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Spring 2015

The IB Booster INGLEMOORHIGHSCHOOLIBBOOSTERCLUBNEWSLETTER

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IB Booster Club Inglemoor High School 15500 Simonds Road NE Kenmore, WA 98028

The mission of the IB Booster Club is to support the International Baccalaureate program with educational resources; increase awareness of the program within the Northshore School District; and foster a sense of community among the International Baccalaureate students, families and educators.

Email: [email protected]

Web: ihsib.wikispaces.com Facebook: Inglemoor High IB Parents

The IB Exam, “History” &

Chris McQueen

Colleges have been accepted and declined, and plans made

for the summer and fall. Still, the high school phase of a teen’s life is not complete until the senior year ends. For parents, there seems to be an endless list of things to remember and purchase. More importantly, IB Exams are just around the corner at Inglemoor High. All IB Diploma students have History and English classes, so large numbers of students take those examinations (as many parents know from proctoring). But the IB Program didn’t start out with a combined class of 291 students.

When Chris McQueen joined Inglemoor in 2000, where the IB Program was already in practice, he and Sheri

Wood Duck by Drew Mitchell

Urgent - Proctors Needed!

May 4 – 22: IB Exams are underway and proctors are needed urgently! We are having a challenge this year getting enough volunteers. This is critical to the success in finishing the year for our IB students. Please sign up today on VolunteerSpot at: http://vols.pt/aJP7qs

Rosencwieg taught IB History to a small group of seniors. Coming from Northshore Junior High, where he taught Honors 8th Grade History, he was in the unique position of teaching those same kids again. To better prepare incoming students, Mr. McQueen and Ms. Rosencwieg developed Pre-IB History. The Inglemoor IB Program was becoming well known.

Mr. McQueen described the early years and growth of IB at Inglemoor: “IB was kind of designed to be an elite program, the best of the best for a couple of years. It hit us at the right time; people were thinking about having more rigorous options available. AP [Advanced Placement] and

In This Issue…

IB Exam & Chris McQueen Pages 1, 2, 3 We Show Our Appreciation Page 4 Examining the Visual… Pages 5, 6, 7 IB Booster Membership… Page 8 G4 Day… Pages 9, 10 Great CAS Ideas & IB Booster Board 2 Membership Form Page 13

http://vols.pt/aJP7qs

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The IB Booster Spring 2015

IB Booster Club Inglemoor High School 15500 Simonds RD NE Kenmore, WA 98028


Email: [email protected] Web: ihsib.wikispaces.com Facebook: Inglemoor High IB Parents

Honors classes were growing; college acceptance was becoming more competitive. Students were pulled from all over the district – kids came just for the IB Program. Also, the International Baccalaureate Organization (IBO) was saying if it was good for some kids, it was good for more kids. It’s a good college prep program for any kid seeking a four-year degree.” As the program became well-established in the district, adjustments were made to serve the burgeoning student population. By 2006-2007, Mr. McQueen went from teaching seniors full-time to Part-time Teacher/Part-time Coordinator, a position he shares with Amy Monaghan.

Rooted Wanderer Now with 130 seniors graduating in the 2015 IB Program and an anticipated 161 in 2016, students still receive the same quality of education as those early few. The proof is in the results: from the start, Inglemoor’s IB History average scores have always been above the international IB History scores by .25 and .26 percentage points. With greater numbers of students, the program grew yet the scores remained stable: “Which,” said Mr. McQueen, “made us confident that we could offer the program to a wider group of students. When Amy and I became coordinators

we changed the name of the application to a “”Statement of Interest””. Rather than spend time looking at reasons to disqualify kids from doing the program, we spend more time looking at kids who can do the program. The IB Diploma pass rate has been 91 percent, when there were 10 or now 140 kids. The international IB Diploma pass rate is 80 percent.”

