the world and our daily lives.
We hope our audience will leave our booth with new knowledge about disease pandemics, and
know that no matter when the diseases have happened, they are still affecting us. We would
also like them to be more aware of personal hygiene and preventing the viruses.
Yu Han Tang, Nicole Chau, William Harris and Joanne Liu
Through this investigation, we will be focusing on the key concepts change and connection, with
the related concepts health, impact and technology. By being honest, we hope to develop one of
our main attitudes, integrity, and by communicating through an open-minded perspective during
the investigation, we hope to also develop cooperation. With the knowledge we have about
disease pandemics, we will take action by educating people about good sanitation and personal
hygiene by posting information posters throughout the CDNIS building.
8. 3. Sara Tobias, Chun Wai Leung, Arthur Tsang and Colin Huang
Our group inquired into the discovery of man-made materials. We chose this area of focus
because we were curious about the different types of materials in the world and how they
affect our lives. We have each chosen a specific area and have made them all come together as
one, to prove our central idea. There are many major issues concerning the use of man-made
materials. This is another reason why we selected this inquiry, because we wanted to know how
it has changed our world.
These issues of how man-made materials have impacted lifestyles, the positive and negative
consequences of using them, and how the attitudes towards them have changed, have been
occurring for years in our lives.
The concepts we chose are change and perspective. We wish to develop further understanding
of these relevant concepts by carrying out this investigation.
We plan to develop the attitudes of cooperation and appreciation throughout this journey of
the exhibition. We can do this if we use our best efforts and strive to meet the expectations,
as the attitudes will be crucial if we want a result we are proud of.
One possible action we are considering is to take part in a beach clean up. This is due to many
beaches in Hong Kong that are often polluted with plastic. We also hope that by educating our
audience, we can inspire them to take action as well.
9. 4. Jeffy Leung, Michael Chan, Branson Fok and Nicole Robinson
The purpose of this investigation is to share how the needs of humankind have influenced the
development of plastics and metals. We’re interested in this because there are issues regarding
plastics and metals that we are concerned about, and we also want to look at how people lived in
the past without plastic and metal.
Our central idea is ‘Discoveries can lead to change’, and we wanted to find out how that applies
to these two resources. This is relevant to the world because our investigation is about the
continual development of plastics and metals, how humans use plastics and metals, and lastly how
these materials impact the environment and us.
We hope that people will learn how plastics and metals affect the environment and us, and what
people can do to take action. We also want to help people learn how to reuse, reduce and recycle
these materials.
The concepts we will explore in this exhibition are connection, function and change. Some action
we intend to take is to do a beach clean-up, visit factories to learn more, etc. The attitudes we
hope to develop are empathy and curiosity. We would do that through the beach clean-up
activity, and make a PSA (Public Service Announcement).
10. 5. Matthew Cormie, Nick Tong, Foster Ng and Riley Dougan
Our purpose during the Exhibition is to prove our Central Idea, “Discoveries Can Lead To Change”, by
researching combat weaponry as an area of focus. We will look at weapons such as Nuclear Weapons,
Aircraft Carriers, Combat Aviation and Gunpowder. We are interested in learning about this area of
focus because we want to find out what the changes of combat weaponry are. Also how those changes
impacted wars and how they are fought.
This area of focus is relevant to the world because it has a major impact on wars that are fought today.
It is also relevant in demonstrating how these changes have impacted civil populations in times of
conflict.
We are hoping to teach people that changing weapons and tactics affect civil populations. We are going to
teach them by giving a clear and specific presentation. We hope people will remember something from our
exhibit.
The concepts we are looking into are Form, Connection and Change. These concepts have guided our lines
of inquiry. Our supporting question for the concept Form is: How have discoveries lead to change in
combat weaponry? For Form we are looking into what is combat weaponry. For our concept Change: How
have changes in combat weaponry impacted combat tactics? For Change we are investigating into how
have the changing weapons changed combat tactics. For our concept Connection our supporting question
is, What are the effects of changing weapons on civilian populations during war? For Connection we are
looking into how war has affected civil population.
To take action, we will try to raise awareness about how combat has impacted society and changed the
way the world works by making a PSA about the changing weapons and tactics and how it has affected
civil population.
Throughout this Exhibition process and inquiry, we hope to show cooperation, creativity, enthusiasm, and
respect. We are going to achieve this by giving and showing maximum effort, coming up with our own
ideas, treating each other fairly, and pushing ourselves to the limit of our capabilities.
11. 6. Jenkin Chim, Sonia Lau, Justin Chenvanich and Megan Chow
What rights do workers have around the world? The area that came to our attention is uprisings in
society and labour issues. Due to poor labour laws, many people around the world do not have good living
and workplace conditions.
