From Moon to Mars, Reaching for the Stars!

By Renée Harris, Lee-Anne Prinsloo and Abigail Mallows

“Tell me and I forget; Teach me and I may remember; Involve me and I learn.”

- Benjamin Franklin

Over the course of my teaching career, having navigated through 5 very different curriculums, this quote has stood the test of time for both me and my learners. It was often very challenging to make learning fun, meaningful and engaging for my learners when the curriculum was often very prescriptive. This required some very creative thinking and planning. I have definitely found a WINNER in Inquiry-Based Learning! A wonderful and exciting way to ensure that curriculum concepts are covered BUT the learning becomes so much more relevant and meaningful for the learners. Our learners are exposed to much more than exists between the pages of the curriculum AND THEY HAVE LOADS OF FUN WHILE LEARNING! There is absolutely NO WAY that I can revert back to the traditional way of teaching and learning. Our classrooms are a hive of fun and excitement each day, not only for our learners but also for us as teachers!

Renée Harris, Lee-Anne Prinsloo and Abigail Mallows

The vision

The Grade 3 learners were anonymously called to an area of the playground via the school intercom. They were met by a crash site where a spaceship had landed in their playground. An alien had lost his memory when the spaceship crashed and he asked the learners to help him find his home planet.

Curriculum standards

This learning facilitated the development of the following skills identified in CAPS:

Life Skills - Beginning Knowledge
Topic - Space

Earth from space - what it looks like (land, sea, clouds)
Stars and planets - what they are
Names of the planets
Space travel

Learning journey

Duration: 4 weeks

Teacher Feature

Student activities

THE LAUNCH

There was a ''manic'' announcement on the intercom to all 3 classes (in a voice that the girls could not identify) for the learners to proceed immediately to a particular area on the playground. The girls had no idea what this was all about and rushed outside.....the teachers, of course, all played along!

A section of the playground was cordoned off with danger tape and there, on their playground, was the most amazing spaceship (the spaceship was created by my colleague's husband......let's get the whole family involved shall we 😂). There were also various clues around this spaceship e.g. bits of ice, etc. You can just imagine the shrieks and screams coming from the learners at this point!

ALIEN INTRODUCTION

The learners returned to class and were shown a slideshow presentation from the alien who had landed in their playground. He explained to them (in Martian language - with a very clever translation tool ) that his spaceship had crashed and he had no idea where he had come from and needed their help to find his way back home.

I think we very successfully managed to get the learners engaged and intrigued by this fantastic provocation!

WONDER WALL

We then created a ''See… think… wonder…" wall in each of our classrooms. Each learner had a photo of their face inside an astronaut suit which we prepared ahead of the time and the girls populated rocket ships attached to themselves for the wonder wall.

EXPLORE BOARD LEARNING JOURNEY

Each day the girls would participate in aspects of the learning journey, learning about the various planets of the solar system, in order to assist the alien in finding his home planet (remember that various clues were also around the spaceship crash site).

CURRICULUM INTEGRATION

Integrated learning activities included

Diary entries (learners recorded any information along their learning journey each day)
Shared Writing as a whole class activity (A Space Adventure: introduction, body, conclusion)
Comprehensions (using Google Forms with videos embedded, Edpuzzle, etc.)
Our Solar System - Google Form
Our Solar System - Edpuzzle
The Solar System - Choiceboard
Language Structure (tenses, adjectives to describe the alien, verbs, etc.)
3D objects (linked to planets)
Time (elapsed time)
Bar graphs and tallies
Afrikaans (Die seisoene - how the seasons occur - relating to the planets and the sun)
Afrikaans (voornaamwoorde en besitlike voornaamwoorde)

Student reflections

Teacher reflections

Technology used

Chromebooks

Google Forms

Google Slides

Storyline Online

Youtube

Edpuzzle

Flipgrid

Book Creator

What's next?

Our Grade 3 team has grown in leaps and bounds. This is our third IBL unit we have designed. We plan one unit each term using the Lifeskills themes as the backbone for our planning. Integration across the curriculum has been key in this process. We aim to have IBL/PBL fully implemented within the next 6 months.

Closing thoughts

“If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.” - Henry Ford

In my pursuit of 21st-century teaching and learning, I am driven by an unwavering passion. I believe in the power of IBL to equip our learners with the skills, knowledge and resilience necessary to thrive in an ever-evolving world. My hope extends beyond my own classroom.… I aspire to inspire fellow teachers to embrace the changes that are required to create an educational landscape that prepares learners for the challenges and opportunities of the future. Together, we can be the catalysts of change, igniting a spark within our profession and transforming the way education is delivered.

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