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IB Approved Workshops
Environmental systems and societies (New Syllabus)
IB DP Category 2
Stockholm, Sweden, 3 - 5 May 2024
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Virtual Think-Ins
Making Sense of the New DP Environmental Systems and Societies Course
Virtual Think-In, 10 May 2024
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Subscriber comments
- On Topic 8, top left corner, on the birth and death rates and NIR questions, I think there are a couple typos. I'm guessing the first quesiton is supposed to ask about birth rates and the second answer should be death rate? Let...
- Thank you so much Zoe. Yes I use the topic sections and find them brilliant. Thank you for all your hard work!
- Thank you so much!
- Hi Ciara,I have only seen some sample chapters online and don't have a book in front of me. My guess is I will prefer Oxford but I think Laura has seen the books so she might have a better idea. As soon as we do, we will review the books. You...
- Hi both,Do you have any recommendations for a text book to accompany the new course next year? I am relatively new to ESS- I have taught it for one year but would love the students to have a comprehensive textbook to use as support! The...
- Hi Molly, we've tried to address this here https://thinkib.net/ess/page/48236/populations-samples
- On number 6, is there a general rule for "an appropriate number of samples" that I can tell my kids? This is something we've talked about, but I just still don't feel confident. Thanks!
- Thanks Ethan. Good advice.
- Hi! As a suggestion, sometimes if you contact the author of an article behind a paywall with your teacher account, you can request a copy for use in the classroom. Maybe contact this author would provide similar results?
- This is a slow one - I think we left it about 3 weeks though you can get some data earlier.
- Welcome Steve. I'm looking forward to you learning more about ESS :-)
- Hi , just wondering how long did it take for the leaves to grow?
- I am looking forward to learning more of ESS, thanks.
- Hi Kathryn, they are hidden away with a closed eye symbol :-)Response 1 got 6/9 Response 2 got 7/9
- Hi Abbey. Yes the test is 8.2, 8.3, 8.4 and 1.4
- Muchas gracias Zoe.
- Do you have the marks the student received from each of these responses?
- With the assessment. Why would part (b) be part of this test, doesn't this topic come under 8.3?
- Hola Maide,This is an interesting topic. I think I would narrow it down to the relative impact on humanity or alternatively look at preference of solutions to mitigation (or adaptation) to climate change. The key to surveys is to make sure...
- Hola Zoe. Todos los materiales son muy interesantes y valiosos. Este es mi primer año acompañando a mis estudiantes en realizar la Evaluación Interna. Una estudiante plantea la siguiente pregunta: ¿En qué medida el género afecta la visión...
- Thanks - I've updated it.
- Thanks, I've updated that to Wildscreen.
- The Arkive link is broken; I believe it is now /
- Sorry to be a pedant.. but I believe it's "Panthalassa" (Mass Extinction 3), unless there's an alternate spelling "Pnatholossa"...?
- Student 1 - this seems too vague and broad. It's going to be very difficult to collect relevant data. If they are interested in urbanisation and climate change, is there data on temperatures in urban and rural areas in a given region?Student...
- Hola Maide, I've used Google Translate but here's my feedback...It's a great question (I had one of my students write their EE on El Nino and Peruvian Achovies) last year and she found that government regulation was very important). So some...
- 10 April 2024
Maide Bellido Guerra
Developing a relevant, coherent and focused Research Question for your IA
Hola Zoe, es mi segundo año dictando esta asignatura. Mis estudiantes estan iniciando la elaboración de su evaluación interna. Quisiera tu opinión sobre esta pregunta RQ: ¿En que medida las regulaciones pesqueras implementadas por el gobierno... - Hi Zoe and Laura,I hope you are both well.It's my first year doing ESS EEs and I'm struggling a little to get my head around exactly what makes a good RQ.Student 1 has chosen: How has urbanisation in ...?.. India impacted the greenhouse effect...