The reason we want to investigate this area is because we think Labour Movements would be interesting
and challenging to research, and we could get a better understanding of this area. Most important of all,
we can also understand the social problems caused by unfair workplace conditions. Labour Movements are
related to the world because all workers should have fair rights and wages for the work that they do and
a safe and healthy workplace.
We would like to educate people about the unequal labour and workplace conditions, labour laws, and
labour rights around the world. Workplace conditions are different in places around the world. Some
workplace conditions are substandard, with low wages. As an example, we have investigated the current
Hong Kong “Dock Workers” dispute.
For the Exhibition, our group has chosen three concepts. Our inquiry focuses on form, change, and
responsibility. Each concept means a different kind of question. Form means “What is it like?”, change
means “How has it changed?”, and responsibility means “What is our responsibility?” While working on the
Exhibition, we are focusing on a few attitudes. Those attitudes are cooperation, respect, and empathy. To
develop cooperation, we have to work together and include everyone. To develop respect, we have to
listen and pay attention to each other. And for empathy, we have to be open-minded and support each
other.
Possible action our group is considering is to write an eBook about our findings on Labour Laws and to
educate others about what we can do to improve working conditions for all workers. To accomplish this we
will need to interview experts on the areas that we are investigating.
12. 7. David van der Linde, Roark Payne, Alvin Chan and Cameron Seymour
Our purpose is to prove that the time and place in which people live affect their lives and the way
they connect with others. We will do this by investigating the policies of dictators and the way
countries have changed while a dictator was in power. Our group was very interested looking into
dictators because there are a lot of leaders in the news and they are being talked about.
Certain people like Bashar Al Assad in Syria are fighting against rebels in a civil war and that has
caused a lot of news reports. Kim Jong Un has taken control of North Korea and is threatening to
attack the US. We hope people will learn a lot about different leaders and their countries, as well as
how they run their countries and their policies. There are many dictators around the world and
especially in the Middle East where over the past few years many dictators have been overthrown.
We are using the concepts “connection” and “perspective” during our inquiry in the Exhibition. The
concept connection is about how a country’s leader influences people and their connections between
them. Perspective is connected to our investigation because there are different perspectives
surrounding those in power. For action we will make a PSA about dictators and their policies on You
Tube. We will also write a blog post and attach the PSA so our readers can know about our
investigation and the exhibition.
The attitudes we hope to develop are creativity, curiosity and confidence. We use the attitude
creativity when designing our booth. We are curious when researching our dictators, so we can find
more about them. We are always feeling confident when we are speaking to the parents and
teachers.
13. 8. Darren Tay, Pak San Fung, Simon Li and Theo Cho
Our group chose colonization as our area of investigation because we all found it interesting to
learn about how events in the past have shaped the world we live in today. Colonization has had a
really big impact on the world. For example, the colonization of Hong Kong by Britain made Hong
Kong an international hub for western investors. We are hoping people will understand how
events in the past can change the future in significant ways and how it had an positive or
negative effect on the locals and the colonizers.
The concepts we are exploring are causation, change and connection. We chose causation
because we want to know why the colonizers colonized a piece of land. We focused on change
because we want to know how colonization has changed the world we know today. We are also
looking at connection, because we want to know the effects of colonization and how it is
connected to our lives today. Some of us interviewed people who know about our area of focus.
We hope to develop cooperation by helping each other every step of the way. We also want to
develop commitment because we need to be committed to finish work. Lastly we want to develop
curiosity so we will keep thinking further about colonization and asking more questions.
14. 9. Enton Cheung, James Loh, Kinsey Long and Megan Ng
The exhibition has been an amazing journey for us. Our group has worked diligently to prove our central
idea, Circumstances, Experiences, and Actions can Lead to Change. We are now experts about our main
focus, Revolutions.
Our group is investigating revolutions and conflict. We chose this unit of investigation because each of us
had an interest. Megan and Kinsey were inspired by the movie “Les Misérables”, which is about the French
Revolution. James is interested in revolutions’ impact on the world, and Enton is interested in
revolutionary fighting tactics.
We split up the group, and each of us researched a specific revolution. Our goal is to educate you in the
American Revolution, French Revolution, the Fall of the Berlin Wall, and the Chinese Revolution. We have
investigated this area through our concepts, change, causation, and perspective. Our three inquiry
questions are “What are changes that happen as a result of revolution?”, “Why do revolutions occur?”,
and “How can revolutions be interpreted?”
For change, we looked at the major changes within and after revolutions. We used causation to find out
how our revolutions occurred. For perspective, we looked at the different perspectives throughout the
whole revolution.
