Specifics about IB Programme
Diploma Program Requirements
Diploma Graduates are required to complete course work in each of the six groups during their Junior and Senior year. Students must then complete three higher level and three standard level examinations in May related to the courses studied. An elective, such as second science or Psychology, can be substituted as a group 6 course if the student chooses. In addition to these requirements, students must complete Theory of Knowledge (TOK), Creativity Action and Service (CAS) and an extended essay.
Courses Offered at MHS
Group 1 — Literature HL
Group 2—Spanish SL or HL, Spanish ab inito, French
Group 3—History HL, Psychology SL or HL, Philosophy SL or HL
Group 4—Biology SL or HL, Chemistry SL or HL, Environmental Systems & Societies SL, Physics SL
Group 5—IB Math Applications and Interpretations SL or HL, IB Math Analysis and Approaches SL
Group 6 — Film SL or HL, Visual Arts SL or HL
SL—standard level (2 year course, but a limited few available for a 1 year course of study)
HL– Higher level (2 year course)
Extended Essay
Every candidate is required to write a maximum 4000 word essay on a topic of their choice. This academic experience prepares a student to be able to conduct independent research, a skill highly prized in university.
Theory Of Knowledge (TOK)
This requirement is a course taken during the spring of the candidates’ junior year and the fall of their senior year. The course challenges students to investigate sources of knowledge (ways of knowing) and how it relates to the larger world (areas of knowledge). It is in effect a course on thought and student's relationship to it. TOK is a course about critical thinking and inquiring into the process of knowing, rather than about learning a specific body of knowledge.
Here is a video that briefly describes the TOK course.
Creativity, Action, and Service (CAS)
Creativity, action, service (CAS) is at the heart of the Diploma Program. It is one of the three essential elements in every student’s Diploma Program experience. It involves students in a range of activities alongside their academic studies throughout the Diploma Program. The three strands of CAS, which are often interwoven with particular activities, are characterized as follows.
Creativity: arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking.
Action: physical exertion contributing to a healthy lifestyle, complementing academic work elsewhere in the Diploma Program.
Service: an unpaid and voluntary exchange that has a learning benefit for the student. The rights, dignity and autonomy of all those involved are respected.
CAS enables students to enhance their personal and interpersonal development through experiential learning. At the same time, it provides an important counterbalance to the academic pressures of the rest of the Diploma Program.
*Portions of this page come from the IB subject guides for CAS and TOK.
“The most important part of my education hasn’t been giving a 15-minute presentation about the Scarlet Letter, discussing Hamlet for weeks, or even knowing which country Germany invaded. That’s because the important part of learning isn’t the knowledge itself, it’s the tools we are equipped with to understand and interrogate our knowledge.” - Ethan Eyre MHS IB Class of 2018