I’ve been running a Chemistry workshop in Astana for this past week. The aim was to give examples of good practice to teach ‘the IB way’ rather than cover the IB in specific detail. The teachers came from schools all over Kazakhstan where they are trying to modernise their education so that it measures up to international standards whilst still retaining their unique Kazakh culture. At the same time my colleague Birgit Jennings, a former Chief Examiner, was running a similar workshop for the Visual Arts. For the whole of one afternoon we put the Chemistry and Visual Arts participants together. This is something we have done at previous workshops and have published in IB World (November 2002 page 20).

One of the 'products' of the afternoon

Although the sessions are meant to be fun there is a very serious point to the exercise. The reason for combining the participants is to help them to understand how their subject can relate to other subjects in the IB ‘Hexagon’. The students they teach will be exposed to solving problems in subjects in all the five other groups so it is good for the teachers to also understand this so that they can incorporate it into their teaching. After a short presentation - looking at how Chemistry and the Visual Arts have been related throughout history – the participants working in groups were asked to first list the qualities they saw as essential for Artists and Chemists and then compare whether they were the same or different. They were then asked to devise a set of common criteria for assessment. Finally they were asked to create a work of Scientific and Artistic merit, present it to their colleagues and explain its significance then assess it according to the criteria they had devised. The day before we had been shopping in a local Astana supermarket to buy everyday products. This provided the participants with all the materials available for them to use.

            Working on the qualities and the criteria                                    Working on making the product

We were really pleased with how the sessions went. Interestingly the participants found that that the qualities required for a good artist are almost exactly the same as those for a good chemist. These include:

• Passion for subject

• Open-mindedness

• Imagination

• Risk-taking

• Skills of observation, knowledge, techniques, experimentation and analysis

• Ability to think laterally

• Hardworking and conscientious

• Perseverance

• Curiosity

• Critical thinking

• Patience

After reporting back and discussing what each group had suggested the five criteria upon which work should be assessed (each worth 4 marks to give a total of 20) were:

      1. Research skills

      2. Creativity/originality

      3. Technical skills

      4. Perseverance

      5. Quality of product

Although the real value of the exercise was on the process rather than the product (in a similar fashion to the Group 4 Project) the four groups all produced interesting outcomes. One produced a working volcano (using baking powder and vinegar to produce the eruption). Another produced several working items along the theme of energy including a hot air balloon and another produced a family to represent healthy living and attention to the environment. Our favourite was ‘chemistry man’. What I particularly liked about it was the tear in his eye to show his emotion at having made a major discovery – a nice way to bring in TOK by showing emotion as a ‘way of knowing’ in Chemistry.