We think revolutions are a big part of world history, because one revolution could separate or create a
new country, or just change it. Our group believes that after the exhibition we will develop our
cooperation, commitment and respect skills. We show cooperation and respect by working with each other
kindly. Commitment is shown when we stay on task, and don’t do other things. To take action we will
educate our fellow classmates and teachers about these major events. We hope you enjoy our exhibit!
15. 10. Ariane Desrosiers, Ian Cheung and Nicolas Wong
Welcome to this year’s Grade 6 Exhibition! Our names are Nick, Ian and Ariane. We’re focusing on
politics, and how different political systems affect and impact the lives of others. We broke our
research up into 5 examples: HK 2017 Elections, the Taliban, Cambodia during Pol Pot’s regime, Uganda
under Idi Amin’s rule, and U.S. capitalism.
We were all eager to choose our topic (politics) because it is something we are all interested in, and
something we would like to learn more about. Politics is, of course, related to the theme Where We Are
in Place and Time because the world is separated into countries, and each country has a way of being
governed, and in different times there are different political systems, which impacted the world.
We chose the concepts form, connection and change because political systems are a form of governing,
and connection because in order to govern a country, you need to connect with the citizens and the
government. Change, because political systems can bring change that can be negative or positive for both
sides. Also, actions taken because of political systems can change a country.
During the Exhibition, we have cooperated, communicated, taken risks and been independent. We hope
that by doing these things, we will help our investigation go along smoothly. As in all units, we are going to
take action. We hope to write letters to the Central Government and the UN convincing them to change a
few haywire political systems into better ones. We are planning to protest against the government as
well, and maybe make a PSA explaining how different political parties affect people in different ways.
Feel free to ask us any questions. We will give you a demonstration using simulations, videos and examples
to help. We hope you can learn about the world’s political influence, how people are affected by it, and of
course, more about the PYP! Our ultimate goal, however, is to prove how politics can affect people all
around the world.
Behold, for this is the end of the PYP. We’re showing you all of what we’ve learnt and all that we
can do. We hope you appreciate the hard work that made this Exhibition happen. Enjoy!
16. 11. Rachel Yu, Charles Glaser, Kai Tominaga and Ananya Jhaveri
Attracted to the amazing entertainment industry around us, all of us decided to choose
entertainment as our area of focus. Entertainment is what keeps us all satisfied when we have
nothing else to do, so it is very important. The media you watch, the music you listen to, the
theatres you go to are all types of entertainment. Without entertainment, the world would be
filled with boredom.
Form, change and perspective are the concepts we have chosen to investigate. We are
investigating the different categories of entertainment, changes in the entertainment industry
overtime, and how people in various places interpret various forms of entertainment.
Rachel Yu, Charles Glaser, Kai Tominaga and Ananya Jhaveri
We are trying our best to cooperate, to be committed and to respect each other’s ideas. We
hope to always show these attitudes, not only while working on the exhibition, but in our daily
lives as well. We are hoping to inform our audience that certain discoveries have contributed to
the how people are entertained, and to appreciate the wide range of entertainment available
now due to the evolution of the entertainment industry.
17. 12. Ellie Kwan, Kareen Yeung, Mana Mehta and Gitanjali Pies
Our group is focusing on Cultural Interactions, more specifically, Third Culture Kids (TCKs).
What got us interested is learning about people living in different places in the world during
different times.
We want our audience to leave our booth with knowledge about the different perspectives of a
variety of TCKs. We would like them to understand the different ideas and thoughts TCKs
might have of our world and how they can affect the future.
Ellie Kwan, Kareen Yeung, Mana Mehta and Gitanjali Pies
The concepts we are using to focus our investigation are perspective, form and change. We
chose these because they are the most relevant concepts to use to help us better understand
how TCKs are making significant changes to our world. As part of our investigation, we
interviewed TCKs and ATCKs (Adult Third Culture Kids) about their thoughts and opinions on
belonging, their place in society, and the impact they may have on the future.
We will take action by creating a blog to showcase the various perspectives of a range of TCKs
and ATCKs. The attitudes and attributes we are developing are open-minded, appreciation and
respect; attitudes and attributes that are relevant and necessary for investigating cultural
interactions. We are developing these by appreciating and respecting TCKs, also by being open-
minded with them.
18. 13. Natalie Kwok, Katrin Anwar, Chareese Lam and Melani Ying
We are investigating women’s rights and wondering how the time and place in which women live
affects their lives and how they connect with others. We are interested in this area because we
want to find out more about females in the world and society: how they are treated, what rights
they have, etc. Our purpose for this investigation is to inquire more into an area that we are not
familiar with and to have a growing understanding about the world. Female rights are relevant
to the world because we know that females are sometimes treated differently than males. From
our presentation, we hope people can learn about the differences between female and male
rights and how those have changed over time.
