Research and Lab Classes in Elementary School

By Lais Carvalho

The families of the Elementary School students were invited to participate in our event Café & Educação, which addressed the topic “Research and Lab Classes”. The leader of the Science area, Mônica Spiguel, together with teacher Sabrina Corrêa, conducted the meeting and showed how they follow the themes of the Units of Inquiry based on observation, experimentation, questioning, and other essential skills for a scientist.

Mônica talked about the curriculum of the area and how Beacon integrates the important elements of the IB, such as the student’s profile and concepts, together with the expectations of Base Nacional Comum Curricular (BNCC).

The educator exemplified how all aspects of Natural Sciences are intertwined. In addition, she talked about which elements of Physics, Chemistry, and Biology are deliberately worked with our students, provoking them to problematize issues of the world around us. 

Research, which is one of the core elements of the Primary Years Program (PYP) and is in the school’s mission statement, is fully exercised during lab classes. Teacher Sabrina showed the audience videos and photos that reflect the way students hypothesize, experiment, compare solutions, record their findings, search for information, and solve problems. 

Finally, the families had the opportunity to enjoy the experiments carried out by the students and also the materials that are used to promote investigation in Science.