Adding Significance Through Service: Reimagining a Grade 3 Inquiry Unit

At Lincoln Community School in Accra, Ghana, a familiar Grade 3 unit about famous changemakers took a transformative turn this year. With thoughtful facilitation from Inspire Citizens and the bold collaboration of the Grade 3 team—including educators Monica Boakye, Ernestina Quartey, Kip Daly, Michael Addo and Michele Butler alongside curriculum leader Natalie Kramer—the project evolved into a cross-school, empathy-driven partnership rooted in service learning.

LCS Ghana G3 students are beneficiaries of the school’s newly adopted service learning pillars: empathy, connection, and impact. With intentionality, Lincoln educators realigned a unit about significant people to create opportunities for interaction between students from different educational contexts.

What happened next was more than just a unit upgrade—it became a living example of what happens when service is embedded with communities, not for them.

Choosing a Unit That Lends Itself to Empathy

Choosing the right unit to transform wasn’t automatic. As learning support teacher Kip Daly recalls, the team spent time reflecting on where a community partnership would feel most natural and mutually beneficial.

“In the beginning of the year… we kind of had a debate on which unit we wanted to do,” Kip shares. “I originally thought it would be great to do the How We Organize Ourselves unit with city systems because we have a shared city together, but the service concept didn’t exactly match what they were learning.”

The G3 team was careful to seek alignment of learning goals to ensure that the collaboration wasn’t forced. It emerged organically, rooted in authentic, shared curiosity. The existing “significant people” unit offered a rich platform for exploring how changemakers impact the world—an ideal fit for building empathy, connection, and co-learning across school communities.

As part of Lincoln’s broader effort to integrate service learning from Early Years through Grade 12, the Grade 3 inquiry into significant historical figures stood out. The unit’s central idea—that individuals can make a difference—resonated deeply with the school’s newly adopted service learning pillars: empathy, connection, and impact.

“It was more of a service with model than a service for model,” Natalie explains, citing the team’s partnership with a local Grade 3 class also studying history. “We asked: How can we connect? How can we build empathy? How can we have an impact?”

Elevation Instead of Redesign

For Scott Jamieson, Global Collaborations Lead at Inspire Citizens and the facilitator who supported the LCS Grade 3 team, the objective wasn’t to overhaul a successful unit. It was to help elevate it.

“Our goal was to build upon the existing language in the PYP around inquiry-based learning, and connect that in a meaningful way to our Empathy to Impact approach at Inspire Citizens,” Scott explains. “It was important to view this not as a redesign, but instead to look at the amazing teaching and learning that was already happening in this existing unit and explore possibilities to enhance that through the lens of service learning.”

The unit on Significant People proved to be fertile ground for cultivating authentic, reciprocal relationships beyond the classroom.

“The collaboration really helped build community and make new connections around the theme of this unit. It is such a great example of the type of reciprocal community partnerships that we are aspiring towards,” he adds.

From Hesitation to Human Connection

While the pedagogical vision was clear, the human element presented natural complexity. “There were mixed responses from our students,” recalls Monica Boakye, who leads inquiry learning and mathematics. “Some were curious. Some had questions about things like air conditioning, libraries, or even if the school had a washroom.”

As teaching assistant Michael Addo explains, “Our school is a privileged school… many students hadn’t ever been in a local school environment before.” That unfamiliarity brought both excitement and hesitation.

Yet, as Monica reflects, “It was exciting to see how they began to open up, how they were willing to reflect afterward on their assumptions.”

One moment that stood out to her: a student who was visibly frustrated—not due to indifference, but empathy. “One of our LCS students really wanted to connect with a student who, it turned out, had a hearing impairment and found it was deeply challenging.” At first a gulf of misunderstanding seemed to open between the pair, only to be replaced by empathy as the situation was more fully understood.

Leadership Beyond the Classroom

For Kip the visits revealed “confident leaders we hadn’t seen before. Students stepped into the role, proudly explaining their research and guiding their peers through learning.”

Carefully selected factors ensure that the newly revised unit stays aligned with overall objectives such as the IB Learning Profile and the aims of community partners.

The project also allowed students to embody the IB Learner Profile traits they regularly explore—especially risk-taking and open-mindedness.

“There were some beautiful reciprocal moments,” Natalie adds, “like when students from the local school forgot parts of their presentations. Our kids stepped in gently with questions to prompt them. That moment of encouragement… that was leadership too.”

Whether it was reading together head to head on the carpet or offering feedback with kindness and specificity, students built relationships that went far beyond a classroom task.

Curricular Integrity with a Human Touch

An often cited reservation for educators considering adding a service element to a unit is this: How can I implement service learning components without distracting from academic outcomes? The experience of the LCS G3 team seems to suggest that the unit’s academic objectives appear to have been strengthened.

“Students reinforced research strategies by teaching them,” Kip explains. “If you want to know how to do something, teach it. And that’s what they did.”

Monica adds that the experience deepened students’ feedback skills and critical thinking: “They were offering peer feedback to students they’d just met, from different backgrounds. That required empathy and self-awareness. It was a very beautiful opportunity. ”

And it wasn’t just the students who grew.

“We, the teachers, learned so much from working with the local educators,” Monica says. “Their teaching methods and ours are different. It was an amazing learning experience for us all.”

The Work Was Worth It

Of course, the journey wasn’t simple. Communication across schools took time. Logistics were demanding. Fact finding visits were needed. But for the Grade 3 team, the verdict was clear.

“I would jump in to do this again,” Monica says without hesitation. “Next year, it will be even better. This is about global citizenship. About learning how to live and work with people.”

Natalie agrees: “As educators, we have to check ourselves too. If we’re asking kids to be risk-takers, we need to model that.”

Looking Ahead

As the team reflects, there’s a shared hope that this is just the beginning. “I wonder about the action students will take next,” Monica muses. “Will they carry this experience forward? Will they advocate for more of these kinds of connections?”

The bigger picture of linking educational experiences at Lincoln with the whole of a child’s lived experience lends increased significance to what had been a fairly traditional unit of study.

Scott emphasizes that the success of this initial iteration was not only found in student growth, but in the deepened relationships across campuses.

“I was really inspired speaking to the Grade 3 teachers following this unit about the positive impact of the collaboration between students at LCS and Kanda School, and also the collaboration between the teachers from both schools. I think it is going to be even better next year now that we have built relationships between these teams of teachers.”

By nurturing what already worked and introducing purposeful service elements, the project has become a model for what’s possible when inquiry meets empathy. It is firmly grounded in partnership but with room to grow with each iteration.

In a moment where best practices draw international schools increasingly toward authentic engagement with their local contexts, this project offers a powerful blueprint: one that honors empathy, connection, and mutual growth—not as a separate subject, but as a lived experience that is part of the school day.

Learn more about how educators are taking their classroom experiences to the next level