The concepts we chose to focus on are change, responsibility and causation. We are exploring
the differences (change), the ways organizations and individuals have taken action
(responsibility) and how the organizations and individuals have caused influence on others
(causation).
Natalie K., Katrin A., Melani Y. and Chareese L.
We intend to write an article for the Young Post to share our knowledge and new understanding,
so that we, as Grade 6 students, can influence more people to support and to improve female
rights. We hope to develop cooperation, curiosity, creativity and enthusiasm by working
together throughout this investigation. We will creatively design our booth by using a variety of
designs, colours and patterns whilst it is still formal and informative. We are also very excited
to share our knowledge with others.
We hope that you have learnt a bit more about our group and what we are investigating.
19. 14. Jessica Lee, Bernice Tang, Miyuki Ri and Romi Hadar
Our purpose is to investigate the circumstances, experiences and action taken by individuals
who advocated for female rights in different parts of the world at different times throughout
history. Feeling horrified about the fact that females have been deprived of their rights
throughout history, we want to investigate this thoroughly. This issue is relevant to the world,
as it connects to every female. Every human should have equal rights, although many rights are
denied.
We are hoping that our audience will learn about some female rights and how many are deprived
of rights because of circumstances and experiences. We also hope that our audience will learn
about action that has been taken because of one’s past.
Jessica Lee, Bernice Tang, Miyuki Ri and Romi Hadar
During the exhibition process, we are exploring the concepts form, causation and change. We
chose these concepts because they relate to our research and give us a guideline. We inquired
into the circumstances and experiences of females in different parts of the world over time,
the circumstances and experiences that have led individuals to take action in order to improve
the lives of females and we have inquired into how female lives have changed over time in
different countries.
Some action we intend to take is to raise awareness outside of our school by making posters and
showing them publicly. Our group is focusing on the attributes: open mindedness, thinker and
principled. We show these attributes by respecting new circumstances, by interpreting new
information, by being principled and by being respectful to any new information.
20. 15. Janice To, Alvin Tse, Jesse Wang and Danielle Klappstein
“Language is the blood of the soul into which thoughts run and out of which they grow.”
– Oliver Wendell Holmes
Language is an essential part of our lives; it helps us communicate effectively with friends and
family, as well as to larger audiences globally. We are very interested in the mystery behind
these magnificently complex forms of communication, from the romance languages to Braille,
sign language and the many variations of Chinese.
Our group’s goal is to share with our audience how and why various languages have evolved, the
scientific meaning of language systems, and how people connect globally through language.
Should there be a lingua franca in the world? Is texting the language of the future? Through
the lenses of change, function, and connection, we are investigating how the time and place in
which people live affect how they connect using language.
Appreciation and enthusiasm are the two attitudes we are focusing on. We encourage our
audience to develop an appreciation for different cultures and their respective languages, as we
have ourselves. We are enthusiastic about finding out more about different languages systems
and are actually trying them out ourselves! Our group will take action by creating learning
resources with fun facts for young learners in order to familiarize them with the many
languages spoken in the homes of CDNIS students.
Sample fun fact: Did you know there are roughly 6,512 discovered unique languages spoken
worldwide as of today!
21. 16. Alex Fenton, Esme Kalbag and Ashley Wong
We are investigating how ordinary people have taken action to change their own lives and the
lives of others based on their circumstances and/or experiences. Our purpose is to prove that
circumstances, experiences and action can lead to change.
We are investigating the concepts of form, change, and connection by looking at the ways
lesser-known people use their circumstances and experiences to take action in their own lives or
the lives of others.
Alex, Esme and Ashley
We are interested in this investigation because we wanted to investigate an original idea and
wanted to learn about ordinary people who have made a big or small impact on the world. We
want to inform others of these lesser-known people and to influence others to take action. This
is relevant to the world because it can influence people to take action that might change the
world for the better. It also shows how one person can make a difference, big or small.
We want people to learn that the famous and powerful aren’t the only ones who can make a
difference, but how ordinary people can too. We want people and ourselves to develop
appreciation of the people who took action against circumstances they have faced. We have
made a website that informs others across the globe of these individuals as well. Check it out!
https://sites.google.com/site/thelivesoflesserknownpeople/
22. 17. Julian Lam, Charlotte Lang, Gabriel Tunik and Charlotte Tang
We are investigating how people are affected by culture and ethnicity. Our investigation is
based on rites of passage. Our goal is to learn about different cultures and some of the rites of
passages in those cultures, and then to find out how they would affect a person. Our purpose is
to prove the time and the place in which people live affect their lives and how they connect with
others.
We were all interested in this because it’s very different than anything we have ever done, and
we think it will be interesting for others too! Our investigation relates to the world because
everybody goes through a rite of passage in his or her lifetime, like going to school, learning
how to drive or having a birthday party. We are the people we are today because of it. We are
hoping people will learn a little bit about themselves and about their background and cultural
identity.