The remarkable success of the program at Inglemoor can be attributed to the strength of the teaching staff and the types of class offerings. Students with different strengths in different areas, such as hard science versus soft (i.e., chemistry versus psychology), can select from a wide variety of classes to complete the program. He continued, “We offer more opportunities to meet the needs of different students. It’s easier to do in the Humanities, easier to differentiate instruction. You can write a Cold War essay at a 5th Grade level or high school level. Math is math.”

The IB examination process, however, may be unfamiliar to many parents. To ensure impartiality the examination schedule is set, somewhat, in two time zones by the IBO and for three weeks or more, all the students around the world test at about the same time; missed exams may not be made-up. The exams are then evaluated by international moderators. The exams are modeled after the British A Level…think of “Hogwarts”! Receiving a “4” is passing, “5” means college credit, “6” is very high, and “7” is the top 3% in the world - rarely seen in the United States.

Yet the exams themselves are not the only measure of a student’s proficiency in a subject. Every subject has three or four assessments. History, for example, requires an extensive research project. Mr. McQueen explained:

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“This means that we’re not teaching just because the kids have to take a test. We work with the kids in class on their research projects. We grade them and send in samples to IBO, which shows them how we teach the kids.” He elaborated on his personal commitment to teaching: “Because of this we have more connection with the kids. As a teacher, for better or worse, it makes me more responsible for my students’ education. It creates a teamwork mentality. Preparing for the test is important, too, but we have a common goal with the students. We’re working together on the research paper to make it the best product we can. As coordinators, we help the other teachers develop a program that is strong and rigorous for college preparedness. But we run the IB Program because it’s about being part of something that’s bigger than yourself.”

The differences between the IB and the better-known AP Exams are based more on the subject matter. Both exams in history have the same components; an essay and a document-based question. Surveying a much broader area, however, AP covers too much material to go into the same depth as an IB History course. Inglemoor IB kids study the Cold War and the Arab-Israeli Conflict in the Middle East in depth for three months. This is because the IB curriculum is by topic and is an international, not just a national, program. “IB History is a mix of history studying regional options. We teach local history in context, but 60 percent of it is global history and teachers have a huge selection to teach from. Every seven years it changes and we choose the region of study based on what is important in the world and what we think our kids need to know,” said Mr. McQueen. “The biggest advantage of the IB Exam is that it’s

For a Red Switzerland

a common assessment. Each student’s abilities are measured against every IB student in the world.

Colleges and universities like the IB Program because they can compare students. They’ve seen the product. They know that if you complete the IB Diploma and have a decent GPA, you come prepared. It’s an advantage for acceptance. In Canada, where IB is more common, your IB scores get you into college.” On a personal note, he added, “The best part is watching my daughter, Ali, at Barnard College, New York, being called out in freshman English and told that she was the best writer of the freshman class. I’m very grateful to her English teachers.”

Every year the coordinators look at the scores and discuss what they need to do to help the kids be more successful. From reducing senior stress by streamlining earlier CAS participation to supporting new developments in curriculum like the IBBC certificate, modifications are made that keep the students competitive for college applications. The students will be successful, if they do the work. By the time they’ve finished that last IB Exam, Inglemoor’s IB students’ will be prepared for any college or university, and the everyday issues of adapting to college as freshmen will be their biggest challenge. When it comes to academics, they’ll be comfortable and able to remain competitive. ~

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So We Show Our Appreciation

Led by the dynamic focus of Barbara Gamrath, a one-

woman Teacher Appreciation Committee, and thanks to your IB membership funds we were able to give small gifts and notes of support to all our hard working IB teachers and support staff throughout the year. The IB Boosters hosted a “Welcome Back” light buffet in the fall for their first meeting with Amy Monaghan and Chris McQueen, IB Coordinators. Then we continued our tradition which has been that each month teachers receive a small token of recognition and thanks from the IB Booster Club. Surprising them with an array of sweet cookie treats or coffee, tea and cider samples, popcorn, apples, small note pads, individual letters of thanks to each teacher from anonymous IB students were some of the ways we were able to tell them that they make a difference in our community. We want them know how much their hard work means to us all!

