Grade 3 Explored How The World Works

Thursday, October 29, saw the culmination of the Grade 3’s ‘How the World Works’ unit of inquiry. The Central Idea was that, “We design, invent and innovate to solve challenges”. Over the past couple of months, Grade 3 students have been going through a Design Cycle of ‘ask & imagine, research, plan, create and improve’ while learning about some forces and Simple Machines. They got to investigate, construct some, and experience some in action.

With the UN’s SDGs being a regular part of conversation at UNIS Hanoi, students know the impact of plastics and adhesives on the environment, so they were also taught a variety of ‘attachment’ techniques, for building purposes, that did not involve glue or tape.

Finally Grade 3 students were tasked with designing and building their own creations using their new knowledge and skills and with the use of very little or no plastic and no adhesive. Students documented their designs and made improvements and updates as they went along.

On Thursday, students had the opportunity to showcase their designs and inventions to their Grade 3 peers and some of the faculty. Excitement filled the air and conversations around what simple machines were being used and what forces were involved, abounded. The whole unit has been a fabulous learning process involving improving social skills as well as upskilling and developing scientific knowledge while discovering how the world works.