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MINT Focus: How is STEM demonstrated to be a focus in ISC's program?
International School Carinthia was founded in 2013 with 55 students in grades 1-4 and has now grown to 390 students in grades 1-12. International School Carinthia (ISC) has been an official IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) World School since October 2019 and our Diploma Program (DP) since May 2020.
“The MYP is designed to facilitate interdisciplinary learning and teaching. The programme offers opportunities for students to make connections between and among traditional academic disciplines, including STEM subjects. STEM-based learning can be structured through both formal and informal interdisciplinary learning experiences in many MYP subject groups. For example, students can apply the design cycle to approach a problem originating in one or more STEM fields, an approach which supports interdisciplinary research and requires synthetic thinking. In mathematics, students have opportunities to apply concepts in real-life contexts that invite STEM-based approaches. Students often use mathematics as an area of knowledge within which to frame inquiries, develop understanding, and solve problems relating to science, engineering and technology. MYP students can also engage in STEM-based learning through MYP personal and community projects. Students who select scientific and technical innovation as a focal global context often naturally draw on STEM concepts and practices as they apply their knowledge and skills to solve problems and develop products.” *
The best practices outlined in the MINT Gütesiegel program are an inherent part of the IB Middle Years Programme (MYP) and evident in ISC’s mission statement, school profile and approaches to learning and teaching. ISC has designed our MYP to be an inquiry-based, transdisciplinary program that gives students a wide variety of opportunities to explore real-world topics via hands-on projects and authentic assessment. MYP teachers plan units collaboratively to ensure students make connections to all subjects throughout each unit. Teachers also plan curriculum trips and invite experts into the school at least once per unit to demonstrate the real-world application of what students are studying in the classroom. MINT opportunities are promoted equally to all students throughout the program. Teachers engage in IB professional development regularly as a team and MINT-relevant professional development in their subjects whenever possible. As ISC grows, we participate more and more in local, regional and global projects and competitions with a MINT focus.
ISC was authorized to offer the IB Diploma Programme (DP) to our grade 11-12 students in May 2020. Based on our students’ course preferences, the ISC Diploma Programme offers students many MINT-focused opportunities to expand their learning and lead them towards MINT-oriented career opportunities in the future.
*Excerpted directly from the IB document: STEM Education in the MYP.
What developments have been made in terms of eLearning, digital skills, and computational thinking across the curriculum?
What has been done to promote enthusiasm in STEM subjects regardless of gender, social environment or impairment?
What developments have been made in terms of curriculum-based or extracurricular activities that make STEM professions and opportunities visible to students?
What professional development opportunities have been provided for staff for personal development, exchanges, and support in STEM teaching and learning?
What projects or competitions have students engaged in during the past three years to develop STEM competencies?
ISC must develop AT LEAST TWO concrete goals from the following list for the next three years, including success criteria to evaluate whether these goals have been met or not.
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