- Hi Samuel, I see you are based in China. Is Vimeo blocked for you there? Would YouTube work?
- Thanks, Laura! At this point, I will just have them use the click and drag feature. I appreciate the help!
- I can't view any media on this page
- Thanks Christopher, I'll cross reference with the new topic 3 I've already written and see if I can add these although from memory, there is less opportunity to talk about this.
- I think 3.2 qualifies as my absolute favourite topic in the course.Some suggested resources: https://youtu.be/j43wzuciAkk (Ted Ed on monotremes), https://youtu.be/hRzRjHzvOts (Ted Ed on flightless birds), https://youtu.be/p-vNSqUy0l4 (Ted Ed...
- Many thanks for your comments Ethan. I have added another couple of marking points to the answers with a some links for students and teachers who wish to explore the subject further. I do think the points you raised are very relevant...
- @laura can you take a look?
- Thanks Christopher. I've updated the links. I didn't re-find the Spitzbergen animation but found a YouTube video that tells the same story but in longer form (it's actually easier to follow rather than speeded up).
- Hello. The "video clip of the movement of Spitzbergen" appears to be broken
- Hi Paul - here is one I found online https://www.instructables.com/How-to-make-Google-Cardboard/ - the click and drag feature does work well though
- Hi all - not sure if this will be seen in time but could you please post a link with the cardboard head-set blueprint you used? I am having trouble finding a good and cheap working set-up. Worst comes to worst, I will just have them watch on...
- Thanks for mentioning these discussion points - we'll add them to the answers. What do you mean about using up water resources?
- We discussed this one in class and some of the disadvantages for afforestation that kept coming up were:using monoculture afforestation could introduce non-native species/affect biodiversity;does not consider proper water management/afforestation...
- Thanks a lotx
- Hi Dina - yes, the link is in the menu on the left just under the case study itself - here is a link anyway
- hi is there an answer key for this?
- Thank you!
- Thanks Kathryn, I think this review is fairly balanced about her book. https://www.theguardian.com/books/2024/jan/04/not-the-end-of-the-world-by-hannah-ritchie-review-an-optimists-guide-to-the-climate-crisisI remember going to see Steven Pinker...
- Hi Christopher, well spotted. I have no idea what I was intending to do now so I've deleted that subheading. Thanks again.
- Hi Christopher, thanks for reporting. Yes I couldn't track down the original page either. I think that all the important information is on this page anyway. Since I wrote this page, we have a much better set of pages on sampling which you might...
- Hi Molly, You need to include the questions and their justification in the plan - this counts for words. You can include the survey results in tables (I wouldn't recommend screenshots) and then they wouldn't be included in the word count. I've...
- I enjoyed listening to 'Not the End of the World: How We Can Be the First Generation to Build a Sustainable Planet' by Hannah Ritchie, a lead researcher for the website Ourworldindata.Other ESS teachers have suggested her arguments are too...
- In the Student Task section, there is a heading labeled "Student Task 2:" but on my screen there is nothing underneath. Is there a second task here? Thanks
- 19 March 2024
Christopher Andrew Quarrie
2.5 Sampling Strategies and Measurements - "Where and How Many?"
The Useful reference: Methods for Plant Sampling link seems to be broken - Apologies if this is out there somewhere, but do surveys count towards the word count? One of my students is thinking he's going to put screenshots of his survey in to keep it out of the word count. Thoughts about this? Thanks!
- Thank you, Zoe!
- Hi Abbey, More Economically Developed Country or Less Economically Developed Country. The trend is away from using these terms but it's complicated. I wrote about it a little in the new topic 1.3 Sustainability: "a more sophisticated measure...
- What does MEDC and a named LEDC stand for?
- Thank you for the clarification.
- Hi Bogdan, yes that is correct although I encourage my students to have a cover page which includes the word count.
- I would still want to understand the justification for the choice of the 3 countries.
