Cranbrook Teachers Talking Teaching: From Inquiry to Impact

This week’s Cranbrook Teachers Talking Teaching (CTTT) session, From Inquiry to Impact: Connecting Thinking, Service, and Scholarship, was co-presented by Nick Hanrahan and Erin Munn, following their recent attendance at the IB Global Conference in Singapore. The session provided a thought-provoking exploration of how learning, when grounded in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), can empower students to think critically, act ethically, and develop agency.

Nick opened the session by highlighting that educators must ensure that all students acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to promote sustainable development. Rather than treating the SDGs as an add-on, he urged teachers to embed them meaningfully into curriculum design, encouraging deep, reflective, and action-oriented learning.

Using the 5Ps of Sustainable Development (People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace, and Partnership)Nick demonstrated how a range of subject areas can be used as entry points for interdisciplinary learning. Examples included carbon audits in Environmental Systems and Societies, global nutrition campaigns in Science and the Arts, and mock UN assemblies on digital rights in Global Politics and History.

He also introduced the CRAFTS model (Higgins & Calvert, 2024), a six-stage process for co-designing curriculum with students around sustainability themes. The model supports teachers in building units that are theoretically aligned with the SDGs, grounded in active pedagogy, and responsive to student feedback and reflection.

Erin followed by sharing two school-based models of Interdisciplinary Unit (IDU) design within the IB Middle Years Programme.

The first case study focused on place-based IDUs, where students collaborated with teachers to design units around fieldwork experiences in Zhangye and Yunnan. These units were linked to real-world challenges and aligned with specific SDGs. For example, students explored food sustainability through scientific investigations, promoted eco-tourism through design and economics, and examined gender equity through performance and social research. This approach allowed students to co-construct inquiry questions, shape assessment tasks, and apply disciplinary knowledge in authentic, contextualised ways.

The second case study highlighted a model where one IDU period per cycle is reserved for mini-courses driven by teachers’ passions and areas of expertise. These interdisciplinary electives offer students choice and exposure to diverse themes such as civil rights movements, Gothic literature, Asian cinema, and applied architecture. This flexible structure fosters creativity and cross-disciplinary thinking, and allows students to engage with topics that matter to them in meaningful ways.

The session offered a valuable reminder that IDUs are more than a curricular requirement. When designed with intention, they become opportunities to dissolve disciplinary boundaries, deepen student inquiry, and equip learners to navigate and influence the world beyond the classroom.

Hannah Thomas
Director of Professional Learning