WAB Podcast | From Wonder to Action at the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition 

What happens when children are trusted to inquire about real problems they care about and to see themselves as changemakers? This week’s episode of The WAB Podcast explores this question as we talk about the Grade 5 PYP Exhibition (PYPX). 

Joining us are two Grade 5 students, Hannah and Cam, and PYP Coordinator Ms. Jenny. They share their topics, from rising sea levels, global warming, and marine plastic pollution, and issues rooted in personal experiences. Cam talks about growing up in low-lying Florida and wanting to understand how to protect his home from rising sea levels. Hannah remembers snorkeling with marine animals as a child and the shock of seeing trash in the water, wondering who put it there and why.  

As they talk about the learning process, they share how they begin by asking if their chosen issue really matters, who it affects, and whether meaningful change is possible. They use the MISO approach, media, interviews, surveys, observations, to gather information from multiple perspectives. Along the way, they discover surprising facts: how many different greenhouse gases are involved in climate change, or that microplastics can end up inside the human body through seafood and even sea salt.  

The conversation also reveals the less visible skills that grow through the exhibition. Both students talk about reading comprehension and research skills, taking careful notes, and learning to name and share their sources, skills that will follow them into Middle School and beyond. They describe the challenge and joy of working in a group: balancing strong opinions, encouraging shy teammates to take bigger roles, and negotiating different ideas for their final exhibition presentation. Through this, they are practicing all five IB Approaches to Learning: thinking, research, communication, self-management, and collaboration, in an authentic, student-driven context. 

In the PYPX, artworks, infographics, and immersive spaces are tools the students will use for advocacy, designed to help visitors feel both the urgency of global issues and the possibility of change. The goal, as the students say, is leave people “sad and hopeful at the same time,” aware of the scale of the problem yet convinced that small actions still matter. 

PYPX is in some ways, a culmination of their PYP journey, where students step into their voices as researchers, collaborators, and optimists. They are learning that it is never too early to care about the planet, to ask hard questions, and to take responsibility for what comes next. Or, in the words of Hannah and Cam, if visitors remember just one thing, they hope it is this: “stay hopeful, believe that nothing is impossible, and remember that even the smallest actions can ripple outward and make a difference.”