- Hi Funda,you can find all the Checking your understanding in the revision section but here is the 5.2 section.
- Hi Shivani, at the moment I'm running 2 for the new syllabus. You can find them here. Both are in May. There's also a statistics one coming up in a couple of weeks.
- Done - I have 3 hours as my recommended teaching time for this subtopic.
- Hi, reading through some of the replies here and taking into consideration this one from 2021 - 'Laura Hamilton13 June 2021 - 16:48Hi Lynne, no need for either a cover page not a contents page. Just make sure the title and subtitles are...
- Thank you for your response on this. Very helpful.I didn't explain fully - for each of the 3 countries there are 20 pairs of data as the student will look at meat consumption verses GNI per capita over a 20 year period for each of the three...
- Hello, can you share checking your understanding key?
- Hi ZoeWhich Think In are you leading for ESS new syllabus? I am very keen to attend that as I will not be able to travel to Berlin or Stockholm...Thanks
- Good afternoon Zoe, I was wondering if you could update the recommended teaching time for this page when you have a moment. Thank you!
- Hi Zoe, I had a student look at asthma cases with levels of PM pollutants as an example. She scored a 7 overall. What does your student write about in their context. It's unlikely to be a 0 but probably, by what you describe, be scoring low.
- Hi Kathryn, i think it's ok that they are similar. I often have students doing similar things but the reports end up being very different due to their different processes. One thing I would mention is that I don't think doing 3 different countries...
- Hello Zoe,Please help!The research question has to be explicitly linked to an environmental issue, not a health or economic one. There can be instances where the issue is a health related one but impacts to the environment should also be explained...
- Hi Zoe and Laura,Can you give advice on how much research questions need to vary between students from the same school. I have one student who would like to analyse how ecological footprints vary in relation to GDP per capita worldwide and...
- Hi Leonie, It seems like it would fit into ESS. The chemistry and ESS angle would be possible but you'd have to think if the chemistry was worthy of a chemistry lens. It's not very complicated. I had a student, years ago, look at soil buffering...
- Hi Zoe, hope you're well. I have a student who is doing a World Studies Extended Essay in both Chemistry and ESS. They want to look at acid deposition and to what extent liming is effective on neutralising lakes/soils. Their...
- Could you post these videos on Youtube? My district blocks vimeo and has refused to allow it, even for teachers.
- Thanks! Just realized I asked twice 😂
- Oh wow that's great. Thanks!!
- https://www.thinkib.net/ess/page/46578/13-checking-your-understanding-answers
- Hi Christopher, I created a whole section for Checking your understanding and all the answers are there. https://www.thinkib.net/ess/page/28190/checking-your-understandinghttps://www.thinkib.net/ess/page/46580/14-checking-your-understanding-answers
- Hello. I'm wondering if you could provide an answer key to the "Checking Understanding: Are Your (sp) Ready?" section. Thanks
- Hello. I'm wondering if you have an answer key for the "Checking Understanding: Are Your Ready?" questions. Thank you.
- Thank you so much Shivani - those resources are really high quality, I've add links where I can
- Thanks Bethany
- I love that you have Lovelock and Daisy World on here now! :)
- thanks for the reminder Shivani - yes I've used this resource before but I don't think I've incorporated it into the website. Good tip while @Laura is working on topic 2 revisions.
- Thanks, JoAnn. Very kind.
- I'll see what I can think of. I just gave my students their mocks back and emphasised that they need to understand it's marked like a science paper so for 7 marks they need 7 points. Mine were writing 2-4 points with lovely wordy explanations...
- Hi ZoeSharing an excellent resource for Biomes - an HHMI interactive - You probably have already seen it :) But I found it really useful to cover many essential understandings at one go!
- Zoe,Your site has been such a wonderful resource for me as I learn this course (just in time for it to change!). I appreciate your continued guidance as we move into that new guide.JoAnn
- Me too. I love the rubric for the 9-pointer which is Part C. I need something similar for Part B and 7-pointers.
