• Curriculum
• Primary Years (PYP)
  • Early Childhood
  • The Primary Schools
  • PYP Exhibition
• Middle Years (MYP)
  • MYP Areas of Interaction
  • MYP Personal Projects
  • MYP History & Concepts
  • Community & Service
  • MYP Results
  • M5 Symposium 2011
  • MYP Presentation
  • M5 Personal Projects 2011
  • M3 Science Fair 2011
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Areas of Interaction

Teachers organise the curriculum through the five areas of interaction:

• Approaches to learning
  is concerned with developing the intellectual discipline, attitudes, strategies and skills that will result in critical, coherent and independent thought and the capacity for problem solving and decision-making.


• Community and service
  starts in the classroom and extends beyond it, requiring students to participate in the communities in which they live. The emphasis is on developing community awareness and concern, a sense of responsibility, and the skills and attitudes needed to make an eff ective contribution to society.


• Human ingenuity
  allows students to focus on the evolution, processes and products of human creativity. It considers their impact on society and on the mind. Students learn to appreciate the human capacity to infl uence, transform, enjoy and improve the quality of life. This area of interaction encourages students to explore the relationships between science, aesthetics, technology and ethics.


• Environments
  aims to make students aware of their interdependence with the environment so that they become aware of their responsibility, and may take positive, responsible action for maintaining an environment fit for the future.


• Health and social education
  prepares students for a physically and mentally healthy life, aware of potential hazards and able to make informed choices. It develops in students a sense of responsibility for their own well-being and for the physical and social environments.

For example, a group of students in M1 could learn about pure substances and mixtures in sciences (chemistry). As part of their laboratory activities, students apply simple techniques to separate different types of mixtures, including techniques for separating impurities from water.
The skills to be developed would include:

• using simple equipment
• making straightforward observations and measurements
• drawing scientific diagrams.

The teacher could then lead the students to explore issues linked to environment and human ingenuity by posing questions such as:

• How pure is pure?
• Can the energy costs involved in the production of pure substances be justified?
• Why is only a fraction of the world's water directly drinkable?
• How can we produce enough drinkable water to meet our needs?

The teacher could use these questions as a focus for discussion, for written responses or to lead into a further topic. They provide an authentic means of looking critically at an increasingly relevant resource problem with ethical dimensions.

(This section is extracted from: The IB Middle Years Programme, © The International Baccalaureate 2008)

The Personal Project

The Personal Project is undertaken by students towards the end of their M4 year and the M5 year. It is a piece of independent work of the student's own choice prepared over a period of time and guided by a teacher (supervisor), The aims are to:

• allow each student to inquire into topics of interest and using an area of interaction as the main focus.
• enable each student to demonstrate knowledge, skills and attitudes required to complete a project over an extended period of time.
• give each student the opportunity to reflect on your own and or with others.
• allow each student to move towards thoughtful and positive action.
• enable each student to develop confidence as a lifelong learner.

The obtain more information on the Personal Project, please see:
ISM's Personal Project Guide, and A Presentation on the Personal Project

Sample personal projects are available to view:

• Aika Lema - Comic Book of Teenage Issues
• Malika Jumbe - Engma: Moods & Feelings Music
• Naomi Sallu - Bullying and Depression

These documents are copyright the authors - please do not copy or redistribute in any form without permission.

Photos of the students' presentations are available here