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DP1 Students: IA Engagements!
What do they mean by "Global Political Challenge?"
What do they mean by "Global Political Challenge?"
The HL Presentations focus on one of six key concepts that are exclusive to the HL component of the course: poverty, environment, health, security, borders, and identity.
Basically, all of these concepts relate to significant challenges or crises that threaten countries, regions, and sometimes even the whole world (I'm lookin' at you, every-year-is-the-new-hottest-year-ever.)
Students choose a real-world case study (an example, basically) that allows them to analyze ONE of the HL key concepts alongside key concepts from the four main units of the course.
HL students prepare TWO presentations, and each presentation must focus on a different global political challenge/concept (so you can't do two presentations on the environment, but you can do one on an environmental issue and another on a topic related to identity, for example.)
Why do HL students do these?
Why do HL students do these?
One reason is because there is no Paper 3 exam in Global Politics, unlike the HL components in most other DP subjects.
Another reason is because an oral presentation is one of the best ways to do a high-level analysis on these critical issues.
Researching, planning, and practicing your presentation will help you build a different set of skills that you don't often get to use in your DP courses. Some students write well and prefer not to speak; these presentations may be a challenge for those students, but you're up to the task. Other students LOVE talking (Hi, Vic!) but aren't big fans of writing, or have difficulty writing under a strict time limit. This task is GREAT for those students, as it plays to their strengths. Regardless of where you fall (and I think there are a lot of students in between these two extremes) these presentations are tasks that a) you can do well on, and b) will help you grow.
...When do we do these?
...When do we do these?
THAT is one of the trickier parts of the Global Politics course.
We will start working on research and presentation skills in the first semester, and you'll have a few tasks to help you practice and identify your areas of strength as well as some of your weaknesses. By the end of the first semester, we'll be selecting our first presentation topic and you'll begin researching during the winter break.
The timelines are tight, so it is extremely important to hit all of our benchmarks and milestones: we will record the first presentation before the end of DP1. The second presentation will be recorded early in the second semester of DP2 (to avoid the assignment bottleneck that you'll have, alongside college applications, at the end of DP2's first semester.)
IB recommends that students spend approx. 45 hours on each presentation -- experienced GloPo teachers claim that is a dramatic overestimate. Most students do quite well with considerably less time than that. However, between our class time and your own independent work on these tasks, I do estimate that you'll come close to 45 hours on at least one of the two presentations (the second one is usually a bit easier because you've already gone through the entire process.)
Need more?
Need more?
Look, it's a cartoon! Kids love cartoons!
(This is a good 5-minute overview of what goes into the presentation, as well as the guidlines HL students should follow.)
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