ffaholic Posted October 21, 2007 Report Share Posted October 21, 2007 My friends and I have gotten signatures of all the IB students at our school who want to take Physics SL and the total number is 15. My principal won't allow a class of this size as he says the Non-IB, Academic, students need the teacher more as they have class sizes of 30+ because of the increasing amount of Gr.9 students at my school. How do we convice our principal that a Physics SL class is needed? As it is for many students in IB as they need Physics to go into Engineering. Do you have any other suggestions as to how we could get a Physics SL credit? Some students, this year, are taking physics in a normal class and then studying the IB material for the exam in their own time. The principal does not want students to do that next year as the students are struggling with the material this year. What do my friends and I do? Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruan Chun Xian Posted October 21, 2007 Report Share Posted October 21, 2007 Take the HL class but do the SL exam. i.e. Have SL and HL students in the same class. the HL material is only extra on top of SL material, so you learn all the SL material together. Then when HL kids are doing their HL stuff, you either do some independent study or revision. Then your school just have to register you for SL exams and you can still take SL exams at the end of the programme. We have SL and HL classes together most of the time at my school because we're so small. It's not impossible...though I suppose it might be a little harder with a bigger school where you're not used to it. But it's a solution. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffaholic Posted October 23, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 My school doesn't offer a Physics HL class at all. The only HL sciences offered are Biology and Chemistry. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Soy Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 It isn't that easy, do you guys have a capable IB-trained teacher that is winning to teach the class, i don't think the class number should be a big problem though, because he/sh would only have to have one period of IB physics, and the rest could be Ap or heck even honor courses. But the whole problem is IB trained teachers, are hard to find and take years to developed. At my school, we only have a physic SL teacher, and you can only take physics SL. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shorty Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 Yea, the first thing I would do after what your principal said would be to ask around and see if any teacher is willing to teach the class.If any of them says 'yes' then you could go back to your principal and bring it to his attention. If not perhaps you should contact the school board maybe they can get a ToC to teach the class. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruan Chun Xian Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 My school doesn't offer a Physics HL class at all. The only HL sciences offered are Biology and Chemistry.In that case you hands are tied. My school only offered Phys and Bio. We didn't even have a Chem teacher. Of course, my tale of woe is that the whole class decided to boycott Bio to do Phys (we hated the Bio teacher) so I was forced into Phys with them (I hate Phys, more than I hated the Bio teacher). And Soy has a point. You want experienced, or at least IB trained teacher otherwise you end up with teachers who know nothing about the very specific IB requirements, which basically means you're screwed if you don't complete IA properly. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wiped_out Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 thats terrible really... my school is relatively new and it offers SL and HL options for each subject. 15+ students should be enough to convince them... my HL chem class only has three students, but i gues it depends on the school. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
deissi Posted October 23, 2007 Report Share Posted October 23, 2007 My school doesn't offer a Physics HL class at all. The only HL sciences offered are Biology and Chemistry. What happens to students who want to go to med school? I thought all schools offer bio, chem and phys because you need all three for med.. 15+ students should be enough to convince them... my HL chem class only has three students, but i gues it depends on the school. Probably depends most on whether the school is public or private, since public schools like ours don't have money to do that ... I'm from a public school, and we only got 4 people to take Swedish B SL and now have to pay 2000€/year for it between the four of us... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffaholic Posted October 28, 2007 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 It isn't that easy, do you guys have a capable IB-trained teacher that is winning to teach the class, i don't think the class number should be a big problem though, because he/sh would only have to have one period of IB physics, and the rest could be Ap or heck even honor courses. But the whole problem is IB trained teachers, are hard to find and take years to developed. At my school, we only have a physic SL teacher, and you can only take physics SL. We do have an IB trained teacher willing to teach the class. We have approached him and talked to him about the "split class" that is currently running this year. This class is a normal non-IB class with about 9 IB students who do the extra IB workload after school with the teacher. The teacher teaching it this year though, says that there isn't enough time for them to do the labs completely and therefore there will not be a "split class" next year. Also, last year the students had to go to the board to get our prinicipal to okay the class. We might be resorted to that again this year. What happens to students who want to go to med school? I thought all schools offer bio, chem and phys because you need all three for med..Probably depends most on whether the school is public or private, since public schools like ours don't have money to do that ... I'm from a public school, and we only got 4 people to take Swedish B SL and now have to pay 2000€/year for it between the four of us... Actually, only those who need Physics are mostly those that want to go into Engineering. Life sciences and Health Sciences require Biology and Chemistry which is why there is a greater demand for those subjects. Currently, what we're doing is seeing if there are any non-IB students who would like to get an IB certificate in physics. We have been notified that all we need are about 5 more students for us to have a class so we are hoping that there will be a min. of 5 willing students. Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Survivor Rob Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) You could always get a private tutor and then just get your school to enter you for the exam.Or.... go to a school that offers Physics!...yeh i know, thats probably not going to happen but i do know people that have done this in the past. Edited October 28, 2007 by ShiverShiva Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Instinct.sD Posted October 28, 2007 Report Share Posted October 28, 2007 (edited) I assume you're going to school in Canada. If the principal ultimately does not allow you to take the Physics course as part of your IB diploma, you should:a) start taking it in the academic stream so that you can have the credit on your normal Canadian diploma.b ) ask prospective universities if they will consider you for admission if the required course (physics) is not part of the diploma. (if they do, then they will most likely admit you not from your IB scores, but by your mark on the report card)Good luck! Edited October 28, 2007 by Instinct.sD Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest FFLcon Posted November 13, 2007 Report Share Posted November 13, 2007 Wow! ffaholic, i'm guessing you're in the year after us, because i know we fought our way to the director of the school board for our physics course.For us, I'm 100% sure the only reason we weren't allowed to have a physics course is because our principal hates physics, or loves money too much. We have a physics teacher trained to handle the new IB physics curriculum (the 2008-2009 curriculum), AND had experience teaching IB math before. PLUS he was willing to do extra work of a split class. In the end, it was only by jumping over our principal, could we get physics... Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
ffaholic Posted February 15, 2008 Author Report Share Posted February 15, 2008 WE GOT IT! =D!Thanks to everyone for their help! We bugged our principal and IB Coordinator & we finally got it! It's a become a "certificate" course so we have about 10 students who just want the IB Physics certificate so we have about 25 people in the class.Thanks again! Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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