IB Highlights: New Weekly Feature on the International Baccalaureate

Starting this week, look for highlights of the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme in the SGS weekly news.  As an overview, the Diploma Programme (DP) curriculum for grades 11-12 is made up of six subject groups and the DP core, comprising Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Creativity, Activity, Service (CAS) and the Extended Essay (EE).  (Please refer to our IB webpage and to the IB Resources page in Powerschool Learning for detailed IB information.)  

 

• EE: Seniors spend a year researching and writing a 4000-word essay on a topic of their choice. We will highlight one per week, with student permission.  

• CAS Project: Our full diploma students complete CAS projects that follow an 18-month portfolio, full of reflections. We will highlight one per week, with student permission.  

• CAS Experiences: All of our Upper School students, pre-IB (grades 9-10), full diploma candidates and course candidates complete CAS experiences with reflections.

• Weekly Question: Please email Elizabeth.tender@sgs.org with any IB questions you may have, otherwise she will pick one to answer each week.

 

EE Highlight:  One of our seniors, Gabi Cunningham, has picked an Extended Essay to complete in Spanish.  Her Topic is "Reclamation of Indigenous Figures".  Her research question is:  How does Malinche by Laura Esquivel use symbolism to explore Malinche's feminine and indigenous identity?

 

CAS Project Highlight:  Gabi also completed her CAS project last May.  She made and assembled birdhouses for local kids who no longer had school.  She created kits and delivered them to families in the area.  "Since coming to SGS, CAS has encouraged me to both seek out and create my own opportunities to better myself and my community," Gabi says.  She hoped to develop organization, woodworking, and communication skills through this project.  Some of her goals included: 

• Give something for younger children to do and be excited about in a time of confusion and no school; 

• Help parents out by giving them something to occupy their children with;

• Provide a safe place for birds to build their nests.

 

CAS Experiences Highlights: CAS experiences for all of our Upper School Students this week included baking pumpkin bread, planting trees with the Lands Council, creating ASB videos for the Lower School, creating a self-care menu, making an egg yolk cake for the Chinese mid-Autumn festival, designing for the Spokane flag, attending an Equity and Inclusion state-wide conference, drone photography, visiting a vineyard, making homemade pet food and cooking dinner.

 

IB Question of the Week:  Who is a course candidate and who is a full Diploma candidate?  

A full Diploma Candidate is a student who is trying to earn the full IB Diploma and will complete all requirements to do so.  A course candidate is a student who is enrolled in IB Diploma courses, but not all components of the full IB Diploma.  The course candidate takes the IB exams in May of senior year and hopes to gain college credits for specific courses by earning IB certificates.  The course candidate has reduced CAS requirements and does not take TOK or complete the EE.