The International Baccalaureate (IB) PYP curriculum takes a holistic approach to learning, weaving together disciplines for real-world understanding. At its heart lies the transdisciplinary theme How We Organize Ourselves, which empowers students to grasp how societies, systems, and individuals structure their world. This theme fosters critical skills, helping young learners connect ideas across subjects and build global awareness.
Check out practical examples from ISHCMC PYP on YouTube for video insights into real classrooms bringing this theme alive.
Diving into the Theme Through IB PYP Subject Areas
In the IB PYP, "How We Organize Ourselves" spans all six key subject areas, revealing how organization shapes daily life, cultures, and environments:
Language and Literature: Students analyze stories and texts about community structures and rules.
Individuals and Societies: Explore historical and modern systems like governments and economies.
Sciences: Investigate natural organization, from ecosystems to simple machines.
Mathematics: Apply patterns and data to model organized systems, like schedules or budgets.
Arts: Create works reflecting cultural organization and expression.
Physical and Health Education: Understand rules in games, teamwork, and healthy routines.
IB Core Elements: Building Reflective Global Citizens
This theme integrates the IB's foundational pillars, nurturing well-rounded learners:
Learner Profile: Cultivates traits like being inquirers, thinkers, and open-minded to question organizational systems.
Theory of Knowledge (TOK): Encourages reasoned judgments on why we organize in certain ways (more on IB TOK).
Extended Essay and CAS: Applies learning to real projects, blending academics with Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS)
These elements turn abstract ideas into actionable skills for social and academic growth.
Real-World Connections and Student Exploration
Beyond core academics, the How We Organize Ourselves PYP planner invites students to chase personal passions. They link disciplines, celebrate diverse cultures, and appreciate global interconnections—key for tomorrow's leaders. Download IB PYP unit planners to adapt for your classroom.
This theme isn't just curriculum it's a lens for understanding our organized, interconnected world.
