Social Science

 

This course will focus student learning on the peoples, ideas, and forces that have shaped our world, and enable students to investigate their place in and capacity to act in an increasingly interdependent global society. It will allow students to appreciate the rich cultures that exist across the world. This course will advance through a combination of content knowledge, inquiry, and appropriate analytical skills in a literacy-rich fashion. These thematic investigations will include an emphasis on interdisciplinary social sciences and build understanding of cultural, institutional, economic, and technological patterns that, along with geography, have set the human stage.

 

In an honors course, students will make thematic connections in a reading and writing intensive setting. Students will be expected to meet the standards with less scaffolding and more independent and collaborative practice. Increased complexity of texts, tasks, and responses will prepare honors students for advanced placement and college level coursework. Additionally, it will incorporate an extensive research project allowing students to interweave the content and skill sets they have work on throughout the year. Honors courses are weighted.

 

The study of United States History allows students to understand the people, ideas, and forces that have shaped this country. Moving through the development of our maturing democracy will allow students to explore both their individual and our collective place in an interdependent global society. Students will access diverse texts to explore what it means to live in America by studying the people, key ideas, and events that shaped our history and include a focus on the struggles to achieve class, ethnic, racial, and gender equality and the successes and failures that have shaped who we are.

 

In an honors course, students will make thematic connections in a reading and writing intensive setting. Students will be expected to meet the standards with less scaffolding and more independent and collaborative practice. Increased complexity of texts, tasks, and responses will prepare honors students for advanced placement and college level coursework. Additionally, it will incorporate an extensive research project allowing students to interweave the content and skill sets they have work on throughout the year. Honors courses are weighted.

 

Course description coming soon!

The Diploma Programme history course aims to promote an understanding of history as a discipline, including the nature and diversity of its sources, methods and interpretations. It also helps students to gain a better understanding of the present through critical reflection upon the past. The course provides both structure and flexibility, fostering an understanding of major historical events in a global context. It requires students to make comparisons between similar and dissimilar solutions to common human situations, whether they be political, economic or social. It invites comparisons between, but not judgments of, different cultures, political systems and national traditions.

 

The AP Psychology course introduces students to the systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes. While considering the psychologists and studies that have shaped the field, students explore and apply psychological theories, key concepts, and phenomena associated with such topics as the biological bases of behavior, sensation and perception, learning and cognition, motivation, developmental psychology, testing and individual differences, treatment of abnormal behavior, and social psychology. Throughout the course, students employ psychological research methods, including ethical considerations, as they use the scientific method, analyze bias, evaluate claims and evidence, and effectively communicate ideas.

The Diploma Programme psychology course is designed to allow for in-depth analysis, evaluation and consolidation of learning. The overall aim of the course is to give students a deeper understanding of the nature and scope of psychology. The course is the systematic study of behavior and mental processes; and examines the interaction of biological, cognitive and socio-cultural influences on human behavior. Students undertaking the course can expect to develop an understanding of how psychological knowledge is generated, developed and applied. External assessment for SL students consists of two written papers.

Course description coming soon!

The global politics course explores fundamental political concepts such as power, liberty and equality, in a range of contexts and at a variety of levels. It allows students to develop an understanding of the local, national, international and global dimensions of political activity, as well as allowing them the opportunity to explore political issues affecting their own lives. Global politics draws on a variety of disciplines in the social sciences and humanities. It helps students to understand abstract political concepts by grounding them in real world examples and case studies, and also invites comparison between such examples and case studies to ensure a transnational perspective. Developing international mindedness and an awareness of multiple perspectives is at the heart of this course. It encourages dialogue and debate, nurturing the capacity to interpret competing and contestable claims. All standard level students undertake an engagement activity through which they study a political issue of interest experientially. Students complement their experiential learning with more theoretical perspectives from research and submit a written report summarizing their investigation. Higherlevel students examine two contemporary global political challenges, through a case studies approach.

Civics examines the structure and function of American systems of government and the role of citizens in the political process. This course explores the crucial role that citizens have in accessing power and mediating the forms of power that government and corporations have in American society. Civics classroom work encourages and leads students to authentic democratic participation and builds a strong sense of civic identity. Instruction is studentcentered, utilizes multiple resources and pedagogical strategies, provides access to multiple forms of complex text, and is driven by authentic group projects.

 

In an honors course, students will make thematic connections in a reading and writing intensive setting. Students will be expected to meet the standards with less scaffolding and more independent and collaborative practice. Increased complexity of texts, tasks, and responses will prepare honors students for advanced placement and college level coursework. Additionally, it will incorporate an extensive research project allowing students to interweave the content and skill sets they have work on throughout the year. Honors courses are weighted.

Course description coming soon!

The Ethics and Professional Skills course, one of the core requirements of the IB Career-related Certificate, is designed to introduce students to life-skills. It is intended to develop students’ critical thinking, intercultural understanding, communication, and personal development. ATL aims to challenge students to draw on personal resources and skills to engage critically with the world around them. Students may encounter topics as diverse as ethical dilemmas, deductive and inductive reasoning, culture shock, academic honesty, and emotional intelligence.