We will be offering our thanks to the IB Coordinators who lead this program and give 100 percent every day in seen and unseen ways which benefit all of our IB students. We have much to be grateful for. So we celebrate and in small ways acknowledge our teachers, the leaders, mentors, and committed educators, who inspire, motivate, encourage and model high standards to our students every day. ~

Great Horned Owl

Nikita

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Examining the Visual in IB

When a student makes a drawing, painting or sculpture in

IB Visual Arts, there isn’t a correct answer or written explanation that can be assessed by the International Baccalaureate Program (IBO). As in all other areas of the IB Program, the expectations for an IB Art student are high. So how is the creative work “measured” or “compared”? Assessing IB Visual Art requires a different kind of perspective from the International Baccalaureate Program. Zane Mills, Teacher, IB Visual Arts, elaborated on this process:

“IB Visual Arts has a rather unique "examination" as there is NO paper or pencil examination. Students are expected to create great art and so, therefore, only the artwork they

create is assessed. There is no culminating time when students need to sweat with anxiety in the library hoping that they don't perform poorly. Instead, their examination is a review of a culmination of everything they have made

throughout the duration of the course. There are two components to the class: artwork that students create and a sketchbook that they keep. Their sketchbook is their internal assessment and their artwork is their external assessment.

At exam time, they make a selection of pages from their sketchbook (for their internal assessment score) and they put together an art exhibition of all the artwork they made throughout the duration of the course (for their external assessment score). Images of their sketchbook, images of their artwork and images of their art exhibition are all sent to IBO and IBO sends these images to several moderators throughout the world to examine, score and moderate the work. It's a rather unique experience in the art world where students get to have several people take the time to look through and assess their work.”

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The opportunity for this level of international examination is not available in any other area of public education in the United States. As in classes such as history, math or chemistry, not only is the evaluation process highly significant in that the IB art student

knows how their work compares to other students’ worldwide, but the prestige of the IB Program is an advantage for college acceptance. Mr. Mills continued: “I remember one of my students who went to Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) told me that most of his friends at RISD all attended arts magnet schools for high school and had art classes all day long. He said their jaws drop when he tells them that he went to public high school and only had IB Visual Arts as his art class. Several students have told me that their professors are impressed with their sketchbooks and it is due to the skills they learned in IB Visual Arts. Most of their peers don't know how to use a sketchbook as a working art book. During one of my student's interviews for Cornish, the interviewer slowed way down looking through artwork once he started looking in my student's sketchbook. He kept saying, “"Wow, you're studying THIS artist?"” and “"This is work that you’re doing in high school?"” After gaping through the book he said, "This work you're doing is not work that you will do when you come to college as a freshman. You won't study these concepts as a sophomore, either. This is junior level work that you are doing.””

These are the art schools my students attend:

The Cooper Union (Their art department selects less than 2 percent of applicants; it's crazy that we've had students accepted into it.)

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (In my editorial opinion, it's the best art school in the world. We have students who go there every year; Jonathan Baker is going there next year.)

The Rhode Island School of Design (In my editorial opinion, it's the second best art school in the world.)

Then there are many other prestigious art schools that our students have gone on to in the past: Parsons, Ringling

College of Art and Design, Cornish College of the Arts, Carnegie Mellon, Art Center, Fashion Institute of Technology.

These are the awards for 2014-2015:

Jennifer Chen won first place at the Arts of Kenmore Youth Art Group Exhibition in fall, 2014.

Drew Mitchell received a 3rd place ranking at the state level for the 2015 Federal Junior Duck Stamp Contest. He was selected out of 125 entries. His painting will be on exhibit at the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge until spring 2016. Emily Ojeda received an honorable mention in this same contest.

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Several students have submitted work to the Arts of Kenmore, Kenmore Art Show, but we won't know the results for a couple of weeks.”

Reflecting on his students’ success, Mr. Mills said: “It’s a really unique class. I wish I would have had this type of class available when I was in high school. It's an incredible program.” Be sure to attend the upcoming IHS Artwalk, Thursday, May 14 from 6:30-8:00 in the 400 building at Inglemoor High. It's an enjoyable event that is free and open to the public. Many IB Visual Arts students will have work exhibited there.

