<p>On Monday we will be meeting with son's new hs I.B. Director to schedule his Pre IB 9th grade classes. My question is regarding his science selection. His choices are: </p>
<p>Physical Science (Prerequisite Algebra I, which he has just finished with an "A")</p>
<p>Biology I (no Prerequisites)</p>
<p>Biology I Honors (no Prerequisites)</p>
<p>Earth/Environmental Science (no Prerequisites)</p>
<p>Earth/Environmental Science Honors (no Prerequisites)</p>
<p>Which option, in your opinion, would you suggest for your child? Pro/Cons, please, (he is more interested in science than math, although he does likes math too). :)</p>
<p>
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what exactly is "physical science"? geology? chemistry? physics?
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</p>
<p>According to its description it will build a rich knowledge base to provide a rich foundation for science. Laboratory and literary investigations integrating chemistry and physics, atoms, motions, and the conservation of energy. (paraphrasing, of course).</p>
<p>More important for IB is what is the sequence after the class. He needs to decide now what his future science curriculum will be. If he wants a high level science that requires 2 years of study, he needs to make sure it will not require a double up of another science to graduate HS. Selecting the right courses early on is important to make sure there is no duplication and overlaps later. That is the biggest problem I have with IB. Take the wrong one in 8th or 9th grade and you are doubling up later to make up for it. </p>
<p>Your IB coordinator should have a sequence list for all classes that show which path they can take. Is your S more interested in biology, chemistry or physical sciences? What ever he want to concentrate on in later years will impact what he selects now.</p>
<p>I found a sample IB sequence, and they list Biology I Honors for their freshmen, so I guess, this is what will be suggested, which is according to him, "cool." Thanks for the help.</p>
<p>Grade 9 (sample classes) for IB:</p>
<p>Pre IB English Honors
Biology I Honors
Pre IB World Humanities
Foreign Language I
Health and Physical Education
Prerequisite/Elective
Prerequisite/Elective</p>
<p>DD did not take the Grade 9 honors Bio because she was planning to take 2 yrs of IB HL biology. She took her chemistry instead and physics in Gr 10. She was with older students but did not have to double up sciences and take 3 years of biology when she took HL IB Bio. Of course by the time she was a junior she had changed her major but was stuck in the sequence already. .</p>
<p>For IB your child will have to do 3 higher level classes. Will one of these be a science? If so, is there a core class required before the higher sequence (this was the case at our school....3 years of one science). IF so, then is that class taken in 10th grade? For graduation or for what your child might want to do next, does your child need more than 1 science in HS??? </p>
<p>You need to work backwards from these questions to come up with your answers. Every school is a bit different about what happens in 9/10 so that the child is readied for IB. The same is true for languages and math....</p>
<p>I teach IB French. You are mentioning Foreign Language I. Be aware that when your son gets to 11th grade, his foreign language really should be higher than level 3. Has he had no foreign language up to now? If so, you might need to ascertain if he will be in a good position for foreign language by 11th grade. Summer school?</p>
<p>Be careful about those "prerequisite/elective" slots. They may not be pure electives.</p>
<p>Many school systems have requirements for graduation that will not be met by the IB program. For example, my daughter, who was an IB student, had to take 1 year of PE, 1/2 year of health, 1 year of fine arts, and 1 year of technology education, all outside the IB program, in order to meet graduation requirements. There is little or no time for such things during the real IB years (grades 11 and 12), so students at her school were advised to get them out of the way in grades 9 and 10 or in summer school. </p>
<p>You may want to inquire about whether a similar situation exists at your son's school. Can he afford to take anything he wants in those elective slots, or should he be focusing on courses that meet graduation requirements?</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses. I took a look at what our state/county requires for graduation:</p>
<p>4 credits of English
4 credits of Math
3 credits of Science
3 credits of Social Studies
2 credits of Foreign Language (same language)
No specific Computer classes *only proficiency
1 credit of Health P/E
1 recommended credit in Arts discipline (not sure what this means)
3 Electives or other credit (not sure what this means either)</p>
<p>DS has played violin since 5th grade and wants to continue, so I will have to ask how many credits will this be and does it meet the requirements for arts and/or electives.</p>
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I teach IB French. You are mentioning Foreign Language I. Be aware that when your son gets to 11th grade, his foreign language really should be higher than level 3. Has he had no foreign language up to now? If so, you might need to ascertain if he will be in a good position for foreign language by 11th grade. Summer school?
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</p>
<p>He has not had foreign language yet. He is interested in French, and we do have the option of summer school, online classes, (which I don't think is a good idea, but his school does not offer Latin, and he is interested in taking it "one day"), and Community College when he is a junior/senior.</p>
<p>Perhaps you can talk with your IB coordinator for some advice. It is definitely do-able, but needs some planning. It's good that you are thinking it all through now. In my HS when students come in 9th grade without any Foreign Language, they start at level 1. Then in the middle of 10th grade (when they are studying Level 2) they apply for the IB program and if they are accepted they have to take Level 3 FL during the summer after their 10th grade. That makes them ready for the Level 4 class which is also IB-1.</p>
<p>Just let your son pick whatever he likes best.</p>
<p>Honestly it doesn't matter in 9th grade as long as he makes good grades.
I did not take any sort of pre-ib program (although I think it would have been wonderful...your lucky son!) and I believe I probably scored very high on my IB science test (which was HL Biology.)</p>
<p>Something I found to be particularly difficult was physics.