To prove the central idea we are using form, change and connection to guide our research. Form
helps us understand rites of passage. Change allows us to see how they have changed over time.
Connection shows how rites of passage affect people.
We are going to show the cultures we researched through a painting; although the cultures are
different we will make connections through colour, showing that they are all alike. The goal of
taking this action is to show what we have found out as learners and to make people think more
about how we as humans are all connected.
Every one of us in our group definitely wants to gain open-mindedness about different cultures
and the way they work, and as importantly, we want to be more knowledgeable about different
cultures, the world we live in today and to learn a little bit more about ourselves!
23. 18. Samir Thakore, Sammi Luk, Zarah Zehri and Nicky Rubio Hernansanz
We are investigating medical advances and how new discoveries in the medical field can lead to
change. The examples we are showcasing include: how DNA can help solve crimes, the
technological advancements of medical equipment, new vaccines, prosthetics and organ
transplants.
The concepts we are exploring are change and causation. Our group is developing a range of
attitudes, in particular, showing respect and displaying open-mindedness. The more we
investigate, the more curious we are becoming to learn more about how these advances can
either increase or decrease the quality of life, taking into account the time and place these
discoveries have occurred.
Our goal for the exhibition is to enlighten our audience about the amazing advances in the
medical field that have taken place in the past and that are happening today, and what the
future may have in store for us. We also want our audience to be aware of the positive or
negative impact new discoveries in the field of medicine can have on the quality of life.
24. 19. ArthurSiu, AaronAu, Jason Hon and Mackenzie Mar
For the 2013 PYP Exhibition, our group is investigating medical advances. We chose this
fascinating inquiry because our group members have always had an interest in this area from
when we were young. Our purpose is to prove that medical advances can lead to change.
Medical advances are relevant to the world because people are striving to find new ways that
will help people to lead better lives and to live longer. After you have visited our exhibit you
will gain more knowledge and understanding on how medical advances impact the world and us.
For our investigation on medical advances, we are using the concepts function, perspective and
form. We are using these concepts because we want to know different things about our area of
interest. For function, we wanted to find out how each item in medical advances work. We also
wanted to know how was it like (form), and for perspective, how did people think about the item.
We intend to take actions by creating models, sculptures, and small children books to educate
other grades on what we’ve learned. The purpose of our action is to teach people about what
we’ve learned and raise awareness about our area of focus.
We hope to develop more of the PYP attitudes since they are just as important as ability.
Independence and knowledgeable are the main ones because the exhibition is all about learning
to be independent while studying something you’re interested in.
25. 20. Shalyn Boyer, Andrew Kwong, Adrian Ng and Jeffrey Chui
Our purpose is to prove our Central Idea, “Discoveries can Lead to Change”. We will do this through an
inquiry into medical science and the continuous developments. We were all interested in Medical Advances
because we all thought the subject, medical science, was interesting and it affected the human species a
lot.
Medical advances are relevant to the world because without medical science/technology it would affect
many lives. For example, if someone were to get their leg amputated and they couldn’t get a prosthetic
leg, it could affect his/her life because if they have family or children the amputee might have a very
hard time trying to support them.
We hope that people will learn the importance of medical science and will understand that sometimes
people do not always have happy endings, but scientists, through medical science, are trying to give
everyone the happy ending that they deserve.
We will explore medical advances through the concepts of form, connection and perspective. We will also
explore medical advance through our lines of inquiry: Major discoveries in medical science, How medical
developments have impacted society, and How technology may influence the future of medical science.
The action we intend to take as a group is to raise awareness of the importance of medical science to
people all over the world. We will do this by making an iMovie PSA (Public Service Announcement) of how
medical science is important to this world and post it on Youtube and our blogs.
As a group, we would mainly like to develop the skills of cooperation and communication. To do this, we
worked together, compromising whenever conflict arises. We also communicated with each other
throughout the process.
26. 21. Alican Beba, Brett Warning, Eve Boulanger and Samantha Cheng
Our purpose is to investigate different medical advances and how they have changed over time.
We are also learning about physical disabilities, medicine, surgery, childbirth, and the impact of
medical advances on business.
We have chosen this area to investigate because we think it is very interesting to learn how
medical technology has developed over time and impacted the world. We think that this could
really help us in real life because in the future we can know how medical advances affected
people’s lives and what we have to do to make the world better. We will also know what is going
on in the world; for example, if we read the medical section in the newspaper, we will
understand the article.
We are hoping to develop the attitudes commitment, respect and confidence. We will show
commitment and respect by working together as a group and finishing the work we were
supposed to do. We will also show confidence by presenting the work we have done to parents,
teachers, and students. We will try our best to present our work confidently and be sure that
we know what we are talking about.
