This year, the theme of the multidisciplinary learning week was “The Evolution of Animals and Their Future/Eläinten evoluutio ja tulevaisuus”, which the student council selected from several excellent suggestions by classes. The week was full of activities related to the theme:
Preschool 1 learned about the life cycle of different animals and took a trip to the Museum of Natural History.
Grades 1-2 focused on animals and visited Korkeasaari Zoo. Students also conducted research about animals, had a station workday about animal groups, and played Kahoot about the week’s topic. Grade 1 made animals from clay, and 2nd graders had an animal hospital with their kummi students.
Grades 3-4 visited the Museum of Natural History and participated in different workshops about animals and evolution. Elli Liimatainen from Evolution in Action/Evoluutiopajat led a fun game called “Introduced Species/Resource Competition” for all the groups. Grades 3-4 also completed an art project.
Grades 5-6 started the week with a guest lecture by researcher Aigi Margus of Jyväskylä University, who introduced her field of evolutionary biology and answered the students’ questions. Students also visited the Museum of Natural History, where they joined a guided tour on the history of life on our planet. Back in the classroom, grades 5-6 explored evolution, natural selection, and adaptation through a variety of interactive workshops, as well as imagined evolutions of existing species that might be well adapted to a habitat of the future. On Friday, grade 6 joined their kummi students in their learning, and grade 5 students embarked on an exciting learning journey on human biology hosted by parents at Biomedicum Helsinki.
All classes also participated in time travel activities in the gym organized by Caro, Jutta, and Kachi. The first part focused on hunter-gatherers and their daily survival challenges, where students had to overcome obstacles like crossing rivers and climbing trees to gather food. The second part took students back to the ancient Olympic Games in Greece, where they had the opportunity to try the discus throw and long jump. Finally, students entered the time travelers’ room, where they relaxed and imagined the future of physical activities.
