Article by Ms. Tessa Hammond, Grade 3 Teacher
I'm bursting with pride after witnessing my Grade 3 students complete their summative task for our "Where We Are In Place and Time" unit on inventions and inventors!
The Unit
Our transdisciplinary theme explored orientation in place, space, and time through periods, events, and artifacts—examining how communities, heritage, culture, and the natural and human drivers of movement, adaptation, and transformation have shaped our world. Our central idea? "Throughout history, inventions have helped shape the world we live in." Students investigated three key lines of inquiry: inventions that impact our lives, significant inventions throughout history, and how inventions have evolved over time based on wants and needs.
We kicked off with an engaging provocation alongside Grade 2—students blindly reached into bags, pulled out mystery items, and sorted them into two categories: man-made products and naturally derived products. They recorded their findings in T-charts, drew and labeled three inventions, and described their functions. Students explored essential questions: What is an inventor? What does invention mean? They created mind maps, listed inventors, and posted their burning questions on our classroom Wonderwall. Throughout the unit, they learned about patents, inventions from ancient civilizations, historically significant innovations, and the diverse men and women—both historical and modern—who've changed our world. They discovered how we know when inventions were first created and explored the "why" behind innovation: filling market gaps, helping others, combining products, applying nature's wisdom, and improving past inventions.
The Summative Challenge
Design a helpful tool using recycled materials that solves a real challenge faced by someone you know. Your invention should make their task easier, faster, or more accessible.
The Journey: Starting in early March, students dove deep into the Design Thinking cycle (a non-cyclical) framework that guides innovators through Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, Test, and Share. But this wasn't just theory, it was hands-on, real-world problem solving!
The Magic: In the week of March 9th, I divided students into four groups of four, and here's where it got truly special, staff members (Mrs. Levi, Ms. Val, Ms. Suhkmani, and Ms. Kirchner) volunteered their time to mentor each group, sharing genuine daily challenges they face. Watching my students conduct professional interviews, take detailed notes, and truly listen with empathy was incredible!
The Process
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π Pencil-to-paper brainstorming in workbooks
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π‘ Sketching multiple creative solutions
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π» Typing findings into digital workbooks (printed copies for each student!)
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π¨ Building prototypes from recycled materials
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π€ Presenting solutions to their mentors this week
After teaching presentation skills last week, I was blown away by the professionalism and confidence these 8 and 9-year-olds displayed!
The PYP in Action
Throughout this project, students embodied so many IB learner profile attributes and attitudes, they were thinkers, communicators, open-minded, and knowledgeable. They showed creativity, commitment, enthusiasm, cooperation, and confidence at every turn.
From wondering "what is an inventor?" to becoming inventors themselves—what a journey! Kol HaKavod, Grade 3! However none of this would have been possible without my wonderful TA Ms. Kaicker, thank you for all your help and support along with Ms. Levi, Sukhmani N Ojha, Lauren Kirchner, Val Kirchner for your time and for being fantastic mentors.