The concepts that we are exploring are change, connection and causation. We are looking at
change because medical technology is changing the world and impacting society. Connection is
also one of the concepts that we are looking at because we are looking at the connection
between people and medical technology and how we have been impacted. The final concept that
we are looking at is causation because each of these inventions had a cause that led to its
invention.
We think that the exhibition is fun and exciting!
27. 22. Justin Wright, Vance Mak, Stephen Wong and Pei Yu Suen
Our group is investigating the discoveries of natural and manmade resources; specifically, coal, rubber,
plastic and crude oil. We chose this investigation because we think that it is an important global issue.
The concepts we are focusing on are causation and change. We chose these concepts because we all
thought they would greatly help our inquiry and help us to understand our area of focus better. Firstly,
we want to find out how the world has changed since the discovery of natural and manmade resources,
and secondly, we want to investigate the impact of these resources on industries, lifestyles and
economies.
We are curious about the changes to the environment caused by the use of certain resources and are
interested in how the discoveries and use of particular resources have impacted the economy, society and
political relations. For example, plastic floating around the ocean can poison sea life. Oil spills cover sea
creatures and affect ecosystems. Rubber tires are not biodegradable.
The attitudes and attributes we are developing are confidence, cooperation and commitment. We show
confidence by being risk-takers, we are committed to our inquiry and we try our best to be cooperative.
We want to show people the benefits and consequences of several major natural and manmade resources.
Plastics are toxic and this concerns us greatly. We all need to take action now to bring this issue into
awareness and to take action to stop it before it is too late!
28. 23. Adrien Pringle, Wai Ning Lai, Maja Stockley and Jocelyn Cheung
Our purpose is to prove that Global interaction has increased over time and impacts people and society.
We will demonstrate our PYP skills, knowledge, and understanding. We were all interested in
entertainment as our Exhibition investigation because we all know it has a big impact to the whole world.
We want to know more about how different types of entertainment change overtime and how they affect
society. We will investigate phones, violent movies and animal entertainment as a way to prove the central
idea.
Entertainment makes the world more entertained. One big example is the phone. On the street almost
everyone is holding a phone and using it to make phone calls, text, play games, listen to music, and/or go
on the internet. We think this is an area of entertainment the world values the most. We are hoping
people will learn more about the areas of entertainment we are focusing on, how they affect the world
and society from local and global perspectives, and the process of entertainment changing over time.
We also hope people will notice the attitudes and attributes that we are trying to demonstrate. We have
decided to develop the attitudes of creativity and enthusiasm through our exhibition. By being more
effective with our exhibition displays and by design appealing content for the audience, while still being
organized and neat, we will even try to be more creative in the ways we show our information. For showing
enthusiasm we will put much effort into the exhibition process, and during our presentation, we will
respect our audience.
We chose the key concepts: change, connection and perspective. We think these fit best because we are
going to show how the entertainment changes overtime, and how it connects with the society through
local and global perspectives. A related concept is “influence”. For example, how useful types of
entertainment influence the world to use it. Also “interactions” because using some types of
entertainment could be used to interact with each other, such as televisions and phones.
We have created a website where we gathered all of our information so not just parents and students
from our school can see it, but even people out of our school can share in our learning.
29. 24. Karen Chan, Carolyn Parker, Andrea McNaughton and Laurence Yeung
Our purpose is to develop a greater understanding of entertainment and how it has affected
society. We are all interested in entertainment and are fascinated by how it has changed over
time. Entertainment is very relevant to society and pops up everywhere; without entertainment,
life would be very different!
The main idea that we want people to take away from our exhibit is how entertainment impacts
our lives and is very common in modern-day society. We also want people to feel inspired and
feel like they should appreciate entertainment more.
The concepts we are exploring are change and connection, because entertainment has changed
much over time. Entertainment also connects people. We intend to take action by making a PSA
for teachers to pass around. We hope to develop appreciation, because a major part of
entertainment is respecting the talent that it takes to perform in or make entertainment. We
also want to develop cooperation, as it is really needed to make our group peaceful and to make
the Exhibition a success.
30. 25. Harrrison Wou, Kevin Jiang and India Tory
Throughout the exhibition journey our objective has been to investigate the causes and effects
of Colonization through the eyes of three key concepts: change, perspective and causation. We
have also been using our research to validate the central idea we selected.
We are interested in learning more about this area of focus for multiple reasons. Firstly, this
topic engages us because it is something that has shaped our surrounding today in many
different ways, such as culture. We also share a common curiosity in how countries worldwide in
the past era have come to what they are like nowadays. It is relevant to the World because if
there hadn’t been colonization, society today would have been dramatically different. Countries
would not speak the same languages or practice the same religions.
