在书本之外，孩子们还在关注什么议题？ | Prep 5 Inquiry unit

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对于我们所生活的世界，我们应该有怎样的关注？

在书本之外，我们的孩子们关心蔬菜和粮食，关心国际局势和气候，关心文化差异与融合......对这个世界保持着无限好奇与探索，是一件纯粹而真挚的事情。

本学年五年级的学生将第一学段探究单元的目光投向了“自然灾害”，在各种地理灾害、气象灾害频发的今天，这个话题有着巨大的现实意义。这个单元的中心思想是“人们想办法应对自然灾害并使之成为机会“，学生们会沿着自然灾害的形成、自然灾害对人类活动的影响、人们如何应对自然灾害这三条探究线索循序渐进地对这主题进行探讨。

在探究单元伊始，学生们对国内和全球的自然灾害进行研究，学生们对自然灾害的成因，分布，发生频率等方面提出了自己的问题，然后通过搜寻网站、视频、书籍和杂志等各种方式收集所需资料，最终将他们形成的思考与理解分享给全班同学。

在探索阶段，学生在已有知识的基础上，开始探讨自然灾害对自然环境和生物的影响。他们分成小组，研究各种地貌，例如火山口湖、堰塞湖、弯曲的河道、沙漠和雅丹地貌，并尝试从自然灾害的角度解释这些地貌的形成。他们还学习了综合各类型因素评估这些地方是否适宜生物和人类的生存。

在充分了解自然灾害之后，学生重点研究了人类如何应对自然灾害。他们了解了包括预测、防范、救援、决策在内的不同的应对方式。

在11月初，学生们去到了光明区应急消防科普教育基地进行参观。他们首先参加了事故灾难5D体验，当中模拟了汶川地震的过程，从中学生学会一些应对地震的生存方法。在自然灾害馆，学生了解到台风、雷电、暴雨、山体崩塌、森林火灾等自然灾害的应对。在消防安全馆，学生也学到很多具实用性的防火标志和灭火器的使用方式。学生展现了强烈的好奇心，也能把参观体验和已学知识相结合，使学习效果更为深刻。

在接下来的两周，学生会针对一个自选的地方，分析当地的自然灾害和人类的应对措施，敬请期待他们具有洞见的成果分享吧。

正如我们在开头所说，我们珍视孩子们闪光的好奇心与探索欲，不希望这些宝贵的东西在日复一日的只埋头接受知识的过程里消亡。在必需的技能与知识之外，我们的教育要让他们保持好奇，保持思考，保持探索。

The Prep 5 Unit of Inquiry of Quarter 1 is about natural disasters. The big idea of the unit is "People develop ways to tackle natural disasters and create opportunities". Students inquire into the unit under the 3 lines of inquiry:

1. The causes of natural disasters

2. The impact of natural disasters on human activities

3. Human actions to tackle natural disasters

At the initial engagement stage, students researched into different natural disasters that happen in China and around the world. They asked questions about the causes, distribution, frequency of these disasters and searched for information from the websites, videos, books, magazines etc and share their findings and understanding with the class.

At the exploration stage, with the foundation knowledge they had gained, students began to explore the impact of natural disasters on the physical environment and on living things. They worked ingroups and looked into different landforms such as crater lake, dammed lake, meandering, desert and yadan and tried to explain their formation. They also assess whether these places are good for survival for human beings and other living things.

At the investigation stage, student focused on human"s response to natural disasters. They researched into different human approaches such as detection, avoidance, rescue and decision making.

Students had the opportunity to visit the Guangming District Emergency and Firefighting Safety Education Centre on 2 November. During the visit, they experienced a 5D simulation of the Sichuan earthquake and learned different ways of staying safe when earthquake happens. Different natural disasters such as rainstorm, landslides, wildfires were explored. In the fire safety div, students learned about different signage and the use of fire extinguisher. Students demonstrated their curiosity and participated actively at different learning engagements. They were able to connect a lot of their previous learning with what they experienced in the centre to consolidate deep learning.

In the final 2 weeks of this quarter, students will look into a place of their choice and study the natural disasters and human responses that happen there. We look forward to some insightful sharing from our students.