- Thank you very much for your quick reply. I really appreciate your support!
- Hi Colin, I actually think it's ok. Students often choose things that we think are obvious but it's still a challenge for them to find the data, process it etc and consider other variable. I wouldn't penalise them just for this.
- Hi Zoe and colleaguesI have a question regarding a secondary data-based IA that I received. It is well crafted and well written but the RQ is on the correlation between palm oil production and forest area cover in Indonesia over time. *They...
- Sorry for the delay, I'm doing this next week so I'll get some answers for you.
- Hi Noreen, I'm afraid they don't appear to be available unless you work in a school that has a long back catalogue of exams. As we move to the new guide, I'm going to have to re-work this section and as I'm no longer an exam writer, I can write...
- I noticed for some of the EOY exams provided he/she is using May 2013-14 exams. How can we access those? thank you
- Hi Christopher, the PP questions are organised by topic but we can't publish the actual questions. You can use this as a finder if you don't have questionbank in your school but have purchased the papers.
- Specifically, I'm looking for the exams reference here. Thank you
- Hello. I'm wondering how to use this page. I'm looking for exam-style questions for Topic 2. Any assistance would be appreciated.
- Now I'm able to see it, thanks! Looking forward to sharing with the students :-)
- Is there a suggested markscheme for this?
- Hi Ethan, I think I've fixed the problem. Let me know if it persits
- The Edpuzzle seems to not be functioning, there is a 404 Not Found error
- Hi Maja, I'm afraid I don't have answers prepared for these questions.
- Are there any answers available for Section 2?
- Thank you Alison. No I won't be in Dublin unfortunately but Laura will. Looking forward to hearing how the workshop goes. I'm leading workshops in Stockholm (full) and Berlin and also a couple of Think-Ins if you fancy joining one of those.
- You have an amazing amount of work here already - will you be in Dublin at the meeting in March?
- II stands for Independent Investigation - the official name for the IA in ESS. It is a bit confusing. Is that what you wanted to know?
- Buenos días Zoe, perdona molestar, no logro captar que es II. Entiendo que tengo que introducir las puntuaciones de cada criterio para cada alumno (en mi caso tengo 5 por lo que tendré que subir todos) y después ¿habrá un espacio para...
- Hi John, I think I'm at capacity for leading F2F workshops unless any get arranged in my holidays. I teach and can't leave my own students. We are looking at running a virtual workshop - waiting for IB permission.
- Thank you for replying, Zoe. I will look into course offerings on ibo.org.
- Hi Zoe, will you be doing any workshops in Spain or Italy in the near future? and It would also be great to run a virtual category 2 workshop. :)
- Hello Era Dawn, I will pass on your request to InThinking. I'm currently scheduled to lead Cat2 workshops in Stockholm and Berlin and a cluster workshop in Geneva. We are investigating if we can get permission to run a virtual workshop. I have...
- Are there any workshops available for ESS Category 1? I've only seen Category 2.
- De nada. Gracias
- Me parece una forma genial y amena de repasar asociaciones aunque en la evaluación externa no haya este tipo de preguntas. ¡Muchas gracias!
- Thanks Jon - I've updated the links section
- All links are down except for American National Park Service, and South Africas National Parks
- Thanks Helen, I do think that these population pyramids (age-gender pyramids) can be deceptively tricky. Generally the mark schemes I've looked through get students to analyse changes over time (May 2022 - Costa Rica) or reasons why two pyramids...
- Thank you - yes, I agree, they can absolutely infer what future population should be from the pyramid. As you have awarded 2 marks for the question, would they be expected to say 2 things about the demographics? The pyramid also suggests a...
- Hi Helen - yes you are right. I think in the m/s I gave some extra details but really if all the student has is the general shape of the population pyramid then they can infer that the population is supposed to increase in the future given...