We hope that viewers who visit our booth will discover that colonization is not something that
happened in the past that has no effect on us today. Our goal is for people to learn that
colonization has shaped the world today in a number of ways.
We aim to develop two attitudes during the exhibition, appreciation and curiosity. The action we
plan to take is to create an item that symbolizes that colonization is important and has shaped
the world today. To inform others that colonization has been a major part of history and that it
has affected people’s lives today.
31. 26. Tom Solarz, Gabriel Scholl, Elan Cheng and Monica Shum
The purpose of the Exhibition is to show our learning journey throughout the PYP (Primary Year
Program); it is a culmination of the PYP journey. Our purpose is to prove that the time and the
places in which people live affect their lives and how they connect with others. We will prove
this by investigating racism and how it affects people, the way they live and what actions people
may take to prevent racism.
We are interested in this topic as it is a controversial issue, which concerns all of us, and we
want to know how we can make the world a better place. Racism is relevant to the world in many
ways. For example, during the apartheid era in South Africa, Nelson Mandela was put in jail for
protesting against the government and fighting for human equality. Nelson took part in many
anti-racism protests and made speeches about his beliefs. Nelson Mandela took action.
Left to right: Tom Solarz, Gabriel Scholl, Elan Cheng and Monica Shum
We are hoping that people who visit our exhibit will learn how racism is such a big issue in this
world, and how one person can make a big difference. The concepts that we will explore are
form, connection and responsibility. The concept we favor the most is responsibility; we believe
that we can let people know that any individual, organization, or even a country as a whole can
take action against racism.
The attitudes that we hope to develop are respect and tolerance. We will develop these skills
by respecting others’ perspectives and race. An example of tolerating others is when we are
working in our group, we have to put up with each other and be open-minded.
32. 27. Eugenie Hui, Mahdi Alibhai, Julian Chow and Svasti Sharma
Our group is investigating racism because we are disgusted that this exists in our world today.
We want to know why it is still prevalent, what actions have been taken to eliminate it, and what
we can do as individuals to stop it. We believe that racism has negatively impacted so many lives
worldwide in a variety of ways and it needs to be stopped!
Our hope is that people will learn more about the evils of racism and take action to put an end
to it. Our exhibit focuses on the horrific acts carried out by such hate groups as the KKK,
violent events like the L.A. Riots, and apartheid in South Africa.
From Top Left To Bottom Right: Eugenie Hui, Mahdi Alibhai, Julian Chow and Svasti Sharma
Change, causation and perspective are the concepts that our investigation has used to
streamline our inquiry questions. Our intention is to take action by raising awareness about
racism both locally and globally. We empathize with those who have been discriminated against
because of their race, and the message we would like to share with our audience is that
everyone deserves respect, regardless of the colour of their skin. We also hope to convey that
even though we all have our differences, everyone deserves respect and appreciation. Tolerance
is an attitude that is lacking in our world, and one that is necessary to help stamp out racism.
33. 28. Kenny Lu, Bryan Ku and Jethro Hung
Our group’s purpose is to explore the different perspectives on racism, the responsibilities of
different people whose job it is to stop racism, and the impact racism has on our lives. Our
group thought this area of inquiry was interesting, and we all wanted to learn more about racism
and how it has affected our society. We also wanted to learn how to take action, which, in fact,
is informing you of the situation.
Racism in general is discriminating against a culture or race. This is typically done based on
physical appearance, personal beliefs, etc. It is happening in countries everywhere. Based on
people’s decisions and looks, their rights and privileges are taken away. They are treated as
lower than the rest, barely qualifying as humans in the community. Through our exhibit, we are
hoping that our audience will understand the perspectives of racism, the impact it has on
individuals and civilizations and how it has affected and changed our world throughout
centuries. We also want to make people see others as individuals, not faceless masses.
The concepts we used and explored in this unit are: perspective, responsibility and citizenship.
As for possible action to abolish racism, protests, posters, and public announcements would
raise awareness of the situation. We could raise money for an anti-racism organization. Or we
could speak up when we see acts of racism in our daily life. We hope for our audience and peers
to learn much more about racism, especially how to take action.
34. 29. Russell Tom, Daren Einheuser, David Yeung and Jamie Liu
During the exhibition process we have been investigating a very difficult and important issue.
Our main idea is “Where we are in place and time”, and we each researched a specific issue. We
investigated the question: How have financial crises impacted people and society? We are
interested in this investigation because we believe it is important to learn about the economy.
We realize finance will become a crucial part of our life as we move into adulthood.
This is relevant to the world because there have been several financial crises recently, and they
are impacting people in the world in different ways. We hope that our audience will learn about
the four financial crises we have researched and how they have impacted people and society.
