IB Highlights: Female Athletes & Learning English Online

An SGS senior has used the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme to explore two topics of particular interest to her -- gender equality among professional athletes and how to teach young Chinese students English using Zoom.

 

EE Highlight: For her Extended Essay, senior Winnie Wu is writing on the topic of magazine coverage as an indication of gender issues in professional sports after Title IX, from 1964-2000s.  Her research question is: to what extent was Title IX effective in promoting better gender equality among professional female athletes?

 

CAS Project Highlight: Senior Winnie Wu is also being highlighted for her CAS project.  Being physically in China caused several of our seniors to re-evaluate their CAS project plans.  Winnie jumped right in this summer and founded an online English language learning program for primary students.  She said, “The intention for creating this online learning platform is to enlighten more primary school students in their English learning process.  I had online classes and interacted with the children on a weekly basis for two months.  All the lessons were created by myself and was taught through Zoom with about ten children per class.”

 

CAS Experience Highlights: CAS experiences for all of our Upper School students (in the US and in China) this week included attending a bank open day in China, creating a quarantine workout routine, running GLOW club, tie dying shirts, completing soccer workouts after school, participating in Operation Christmas Child by getting items for the shoe box for a child in need, and providing donation commissions.

 

IB Question of the Week: How does the Middle School's Genius Hour prepare students for the EE and CAS components of the IB CORE in their junior and senior years?  

 

In 5th grade, students begin their Genius Hour project and it continues throughout Middle School.  Each year, the students pick something they are interested in.  Teachers are training them to think about something that they care about and are willing to devote time to.  The goal of Genius Hour is not the end product but the experience.  

 

Within the full diploma program, students must complete an Extended Essay (EE) and a CAS (Creativity, Activity, Service) project.  Both of these components are driven by what the students are interested in.  With the EE, students choose a topic, do research and produce a 4,000 word research paper.  With the CAS project, students pick something that interests them, research it and find ways to develop experiences that include: 

• real, purposeful activities, with significant outcomes, 

• personal challenge, 

• thoughtful consideration, such as planning, reviewing progress, reporting,

• reflection on outcomes and personal learning.  

The learning from two components of the IB CORE comes from the process.  The end result is icing on the cake, just like in Genius Hour.  

 

IB 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.