We thank Zane Mills, not only for being an inspiring, enthusiastic and dedicated teacher, but for graciously sharing his students’ wonderful artwork with the entire IB community. Numerous examples of IB Visual Artwork are displayed throughout this newsletter. Enjoy! ~

Almost Gone

If I Could Show You

And We Celebrate… The Recognition Ceremony is

Almost Here!

Please help… be part of the IB Recognition Event! Contact the partnering coordinators Avital Erez,

[email protected], or Robinah Mukasa, [email protected], to help with the ceremony on

Wednesday, 6:30pm, May 27th.

mailto:[email protected]


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IB Boosters General Membership Meeting is on Monday, May 11

All parents of IB students in the classes of 2015, 2016, and 2017 are invited to attend the IB Boosters General Meeting in the

Inglemoor High School library at 7 pm on Monday, May 11. Please come to hear about: what the IB Boosters’ membership money has funded; what’s next for the 2015, 2016, and 2017 IB cohorts; what your student needs to work on this summer; and how you can help all the students by becoming involved in this valuable all-volunteer booster club! We look forward to seeing you there!

In order to support the IB program for your students, the IB Booster Board is looking for board members for school year 2015-16:

President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Membership Coordinator Public Relations Newsletter

Please join the Board next year and support all the students! The Board meets once a month and is a “well-oiled machine” – i.e., our duties are clearly defined and run smoothly each year! Please contact Board President Stephanie Brommer at [email protected] if you would like to join the Board next year.

Join Us & Become a Member of the IHS IB Booster Club

Yearly membership fees, as well as corporate matching

donations, are a vital part of supporting the Inglemoor IB program. The previously mentioned activities that are so important to our children’s IB experience happen with parental involvement and financial support. So, please consider joining us and helping our program become even better! For your convenience, the membership form is included on Page 13. We’ve also attached the following link to the membership form:

http://ihsib.wikispaces.com/file/detail/MembershipForm2014-15.pdf

And thank you for everything you’ve done already!

Aqua

May 11, 7 pm

IB Booster General Meeting

Inglemoor High School Library




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Group 4 Day:

Scientific Collaboration

Now in February every year, Inglemoor IB students

participate in a “G4 Day”. This is not a “science fair”, but more a day of sharing scientific or technological information in order to better understand the relationships between disciplines and their influence on other areas of knowledge. It is a day with projects, some deliberately complicated or unconventional (like the Rube Goldberg Project or the Cardboard Chair Challenge), in order to teach students more about interdisciplinary cooperation and the processes involved, rather than the end products. Tom Wojtkowiak, IHS Teacher, IB Physics II, expanded on the purpose of the project: How would you describe the goals of this project and how do you think it benefits the students' understanding of science in general? “The basic goal of the day is to provide students an opportunity to work collaboratively on an interdisciplinary science project. Our hope is that they do realize science is integrated and that the world we live in requires students to work well as a team. In fact, the students receive an IB mark for the day based on their "Personal Skills." This is the main requirement for the IB program. The three aspects that we evaluate the students on during the day are: Self motivation and perseverance, Working within a team, and Self-reflection. The odd part about the day is that the science aspect of the project is not the main focus. When we start the day with the students,

we stress how important it is to be an asset to their team and how to practice being an effective leader and an effective listener. The last part is a self-reflection piece that they complete on their own and turn into us later on that week.”

