IB Highlights: Winning at Black Jack

A SGS senior has used the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme to explore a topic of particular interest to him -- winning at Black Jack!

 

EE Highlight: Henry Xu is writing his Extended Essay on the common casino card game of Black Jack.  His research question is: What are the right strategies to win Black Jack?  In his research reflections, he writes: "To explore the counting method, I had doubt about why the players are more likely to win when there are more big cards.  So I decided to list and figure out the possibility of each result for the house under different card deck situations by writing a program, leaving out the special strategy like double down and split aside for now, and researching more only about the ordinary situation.”  Once he began researching and planning, he "figured out there are way too many possible situations and that it could take my computer years of time to test all the situations.  As a result, I am using probabilities."  He decided he will "find out what a player should do based on the shown card of the dealer, which is a valuable advantage for the player."  We look forward to reading his essay!

 

CAS Experiences Highlights: CAS experiences for Upper School students (in the US and China) this week included correcting atrophy in a student’s horse, participating in an SKBT investment competition, being a helper with the SKBT investment competition, doing a presentation on influenza, creating a flyer to inform the public about infectious diseases, helping with drywall installation, raking leaves, donating blood, skateboarding, learning to crochet, helping fix the bearings on a car, surfing, decorating a pie, teaching a friend to ski, participating in the peer mentor program, upcycling jeans, helping a fellow student with an experiment for a class, and tutoring in Math.

 

IB Question of the Week:  In each IB class, what are the Internal Assessments and the External Assessments? 

The IB uses both external and internal assessments in the Diploma Program (DP) to assess student learning.

 

• The External Assessments (EA) include the exams in May of a student’s senior year. These EAs count for 70 - 80% of the score in an IB course. The EAs are sent in to the IB for grading by IB examiners. If a student takes IB Visual Arts, their EA is an exhibition. In addition, if a student takes a Language A HL course (Chinese A Literature HL or English A Literature HL), they also produce a written assignment. These assessments are called “external” because teachers outside of SGS assess and decide what grade they earn. IB examiners and assessors are all over the globe but trained by the IB to ensure uniformity.

 

• The Internal Assessments (IA) include the many investigations and projects that students undertake here at SGS during the two-year program. Some 20 - 30% of the student’s score is derived from the IA. SGS students complete an IA in each course. The grade for the IA is assessed by the SGS teacher but it is externally moderated by the IBO (International Baccalaureate Organization), meaning they are reviewed for grading accuracy.

 

Here's a link to more information about Diploma Programme grading and assessment.  

 

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.