Category Archives: We are IB Learners!

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Former H.I.S. Student Headed Back to Mayana

We had some news from Christian, a former H.I.S. student. His family left the school at the end of last year to move back to the US.

During their time at H.I.S., the family travelled to Mayana, as part of an MCP (Make Change Possible) Friends Trip. Christian will be going back to Mayana this summer. He wrote to share the following with us:

“Hello from Christian – I was a student at H.I.S and moved back to the USA last summer. Notice the frozen Lake Michigan behind me! This upcoming summer I am going on the Make Change Possible  trip to Mayana, Namibia. While I am there I will be helping the local MCP team with using computers, I am also going to help the local school with their computers.”

Christian

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Easter Egg Hunt at H.I.S.

Would you want to search for delicious chocolate goodies on the playground after school? Guess what! This year, the Easter bunny told us he would come to H.I.S. and hide as many chocolate eggs as he can for you to find!

So grab your bag, buy your ticket and let’s go searching!

It is a German tradition for children to go and hunt for Easter Eggs on the morning of Easter Sunday. The Easter Eggs are usually hidden in the garden by an Easter Bunny to surprise the children in the morning. This is to celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Many German non-Christians celebrate Easter as well, just to have fun while colouring boiled eggs or to have fun hiding and finding chocolate goodies!

To add to the happy spring atmosphere, the Habitat Team is organising an Easter Egg Hunt for the H.I.S. community! Students will be able to purchase tickets and participate in a big Easter Egg Hunt after school. All information at a glance:

 When? — After school (at 3:20 pm) on Friday, April 5th

Where? — All participants will meet in the main MPR first. Then, all will be able to start the hunt on the playground at the same time. (For this purpose, the playground will be closed from 2:15pm onwards to anyone without a ticket.)

What is the event for? — It is another project aimed to raise money for the Habitat for Humanity group.

How can I participate? — Tickets will be sold for 3 Euros after school in the foyer starting on Friday 29th. Definitely bring your ticket on the day of the hunt and otherwise, you could also bring a bag for collecting of eggs and goodies.

 Big thanks to ALDI for supporting the event by kindly providing the chocolate items!

 Dear parents: you are welcome to support your younger children in the hunt or simply watch and encourage!

If you have further questions, don’t hesitate to ask any grade 11 Habitat for Humanity member.

See you very soon!

 Janne from the Habitat Team

 

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Tuning-In: Exhibition Week 1 & 2

The feel in the Grade 5 classroom has been one of excitement, nervousness and anticipation!

Since the beginning of the school year, students have had the opportunity to independently explore areas of interest and related issues that could potentially become their topic for Exhibition. The only criteria for the students was, that they to take notes and show how they used their time.  By researching and digging deeper into these issues, students were able to identify a passion that has now become their issue for Exhibition.

What will our central ideas be?  What will our key concepts and lines of inquiry look like?  This is what Grade 5 has been working on the last two weeks, as they tune into their areas of interest for exhibition.

This past two weeks have challenged students to practice thinking, social and communication skills. Grouping students with common issues, they have generated their own units, which have the potential of inspiring well-developed inquiries.

 

Our central ideas:

  • Interacting with each other can affect our health
  • Animals have rights and we have a responsibility to keep them
  • Media influences individuals and societies
  • Through innovation and discovery people learn who they are and about the world around them
  • Adversity effects equality in systems
  • Our choices and actions have an adverse effect on the environment and the accessibility to essential needs

It has been a fantastic two weeks, filled with deep thinking, excitement and progress! 

In weeks 3 and 4, students are “finding out” and “sorting out”. Stay Tuned!

 

text & photos: FW

 

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H.I.S. Human Rights Exhibition 2019

We are very grateful to the Interkulturelles Zentrum for their initiative to include schools in a project to recognise the 70 years that the Declaration of Human Rights has been in existence.

Over the last 2 months, the MYP students have grappled with reasons behind each of the 30 articles, how they are observed and how they are, at times, trampled upon. Following their in-depth consideration of the Declaration across several subjects, the students produced thought-provoking and empowering responses. The resulting poetry, art work, biographical posters and cartoons, were the basis of our Exhibition.