How are the different sciences integrated? “In order to mix the science disciplines among the teams, we ask students to sign up on-line a week before the project. They let us know what class they are in and what their top three project preferences are for the day. Then, we try to honor their preferences and make sure that the teams are mixed up. It is a bit of a challenge as we had almost 100 physics students and about 150 students in all the other classes. Some groups had more than one physics student just due to the numbers.” Has the project focus changed over the years? “Our projects haven't changed too much over the past few years. However, due to adding sustainable engineering and design, computer science and sports, exercise and health science to our IB program we added the Cardboard Chair Challenge this year. The logistics for the day are fairly involved as we use multiple classrooms in the school and have to figure out what to do with the students we displace from those rooms as well as make sure we have all the supplies needed for the day. We are grateful for the funding received from IB boosters to support this project!” How did the projects and the students’ work proceed this year? “The projects went really well this year! We feel that we have learned a lot over the years and it is finally paying off. We know how to get everything set up and organized ahead of time so that the day runs well. I supervised a Rube Goldberg room and was impressed with the

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creativity of the students and how well they all seemed to work together. Their goal is to build an unnecessarily complicated machine that is used to light up a light bulb. That project can be very tedious as the students design and implement their ideas and it takes some give and take from all group members. In the end, we had some impressive projects that integrated different science concepts as they were required to show at least six energy transfers. It tends to be a very full day for the students as they are motivated to produce their best work since they finish the day running their machine in a presentation to the other groups in their room.”

Are the project and the reflection piece required for every school to complete the science portion of the IB program? “Each school is required to run a Group 4 Project, but it is up to each school to figure out what they will do and when they will complete the project. The lab hours count towards the lab requirement for each science discipline and the students receive a mark for their personal

skills. However, some of the science curriculums are changing and it seems like IB is placing less emphasis on the Group 4 Project. For example, the new biology and physics curriculum requires us to run a Group 4 Project, but no mark will be given for personal skills. The project must be listed in our labs that are reported to the IB organization, but no other data is sent off.” The Rube Goldberg Project: Students design and

build a machine that will light a light bulb, involving at least six energy transformations.

Temperature Mapping: Students gather surface temperature data with an Infrared Temperature Gun and use it to create a temperature map. The subject may be living or non-living, small or large, indoors or outdoors.

Paper and Glue Construction: Students give paper

destined for the recycle bin new life by designing and building something new with it. The product must be made out of 30 sheets of copy paper and a glue stick, and also be self-supporting (i.e., no walls, tables or props).

Cardboard Chair Challenge: Students build a fully

functional chair using only two sheets of cardboard, it must support at least a 150 lb person, no adhesives or “non” cardboard connectors may be used for assembly and must have a backrest. ~

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Wonderland Series: Begins

Wonderland Series: Talking Flowers

Wonderland Series: The Queeen

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Self-portrait: Lores

Your IHS IB Booster Club Board 2014 – 2015

President: Stephanie Brommer

Treasurer: Ketan Shah Secretary: Marybeth Turk

Membership Chair: Julie Chee Publicity: Janis Anable

Newsletter Design: Marian Stewart CAS Chair: Miriam Burbach

Volunteer Coordinator: Susan Diekema Web Master: Twiki IHSIB Appreciation Event Chair:

Barbara Gamrath IB Senior Recognition Event:

Robinah Mukasah, Avital Erez Ridesharing Program: Edie Lie

IHS IB Co-Coordinators:

Amy Monaghan, Chris McQueen

We wish to express our thanks to everyone on the

Board for their generous commitment of time, effort and energy.

Great Ideas for CAS Activities! Many good CAS activities are “passed down” from class to class, such as “Christmas Music for the Cure”. This is why it is a good idea for juniors to talk to the seniors about good CAS activities. There are some activities that seniors are

looking for juniors or sophomores to take on next year so they

don’t die out. Here is a list of several ideas from previous

students:

Christmas for the Cure

Performing Christmas Music at a mall or Senior Center

Giving concerts to raise funds for charities

Leadership in a club

Coaching in a club or tournament

Tutoring math or music at elementary schools & libraries

Raising awareness of political events and causes

Join Us on the Dance Floor

Creating crafts to sell for refugees or the homeless

Making or serving food for the homeless

Restoring forest areas and trails

Building urban garden plots

Day Camp counselor

Big Brother or Big Sister

Gathering bedding for animal shelters

Volunteering at festivals

Volunteering to build houses in poor countries

Volunteering at a hospital, museum, shelter, or zoo

Assisting the elderly with technology

Raising a guide puppy

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