Culminating Project (Exhibition)

What is a culminating project?

The culminating project is where students pick a few problem based topics that connect to the big or important ideas of the subject area being covered and individually, or more often in groups, delve into their topics to explore and develop a deep and well articulated understanding of their topics of choice. Because the topics are chosen by the students, the students are engaged, as the work is purposeful and has meaning to them.

The work the students choose should challenge the students in some way by pushing their thinking in new directions or asking them to re-examine ideas or beliefs. The work should go beyond the level of knowledge or skill building calling for deeper understanding of the topics chosen. The activity should necessitate the generation of original ideas, explanations, solutions, responses or findings allowing for real ownership of their work. Organizing, analyzing and communicating the information gathered should incorporate a range of learning areas such as math, English, drama, music, technology and the arts. Their engagement should not only be intellectual, but social and/or physical as well.

Adequate time should be given for thinking, preparing responses, and expressing ideas. The students should be able to identify the types of thinking that they will need to do to be successful with the work. Avenues for action and applications should be identified and their thinking should be apparent through the work, discussions and reflections they do so that their thought processes can be discussed, shared, examined and reflected upon. Reflective questions students can ask themselves throughout the process are what, how and why learning has come about? What did I learn about this topic? What did I learn about myself? What should I do now?

What is an exhibition?

The PYP exhibition is a culminating experience that requires students to engage in an in-depth collaborative, transdisciplinary inquiry process that involves them in identifying, investigating and offering solutions to real-life issues or problems. It occurs in the final year of the PYP and combines and applies their learning of previous years and allows them to reflect on their PYP journey.  It is an opportunity to collaborate and share with the whole school community.

The exhibition is required to reflect all of the major features of the PYP program; so it must not only exhibit the attributes of the IB learner profile and incorporate the key concepts, but must also synthesize aspects of all six transdisciplinary themes and requires students to use skills from all five sets of transdisciplinary skills. The exhibition needs to provide opportunities for students to engage in action and an opportunity to reflect on and apply their learning to choose appropriate courses of action and to carry them out. Throughout the process, attitudes that relate to people, the environment and their learning should be evident in the students’ actions and in their reflections.

There should be an ongoing and rigorous assessment of the exhibition process that takes two forms: firstly, ongoing assessment of each individual student’s contribution to and understanding of the exhibition; secondly, a summative assessment and reflection of the event itself.