In this unit, we will inquire into the Central Idea: 'People create organizations to solve problems and support human endeavor and enterprise'.
To understand the Central Idea, the students will inquire into:
- What problems/issues are organizations involved with?
- Why do people need organizations to solve problems?
- How do organizations solve problems?
- What are the challenges of organizations and how do they overcome them?
- What makes a successful organization?
- How do people organize themselves?
- What systems and tools do they use to organize themselves?
To understand the Central Idea, the students will inquire into:
- What problems/issues are organizations involved with?
- Why do people need organizations to solve problems?
- How do organizations solve problems?
- What are the challenges of organizations and how do they overcome them?
- What makes a successful organization?
- How do people organize themselves?
- What systems and tools do they use to organize themselves?
Provocations:
Grade 2 Camp Over
- The students were involved in planning for meals, games, and building tents or huts. This helped students connect to their prior knowledge on how people organize themselves.
- The students were involved in planning for meals, games, and building tents or huts. This helped students connect to their prior knowledge on how people organize themselves.
Local and International Organizations
- What do we know about these organizations?
- What do they do?
- What issue are they involved in?
- How do they help our community?
- What do we feel about the issues they are involved in?
- What affects you most? Why?
RISE FoundationMAGChild Aid InternationalGreen PeaceUNESCO | UNICEFSave the ChildrenWorld Food ProgrammeRed CrossCARE International |
Getting to know issues around us
Students listed what they know about the different local and global issues. This generated a lot of reflection and questions.
Explorations and Investigations
Questions:
- What is the purpose of organizations? What are their goals?
- What issues are they involved in?
- How do they achieve their goals?
- How do they organize themselves? How do they organize their projects?
- What are the challenges of organizations and how do they overcome them?
- What makes organizations successful?
- What is the purpose of organizations? What are their goals?
- What issues are they involved in?
- How do they achieve their goals?
- How do they organize themselves? How do they organize their projects?
- What are the challenges of organizations and how do they overcome them?
- What makes organizations successful?
We invited resource speakers to find out answers to our questions. Mr. Collin, the founder of Organization of Animals in Kurdistan, came to share his experiences and projects. We learned a lot from him.
In our Music Class, we visited the Erbil Music School to see how artists organize themselves for performances.
Using the internet, photos and articles, we researched about UNICEF. We want to know their purpose or goal, their projects, where they work, and the issues they are involved in. We presented our research to other classes in Grade 2.
We listened to the presentation of other classes who shared their research about: MAG, Boys and Girls' Scouts, Bilkent Foundation.
We listened to the presentation of other classes who shared their research about: MAG, Boys and Girls' Scouts, Bilkent Foundation.
We read stories of people from around the world. These are stories of victims and people who work in solving local and global problems.
We painted the life or journey of the Hassan in the story 'The Color of Home'. We wrote about Hassan's story using our own perspectives too.
We interviewed our parents or relatives about their challenges. We wrote their stories. We learned that people have different challenges and ways of coping with them.
We brainstormed different issues that we know and chose an issue that we want to work on. We want to make our own organization which aims to help victims, especially children.
We invited Ms. Malu, a volunteer for organizations and refugees or displaced people in Erbil. She knows a lot about displaced people.
We brainstormed ideas about our organization. We want to learn about how people organize themselves in helping people in the community.
We made a name for our organization. We chose one from a list of different suggestions. We talked about the purpose of our organization. We also made our logo. We looked at different samples of logos to learn what symbols mean and how they're used to communicate meaning such as the 'purpose' of an organization.
We made a name for our organization. We chose one from a list of different suggestions. We talked about the purpose of our organization. We also made our logo. We looked at different samples of logos to learn what symbols mean and how they're used to communicate meaning such as the 'purpose' of an organization.
Students explained the meaning of their logo. They learned that symbols carry meaning.
As a class, we decided to raise funds for the most important things needed by the refugees like milk, diaper and water. We made groups to raise funds for this project. In our groups, we made plans on what to do. In this project, we are learning:
- how people work together to achieve their goal
- how do people plan?
- what tools do they use to plan?
- how people work together to achieve their goal
- how do people plan?
- what tools do they use to plan?
Students brought items to sell. They are learning:
- how to organize the products for sale
- how to sell the products (how much, packaging, strategy for selling, etc.)
- how to let people know about the purpose of fundraising
- how to organize the products for sale
- how to sell the products (how much, packaging, strategy for selling, etc.)
- how to let people know about the purpose of fundraising
Watch our video to learn more about our inquiry and action project.