What Active Learning looks like in schools (Primary Group 1)

Wild Hearts is an interdisciplinary project that integrates English, Literature, Science and AI Literacy. Through the novel The One and Only Ivan, learners explore the consequences of human actions on wildlife, leading them to investigate endangered species, habitat loss and our responsibility to protect biodiversity.

Students worked in collaborative teams to research threatened animals using carefully selected scientific sources and NotebookLM as an AI learning assistant. The teachers’ role as facilitators was essential in supporting learners to interpret, process and select information critically.

Metacognition was not an isolated activity but a continuous process throughout the project as students reflected on their strengths when forming their teams and also on their learning process.

The project culminated in a Scientific Conference, where students presented their research, explained scientific solutions to protect local species and reflected on how AI had supported—rather than replaced—their own thinking throughout the inquiry process.

Since 2022, Beth has been hosting an activity aimed at “spreading and celebrating” the maker mindset within their school. In this event, they present various challenges related to computational thinking, hands-on making, and building with a wide variety of materials. They create a narrative that introduces a challenge or problem to solve—this year’s theme was the World Cup.

For this year’s World Cup theme, different grade levels built foosball tables with various mechanisms, a target-shooting game using catapults to score goals, and a gear system to display stadium flags, among other projects.

A key element of this approach is that we do not provide step-by-step instructions or tutorials; however, the challenge is still aimed at building a specific object.

Another core strength of the initiative is mixing different grade levels. Students must interact, contribute their ideas, and share their knowledge from their unique perspectives.

Camila Dana y Orly Lev (Beth School)

What a wonderful World Book Day celebration at Colegio Palermo Chico! In a world surrounded by screens where reading seems to be devalued, a love for books filled their classrooms. Each teacher chose a picture book and planned a creative hands-on activity to be implemented after the reading. The day before the celebration, children signed up for the specific story session they wished to join. Sixteen simultaneous storytelling workshops were offered.

Following the readings, classrooms came alive as students drew, solved collaborative puzzles, engaged in sensory play, used puppets, and designed digital word clouds.

Presenters will share the magic of that day by learning about the stories teachers read and the activities they designed. Through a Padlet showcase, participants will have the chance to choose some options and will be given a QR code to access our complete resource library of books and lesson plans to implement in their own schools.