Introduction

PYP Exhibition 2016The PYP Exhibition represents a significant event in the life of a PYP student and PYP school.

In the student’s final year of the PYP at MBIS (PYP5) the students have 5 Units of Inquiry and the Exhibition. The Exhibition unit can take place under any transdisciplinary them and at MBIS this is decided on by the PYP teaching team and PYP 5 students.
Our students are required to engage in a collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real life issues or problems.
As a culminating experience it is an opportunity for our students to exhibit their understanding of the programme, including the role of the PYP Attitudes and IB Learner Profile.

PYP exhibition 2016*Only IB World Schools offering the PYP are required to participate in the exhibition although candidate schools may choose to do so.

Purpose

The PYP exhibition has a number of key purposes:

  • for students to engage in an in-depth, collaborative inquiry
  • to provide students with an opportunity to demonstrate independence and responsibility for their own learning
  • to provide students with an opportunity to explore multiple perspectives
  • for students to synthesize and apply their learning of previous years and to reflect upon their journey through the PYP
  • to provide an authentic process for assessing student understanding
  • to demonstrate how students can take action as a result of their learning
  • to unite the students, teachers, parents and other members of the school community in a collaborative experience that incorporates the essential elements of the PYP
  • to celebrate the transition of learners from primary to middle/secondary education.

Essential features of the exhibition

PYP Exhibition 2016As the culminating PYP experience, it is required that the exhibition reflects all the major features of the programme. Therefore it must:

  • provide an opportunity for students to exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile that have been developing throughout their engagement with the PYP
  • incorporate all the key concepts; an understanding of the key concepts should be demonstrated by the application of key questions throughout the inquiry process
  • synthesize aspects of all six transdisciplinary themes
  • require students to use skills from all five sets of transdisciplinary skills (see Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education, 2007, figure 8); students should be given the opportunity to develop and apply skills from all the transdisciplinary skill areas in their exhibition inquiry
  • offer the students the opportunity to explore knowledge that is significant and relevant
  • offer opportunities for students to display attitudes (see Making the PYP happen: A curriculum framework for international primary education, 2007, figure 9) that relate to people, the environment and their learning; these attitudes should be evident throughout the process
  • provide opportunities for students to engage in action; students should demonstrate an ability to reflect on and apply their learning to choose appropriate courses of action and carry them out; this action may take the form of personal involvement with the planning and implementation of the exhibition and/or service-orientated action; action may not always be clearly or immediately visible or measurable but evidence should be recorded whenever a particular behaviour results from the learning involved
  • represent a process where students are engaged in a collaborative and student-led, in-depth inquiry facilitated by teachers; records should be kept that reflect the process of planning and student engagement with the exhibition
  • include ongoing and rigorous assessment of the exhibition process; this assessment should take two forms: firstly, ongoing assessment of each individual student’s contribution to and understanding of the exhibition; secondly, a summative assessment and reflection on the event itself.