2008

As part of IB's professional development offerings, the American Museum of Natural History provides accessible and innovative online courses in the life, earth, and physical sciences. These courses, which are also available for graduate credit, connect teachers to working scientists, forefront research, classroom resources, and each other.

The Diploma Programme Online project aims to help IB World Schools extend subject choice and reach out to students unable to attend an IB World School. The project will enhance intercultural understanding and help students develop the 21st century skills necessary for life after school.

Come join the IB Middle Years Programme Regional Manager in a presentation and conversation. This session will review changes to the Middle Years Programme that have occurred over the past year, those that are coming in the future, and offer an opportunity to ask burning questions about the programme.

While university admissions officers are increasingly actively recruiting IB Diploma students, there remains a good deal of tension between their desire to attract prepared students, both academically and socially, and student and parent expectation that course credit be awarded for the rigorous SL courses they have taken.

Educators often place professional learning communities and collaborative teams at the heart of school improvement, IB teachers and students benefit greatly from providing time for such collaboration. During this time they establish SMART goals, create common assessments, analyze results, and use results to address shortcomings and capitalize on strengths.

In this session, the panel will discuss curriculum mapping as it relates to the IB Primary Years Programme Units of Inquiry and state/local curriculum. The intended outcome will be to provide ideas and strategies for grade level teams to collaboratively marry a rigorous program of study to local expectations. Each participant will leave with effective models of this integration.

Presenters will share their plan for an interdisciplinary unit featuring the technology design cycle model as the vehicle. At Silver Spring Middle School, sixth grade students traditionally participate in an outdoor instructional unit that combines multidisciplinary objectives in a woodland setting.

Have you ever had difficulty describing the IB and our programmes to your community? Come learn how to describe the benefits of an IB education to your constituents - from parents, to students, to the community at large.

The documentary NOBELITY brings viewers into an intimate dialogue with nine Nobel Laureates. Each Laureate discusses a global concern forcing the viewer to consider and reconsider how the decisions each of us make affects our society, other societies, and future generations.

As it matures as an organization, the IB is increasingly in need of research to provide evidence of programme quality as well as to inform its ongoing curriculum and professional development efforts.