Year 12 and Year 13 students have been collaborating with BIS Boston for the Group 4 Project, a required element of the IB Diploma Programme. All students choose to study a subject from Group 4, which inlcudes biology, chemistry, physics, or computer science. In choosing subjects, the DP can quickly become very disciplinary with little opportunity to consider the individual disciplines' place in the wider scientific community. The Group 4 project aims to help the students approach a problem from the mindset of their chosen science and work with students who have taken different sciences to pose a solution to the problem. This creates an interdisciplinary experience and helps the students to see the wider context of their subject and how science is applied to create technology. This year, we based the Group 4 project on the Nord Anglia-MIT STEAM challenge from Dr. Sarah Segar called "LIFE!" The students investigated exoplanets, the conditions in each and their place in the habitable zone, and then suggested ways the human body could be adapted to live on their chosen exoplanet. This project will continue next week with a celebration of learning in the form of collaborative presentations between the two schools.