We are exploring this by using three concepts: causation, perspective, connection. We have
interviewed experts to assist us in our investigation.
Our group will develop and strengthen our confidence by speaking with a deep understanding of
our issue in front of an audience. We also want to show commitment by making sure our group
members are not going off topic and that we are all doing one task at a time. We have been
developing our co-operation skills by working together, and the more we work together, the
more we develop our negotiation skills.
35. 30. Matthew Tse, Nicholas Man and Hanley Chan
Our purpose is to educate people regarding the information we researched about
transportation. We all shared interest in transportation because we wanted to know how the
world has changed through improvements in transportation.
Transportation is used by everyone. Every single country has different types of transportation
used to help take freight and people around. We hope people can also learn about how
drastically the world changed just because of improvements of transportation. Most people
underestimate the importance of transportation, so we would like you to learn more about the
importance and changes in transportation.
(Left to right) Matthew Tse, Nicholas Man and Hanley Chan
But instead of researching like we did, people can understand everything we researched just by
coming to our booth. The concepts we will explore through investigating are change, causation,
and form. We have taken action by making a children’s book about what we have investigated,
and we have also created a parody of a song that is about transportation.
36. 31. Megan Wright, Eloise Fan, Lizzy Marland and Max Glaser
Our group is focusing on an inquiry into how different sporting events have evolved over time and
impacted people and society. We chose to investigate sport because we were interested in how sport has
evolved over time and become such a big part of our lives. Over the years, sport has increased in
popularity and skill level, entertaining many people all over the world and becoming a bigger part of our
lives. There are many people in the world who now have careers as athletes, which shows how sport has
grown to influence us.
The concepts we selected were Form, Connection and Change. We chose Change and Connection because
they relate to our Central Idea, ‘Global interactions have increased over time and impacts people and
society.’ We chose Form because it is important to know how the world has been impacted.
For our action we plan to donate money to a kindergarten in rural Philippines so the children there have
enough money for sports equipment. We would like to donate to the school because we think that sports
are a big part of our lives and these underprivileged children need to have a chance to develop a love for
sports.
The attitudes we are focusing on are Cooperation, Respect and Enthusiasm. We chose cooperation
because we felt it relates to how different countries need to cooperate to make the sporting events
come together, and to remind us as an exhibition group to cooperate as well. Respect is important
because if certain countries want to play in a game but they have strong rivalry with another team, they
must respect each other and play by the rules. Also, if our group falls into conflict we must remember to
respect each other and solve the problem in a peaceful way. Finally, we value enthusiasm because, when
teams lose, many get disheartened; and when our group encounters any difficulty we need to remember to
stay optimistic.
37. 32. Michael van Voorst, Ryan Law and Anthony Ho
Viva la difference!
Why do revolutions occur? What happens after a revolution takes place? What is the role of
peacekeepers? These are the questions that our group is focusing on in order to better
understand the concept of revolution. Our main purpose is to inform our audience about
revolutions happening in the world today, as well as those that have happened in the past. Does
history really repeat itself?
We are developing the PYP attitudes, and confidence, responsibility and commitment are the
ones that really relate to our issue. By talking to different people during our investigation, we
are developing confidence as well as improving our communication skills, and a sense of
responsibility by being risk-takers. We are committed to putting 100% effort into our work and
our process journals.
While investigating, we used research skills to evaluate, research, record, interpret and analyze
information. Other skills, like thinking skills and social skills, are also developed as well when we
critically analyze data and work cooperatively.
We hope that after visiting our exhibit, the audience will feel compelled to learn more about
the world we live in and will understand how revolutions can occur at any time and in any place.
38. 33. Sarah Leung, Tiffany Mejia and Christine Chin
We have chosen to investigate women’s rights because we feel that it is an issue related to us
and is important to the world. The purpose of our investigation is to prove that circumstances,
experiences and actions can lead to change in women’s rights. We were interested and
fascinated in women’s rights because we feel that it determines who we are in our lives, how we
can get jobs, have education and even vote when we grow older. But women didn’t always have
what we have today, and this is why we were interested in finding out what happened and how
we can support our future.
Women’s rights is a big part of this world, because some women today have jobs, are literate,
can vote, can walk freely, etc, but others can’t and don’t have these things. This is a big deal
and it is important that we all are aware of this inequality. We are hoping that people will learn
the changes that have happened for women’s rights, the causes of gender inequality, and actions
people took and are taking, because we believe these are the most important parts of our
inquiry.
The concepts we will explore are change, causation and connection. We are hoping that we can
raise awareness about inequality in the school. The attitudes we are hoping to develop are,
commitment, enthusiasm, and cooperation. We will develop these attitudes by working together
well, staying on task, and showing a positive attitude.