Not to mention it has the lowest average score for 2006 May tests worldwide.</p>
<p>So if your son really wants to do well on that test (I had a 4, making Bs in Algebra and Bs and Cs (ew) in physics) he should do the physics class. </p>
<p>Remember that IB Physics SL is only alg-based physics and is essentially worthless for any future science major...</p>
<p>At my school we were forced to take physics, so you might want to look into it.</p>
<p>Biology was awesome. My teacher was amazing. The IB study guide was wonderful and pretty much had all the answers in it.</p>
<p>Take honors classes!</p>
<p>Didn't have environmental science classes at my school; could be interesting, but sounds boring to me...</p>
<p>Bottom line:</p>
<p>The only important thing right now is GPA.
You have to pick classes keeping in mind in what subjects he wants to test.
Present the above information to your son and let him pick.
When hell (aka Diploma Programme IB) sets in you are going to have to let him go, and work. As my dad's friends explained to him "you basically don't see your child for two years."
Don't push him to do anything!!! (except to take honors classes...everything else is a waste of time and basically no administrators care about the other classes)</p>
<p>What embroglio describes -- a school where kids follow an essentially normal rigorous track for two years and then plunge into the IB Diploma Program -- is the way it is done at some IB schools.</p>
<p>At others, however, specific classes are designated as pre-IB and provide better preparation for the IB Diploma Program than other classes do. (For example, in pre-IB English, my daughter started writing "commentaries" in 9th grade. Anyone who has been through IB will understand this.) If there are specific pre-IB classes at your son's school, he would be well advised to take at least some of them.</p>
<p>My D goes to a full IB school (K-12) in UK, so no requirements outside of an IB program. She is finishing 9th grade now, and she only had a choice of an art elective for 9th grade (art, drama or music). For 10th grade, however, she had to choose a science (bio, chem, physics), a humanities subject (history, geography) and an art subject. This is because 10th grade is really a pre-IB year, so the choice of subjects should be done with consideration of future IB subjects. In 9th grade everyone is still on the general track.</p>
<p>Each school will be different, my DD school you took
Pre-IB Physics Freshman Year
Pre-IB Chemistry Sophomore Year
IB Biology Junior Year
IB Biology Senior Year (only if you were taking HL BIO)</p>
<p>She took an optional second year of physics junior year and an optional second year of chemistry senior year.</p>
<p>and did IB with science as a higher level. She took pre-IB Bio as a freshman (you really need this course to prepare for the double period IB Bio as a senior). Chemistry was sophomore year and she took environmental science as a junior. She will major in Bio in college. One warning - several of the seniors here got conditional acceptances to college: the condition was taking a college physics course before they arrive. We are sweating that out now, so definitely leave room in your schedule for physics!</p>
<p>Hey! I am a recent IB Grad.. Here's my schedule for all 4 yrs:</p>
<p>Freshmen:
Pre-Ib Biology
Pre-Ib English I
Pre-Ib World History
Pre-Ib Algebra I
Pre-Ib German I
Business Systems and Technology</p>
<p>Summer between Freshmen and Sophomore year:
Pre-Ib Geometry</p>
<p>Sophomore:
Pre-Ib Chemistry I
Pre-Ib English II
Pre-Ib German II
AP World History
Pre-Ib Algebra II
Pre-Ib Pre-Calculus</p>
<p>Junior:
IB English III HL
IB Biology HL
IB History of the Americas HL
AP Calculus AB
IB German III SL
IB ITGS Sl</p>
<p>Senior:
IB English IV HL
IB Contemporary History HL
IB Biology HL
IB German IV SL
IB Math SL (also known as Math Methods)
IB Theory of Knowledge</p>
<p>Celm, at our school that schedule would not have worked since there are only 2 distinct lab sciences chemistry and biology. To have an advanced degree (the only one for college) you have to have another lab science even if you get an IB diploma. This was the problem my DD had, so she did not take the freshman year bio but just the 2 HL years. She had to take chemistry freshman and physics sophomore years. It was really hard to start and she had to study with the freshman book available, too, but doable. </p>
<p>Make sure when you are planning you work with your own IB coordinator who also knows the state graduation requirements.</p>
<p>OP: Every IB school is different within the rules of IBO regarding how many HLs and the number of class hours needed. So rely on your coordinator. Our school district excuses IB diploma candidates from the standard diploma requirements of PE, arts, economics and life management. However if the student drops IB they have to go back and pick up those requirements. the reason they excuse those classes is that the IB schedule is crammed full and the students have no time for the standard requirements since they have 4 years of foreign language, etc. As for foreign language, at our school the IB students take the SL test after 4 years. If they started a foreign language in middle school they test after junior year, if they started freshman year, they test senior year. So that also depends on the school's individual rules. Yes the IB foreign language test is very hard, but somehow the students at our school maintain an about 90% pass rate on the SL foreign language test (spanish or french).<br>
While I strongly urge you talk extensively with your IB coordinator, I do suggest Bio honors for 9th grade. Your child probably covered enough physical science in middle school and, if offered at your school, would be better off with an elective of AP Environmental. This also depends on the IB sciences offered at your school though. Good luck. Your child is heading off on a wonderful global journey that will challenge both his abilities and work ethic.</p>