Primary Years Programme Students Share the Planet

Students in the fifth grade Primary Years Programme (PYP) at stayed after school Wednesday for two reasons: to share their concluding project with parents and friends and help each other learn about how to share their planet.

It’s no small task. About 130 students presented on relevant topics ranging from environmental issues including pollution in Michigan’s Great Lakes and the recent earthquake in Japan to social issues including Internet bullying and texting while driving. 

Parents, teachers and staff said the large scope of the project was handled well by the students, who had six weeks to prepare their last project as part of the PYP before moving on to the Middle Years Programme next fall.

“For the amount of research and multimedia involved, it’s almost like a college research project,” said Betsy Bender, whose daughter, Jayne Bender, presented on Internet bullying with fellow students Rebecca Tyner, Quinten Anderson and Kendell Lewis. “I’m excited for her and I’m happy they finished. It’s a great project and I’m sure they’ll all carry this on to sixth grade.”

PYP coordinator Kathy Janelle agreed that research in multimedia was a “crucial” element of the project. Students were responsible for writing letters in order to personally interview sources including local police and fire department staff, as well as using technology in some capacity, to produce a 15-minute presentation on a “hot button issue” they felt passionate about.

How did they do? Janelle said the students proved so capable with the technology that they eventually taught different aspects of the Internet to parents and staff.

“Flip charts, Powerpoints, websites — they’re teaching us about all that and more,” said Janelle, who hosted the fifth annual fifth grade exhibition. “We have students coming up to us saying that they have a concept, and then they go out and execute it. They have help from all over the community and the entire staff of this school, but they should really get a lot of credit for feeling passion about an issue and using different multimedia to educate us on it.”

In addition to multimedia, public speaking and research skills gained during the project, Corina Bosoc said students also benefited from a sense of friendly competition. Bosoc's daughter, Alexandra Bosoc, presented on the topic of the recent earthquake in Japan with Grace Jaksen, Ryan Zalla, Akram Albeer, Devin Wertheimer, Daiki Kosaka and Shotaro Oguri.

“It’s a loving, nurturing type of competition in the sense that everybody is putting a piece into it. They can see their peers working and performing and that motivates them to work as well,” said Bosoc, a West Bloomfield resident. “I’m really proud to be here and see not only my child, but also these students. They’ve done terrific work and they’ve learned a lot about important issues.”

What did the students take from it? Jaksen said she was able to expand upon her interest in science and relate it to current events. “I learned about the form of a tsunami or the form of an earthquake. I’m more interested to learn about earthquakes,” 10-year-old Jaksen said. “I wanted to see how the people felt and how much money they had to pay. What damage was done to these people’s lives?”

Wertheimer said he gained a sense of charity from his project. “When I heard about it, I felt sad and I wanted to see how we could help. I want to be able to tell people about what happened here and how we could help people out if they have to go through this again,” he said.

Jayne Bender said that although she had used the Internet for as long as she can remember, she gained a completely new perspective after studying Internet bullying and using the Internet in her research on the subject. “Before the project, I knew a lot of people were Internet bullied, but I didn’t know the effects were so heavy," she said. "We want to be able to tell parents about what they should do if their kids are being Internet bullied or if they are Internet bullying, because it goes both ways,” she said.