Over the course of two days, the laboratories of Oakham’s Mehra Faculty of Science were a hive of activity as the IB Diploma students, divided into teams of five or six, tackled the 17 challenges that they had been set, many of which related to the UN’s 17 sustainability goals. Each team contained students studying a different science, including Biology, Chemistry, Physics, DT, and Sports Science and these interdisciplinary groups worked collaboratively to complete tasks and solve problems within the specified time limit. The students were given the additional challenge of solving devious puzzles set at frequent intervals by Teacher of Physics Hannah Edwards. Once they had completed each of the challenges, the teams gave presentations to their peers and science teachers in their science base about their findings.
The tasks required the pupils to use science to think creatively about how to solve a real-life problem or challenge and included creating a device that can accurately time five minutes without using electricity, cooking an egg over a night light using the least amount of energy, and making a flag using natural dyes to represent one of the UN’s 17 sustainability goals.
Head of Biology, Dr Trish Ingles, said: “The Collaborative Sciences Project is one of the highlights of the IB Diploma Programme, as it requires pupils to use many different aspects of the ‘scientific method’ – questioning, experimenting, recording, forming hypotheses, evaluating, presenting, to name just a few.
“The emphasis is on the pupils’ working together as a team to solve the problems, which is an invaluable learning experience.”
IB DP Co-ordinator Carolyn Fear said: “It’s wonderful to see our IB students working collaboratively off timetable to extend their scientific knowledge. The Collaborative Sciences Project also helps them to develop their time management skills and ability to work independently.”
Read more about the IB DP and life in the Upper School at Oakham School.
