“One of the great things about the
IPC units is that they are fully
integrated.”
Q:
We understand that the IPC was designed to
include unique units of study and a structure
to allow for students to obtain sufficient knowledge
while having fun during the process. Can you describe
what the learning process is like for a student?
A:
Gary Bradshaw at Keystone’s Ladybug Day
Q:
What is the IPC? How did the IPC come about?
A:
The IPC was originally developed as the curriculum for
Shell Oil schools. Shell is a multi-national petroleum
company which had schools dotted all around the world in quite
remote locations. These schools needed a curriculum that would
meet the educational needs of children who came from a variety
of different countries and educational settings. The curriculum
changed and warped over time and eventually, due to its popularity
with parents and teachers, there was this idea that it could go
out and be marketed into the wider populace. This is what has
happened. It is now in over 1500 different schools in 85 different
countries and is currently one of the fastest growing international
curriculums for primary aged students. Schools are attracted to
the IPC because it is so adaptable, flexible, and student-focused.
It is a wonderful curriculum to deliver because through it kids
are passionate and excited about learning. They can genuinely
relate to the topics and themes presented; such as structures
and buildings, chocolate, dinosaurs, and rainforests. These are
all things that kids can sink their teeth into. When you have a
curriculum like the IPC that is only focused on learning it is
difficult to go wrong.
One of the great things about the IPC units is that they
are fully integrated. You can deal with many of the subject
domains within one unit. In the Chocolate unit for example you
can look at the history: Where did chocolate come from? When
did chocolate come to our country? You can look at geography:
Where do cocoa beans grow? What part of the world? What kind
of climate and weather is needed? Another important element
of the IPC is this idea of home and host. For the chocolate unit,
Beijing would act as the host. Do cocoa beans grow here in
Beijing? Why not? What about in other locations around China
or internationally? You can look at it from an artistic perspective:
Kids will do art and design a chocolate wrapper. Why is chocolate
designed in a certain way? Why is it not wrapped in plastic?
Why is it wrapped in tin-foil? You can do Science experiments
as well. You can look at it from a Language Arts perspective. You
can make an advertisement: Kids can script an advertisement to
present their chocolate bar. They can cook and make chocolate.
So you have all of these different curriculum elements all looked
at through the lens of chocolate.
I had a wonderful teacher at my last school who did incredible
things. For the survival unit, for example, one day when the kids
arrived in the classroom she received a phone call saying there
was a gas leak and all the kids had to quickly remove themselves
from the classroom taking everything they needed with them. The
kids were scared. They grabbed their stuff. The teacher took them
to space at the other end of the campus and they stayed there
for the entire day getting on with their studies as best they could.
This was her entry into the survival unit. Talking with her later
she said the kids were angry that they had be deceived but also
said it was one of the best school days they had ever had. It was
interesting to see just what the kids actually took with them in
an emergency situation. I think there were three pencils between
the whole class and one even took a chair! The IPC curriculum is
empowering and lends itself to great opportunities for learning.
www.keystoneacademy.cn
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