IB Diploma Group 4 Project 2020

Thursday June 18th saw the Year 12 IBDP students embark on their Group 4 project. This is a compulsory element of the IB Diploma Programme and provides the students the opportunity to work within cross-disciplinary teams.

The theme for this year's project was “Science in Hollywood”. The students were asked to explore the Science from popular movies and TV shows and ascertain how realistic and true to life the Science is. This was an opportunity for the students to be creative and explore an area that they have a particular interest in. Some examples of projects undertaken were:

• Creating a river of chocolate from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
• Sinking a model Titanic
• Using helium balloons to make a model house float like that in the Pixar movie Up
• Using electromagnetism to create a Harry Potter wand to perform the Wingardium Leviosa spell
• Creating an environment devoid of oxygen and exploring if potatoes will indeed grow like they did in the movie The Martian
• Creating a smashable bottle like those used in the movies

The list could go on. What can definitely be concluded is that the students embodied the IB Learner Profile; taking risks, being inquirers; communicating and most of all being reflective. The students were introduced to the book “Black Box Thinking” by Matthew Syed and his concept of learning from mistakes and reflecting on our experiences to improve. This formed the basis of the digital presentations that the students then went on to complete.  

Lyn Stanley, Head of Science