As a requirement for the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma Programme, 11 and 12 graders must create a project based on Group 4 of the IB curriculum. The 2015 Group 4 theme is Refugees. November 19 is the presentation date for the Group 4 projects.

Group 4: Experimental Science categories include Biology, Chemistry, and Physics. Students from the prescribed topics must collaborate to analyze a mutual topic or problem and meet outside of class to discuss them and test an experiment they create. Each arrangement of students typically has four to six members, and they must create a poster and standard lab report regarding their experiment and results. Students present their projects in class and teachers give awards to outstanding projects.

Some experiments model those of organizations with the resources and funds to use a lab and conduct extensive research involving biology, chemistry, and physics. Although the student-made experiments do not always match those they model, students still gain information from the projects.

Junior Duaa Malik says, “Our experiment is focused around dehydration, where a lot of refugees can’t hold the water given to them by humanitarian organizations. There’s something called an oral rehydration solution, but it’s not readily available to them. What we want to do [is use] resources that are more readily available. Our solutions didn’t work as well as [the organizations’], but the experiments worked pretty well, so that was a pretty useful thing to find out.”

Students also gain information before even conducting their experiments.

Junior Mujahid Jaffer says, “For our experiment, we have to measure the bacteria in a person’s mouth and discover if it’s more effective to get rid of the bacteria using toothpaste or mouthwash. We chose our experiment because it’s something that can be applicable in daily life. We haven’t conducted the full experiment, but [through research] we’ve seen that mouthwash works better because it gets the whole mouth.”

As stated in the diploma programme specifications, the Group 4 collaborative activity is to develop an understanding of the relationships between scientific disciplines and their influence on other areas of knowledge. Through the Group 4 projects, SHS IB students gain information regarding various areas of study.