Diploma Programme

We are excited to have you in the next Diploma Programme cohort!

Please access the links below to review information about the Diploma Programme. Please have discussions with your parents and your counselor about this decision.

Applications for Class of 2027 coming in early 2025!

Diploma Programme Core

The DP Core, which is completed by Full Diploma Candidates, aims at developing the whole person and is driven by the mission of "developing inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect" (IB Mission Statement). The core consists of the following 3 components.

1. Theory of Knowledge (TOK)

TOK explores questions about knowledge and the process of knowing. TOK emphasizes comparisons and connections between areas of knowledge (History, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Mathematics, and the Arts) and encourages students to become more aware of their own perspectives and the perspectives of others. TOK is taken both years of the Diploma Programme with embedded support for the Extended Essay, CAS, and mental health.

Core Theme: Knowledge & The Knower
Optional Themes: knowledge & technology, knowledge & language, and some knowledge & politics
Assessments: Exhibition & Essay
What is TOK?
Internal Assessment Detail (Exhibition)
External Assessment Detail (Essay)

2. Creativity, Action & Service (CAS)

CAS provides students with the chance to participate in a range of experiences alongside their academic studies. The three strands of CAS are CREATIVITY (arts, and other experiences that involve creative thinking), ACTIVITY (physical exertion contributing to a health lifestyle) and SERVICE (an unpaid collaborative and reciprocal engagement with the community).

3. Extended Essay (EE)

The EE presents students with an opportunity to explore a topic of special interest, either through one of their six DP subjects or through an interdisciplinary approach. The EE helps students to develop the self-regulated research and writing skills that they need to fulfill their aspirations at the university level.

Course Overview

Full Diploma Candidates will take all 6 courses below in addition to completing the Core outlined above.

Course candidates may choose any of the course offered below.

(Note: Courses offered at SL will earn a GPA boost but no chance at college credit.)

Group 1 - English A: Language & Literature HL

In this course, students study a wide range of literary and non-literary texts in a variety of media. By examining communicative acts across literary form and textual type alongside secondary readings, students will investigate the nature of language itself and the ways in which it shapes and is influenced by identity and culture.

Works studied in 11th Grade:

1984 by George Orwell
The Color Purple by Alice Walker
Short Stories by Anton Chekhov
Poems by Langston Hughes
Additional images, speeches, and song lyrics

Works studied in 12th Grade:

Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Pygmalion by Bernard Shaw
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Bestiary by Elise Paschen
Collected Stories by Gabriel García Márquez

Group 2 - Language B

This is a language acquisition course designed for students with some previous experience of the target language. The Ab Initio level is suited for students with no prior experience of the target language or for those students with very limited previous exposure. Students further develop their ability to community in the language through the study of language, themes, and texts. In doing so, students also develop conceptual understandings of how language works. Throughout the course, students develop Receptive Skills (Listening & Reading), Productive Skills (Writing), and Interactive Skills (Speaking).

Option 1:Spanish B (HL, SL, Ab Intio SL)

OR

Option 2: Mandarin B (SL & Ab Intio SL)

Group 3 - History of the Americas HL

This course is a world history course based on a comparative and multi-perspective approach to history. It involves the study of a variety of types of history, including political, economic, social, and cultural, and provides a balance of structure and flexibility. Students think historically, developing historical skills and gaining factual knowledge. There is a focus on critical thinking and understanding multiple interpretations of history.

Prescribed subject: Rights & Protests

World History Topics: 1) Origins, development and impact of industrialization, 2) Authoritarian States, & 3) The Cold War: Superpower tensions & rivalries

History of the Americas Topics: 1) Civil rights and social movements in the Americas post 1945, 2) Development of Modern Nations & 3) Emergence of the Americas in Global Affairs

Group 4 - Environmental Systems & Societies SL

This course is an interdisciplinary course designed to combine the methodology, techniques and knowledge of the sciences with those associated with individuals and societies. The course is firmly grounded in scientific exploration of cultural, economic, ethical, political, and social interactions of societies with the environment. Students will become equipped with the ability to recognize and evaluate the impact of our complex system of societies on the natural world.

Group 5 - Math Applications and Interpretations SL

This course recognizes the increasing role that mathematics and technology play in a diverse range of fields in a data-rich world. As such, it emphasizes the meaning of mathematics in context by focusing on topics that are often used as applications or in mathematical modeling. To give this understanding a firm base, this course also includes topics that are traditionally part of a pre-university mathematics course such as calculus and statistics.

Group 6 - IB Elective

Option 1: Psychology HL/SL

OR

Option 2: Visual Arts HL/SL

Psychology

This course is the rigorous and systematic study of mental processes and behavior. It is a complex subject which draws on concepts, methods, and understandings from a number of different disciplines. The study of behavior and mental processes requires a multidisciplinary approach and the use of a variety of research techniques while recognizing that behavior is not a static phenomenon, it is adaptive, and as the world, societies and challenges facing societies change, so does behavior.

Options studies: Abnormal Psychology & Developmental Psychology

Visual Arts

This course celebrates art as an integral part of everyday life, permeating all levels of human creativity, expression, communication, and understanding. They range from traditional forms embedded in a local and wider communities, societies, and cultures, to the varied and divergent practices associated with new, emerging and contemporary forms of visual language. They may have sociopolitical impact as well as ritual, spiritual, decorative and functional value; they can be persuasive and subversive in some instances, enlightening and uplifting in others.

Diploma Programme

Diploma Programme Core

Course Overview

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