The originality of the pieces of work, reflect the encouraging learning environment created by their inspirational teachers. I believe our future is in safe hands when we see the level of understanding, demonstrated by our MYP students, of the very complex topics raised through studying Human Rights.

text: KM

Grade 12 Visual Art Exhibition

The 2018-19 Grade 12 IB Diploma Visual Art class would like to extend a warm invitation to both students and parents to view the results of their creative endeavors over the past two years.

Artworks will be on display in Room 210 and reflect each student’s creativity and originality.

Pieces include drawing, painting and sculpture exploring concepts as varied as Memories, Homesickness and Identity. We hope that you can find time to view the works and admire the creativity of these talented young artists.

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Neuro Science Olympiad Heidelberg

Congratulations Ishikaa!

Ishikaa (Grade 10) has secured 4th place at the Neuro Science Olympiad and qualified for the Nationals to be held in Frankfurt on the 11th of May 2019. This was a well-attended event with 28 participants from various schools of South Germany. Ishikaa found the competition very interesting and would like to encourage other students to take part in this competition in years to come. https://neurowissenschaften-olympiade.de/locations/dno-heidelberg/

newspaper article: RNZ

text & photos: AM

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Kicking Off The PYP Exhibition: Informal Social

Grade 5 students, teachers, parents, and potential mentors came together to launch this year’s PYP Exhibition. All year, Grade 5 has been exploring passion projects, in order to determine what issue most excites and inspires them.

The PYP Exhibition Informational Social gave the members of our school community, who will be involved in supporting Grade 5 throughout this learning experience, the opportunity to learn more about the purpose and process, understand general expectations and brainstorm ideas as we begin our journey together.

  

A key component of this meeting was to get people interacting with each other. In groups that changed each round, students, parents and mentors got a chance to mingle, play interactive games and collaborate. Even a few Grade 6 students, who have been through the Exhibition process, came to offer their knowledge and support. In the midst of all these interactions, social, communication and thinking skills were demonstrated by all involved. Looking around the event, the excitement and energy was palpable.

As a result of the event, Grade 5 students were challenged to think deeper about the opportunities the PYP Exhibition affords. They were also able to get a glimpse of some of the expertise found in the room, as well as an overall feel of potential mentors. Reflecting on the evening, students finalized the issues they will be exploring and selected their three choices for mentors, whom they believe would best support them through this process.

 PYP Exhibition 2019, here we come!

 

text & photos FW

 

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Personal Project Presentation Eve

On Thursday 21st February, the Grade 10 students presented their personal projects to the H.I.S. community.  We would like to thank everyone who attended and hope that you enjoyed the evening and had a chance to see the presentations that covered a variety of topics. 

The event celebrated the end of a journey for the Grade 10 students and was an opportunity for them to demonstrate their achievements.  It was a great opportunity to see some of the products the students created as well as talk to the students individually about their projects. It also provided some ideas and inspiration for Grade 9 students who will start their introduction to the Personal Projects later on this year.

The projects included presentations on a wide variety of subjects including GERD, Autism, creation of business plans, advertising, the economics behind holding a FIFA world cup, expressing ourselves through facial expressions, healthy cooking, language learning, methodologies, how to make a successful cartoon, Artificial Intelligence and using a triptych to display three elements that are related and complement each other.

 On the following day, Friday 22nd February, the Grade 10 students presented their projects to Grades 3 – 5 in the PYP as they were invited to come and see what the students had achieved. This again provided a little inspiration for the Grade 5’s as they have just started working on their exhibition.

 

text: SAB; photos: AS

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Medical Innovations And Therapies

Grade 6 students shared knowledge with Grade 3

Grade 6 students have been exploring stem cells and the hope they offer for new therapies. The students became aware of the benefits of the stem cells therapy but they noted that these innovations have been hotly debated.

The Grade 6 students bravely took the challenge to simplify the science behind the stem cell research and therapies and presented all the ethical and scientific challenges in treating diseases such as Leukemia or Alzheimer for example, to Grade 3 students. The collaboration turned out to be a real success and a joyful and productive experience.

text: MM