September 2011 - Berlin Brandenburg International School

IBCC NEWSLETTER
Calendar
� 1-9 Sept
OCTOBER BREAK
� 14 Sept New Families
coffee morning
� 19 Sept IBCC special
climbing trip
� 24-26 Sept International
Week
� 31 October NO SCHOOL
� 7-14 November
IBCC Internship #1
� 23 November MS/HS
Parent-Teacher Conferences
A message from the IBCC Coordinator...
In August we were proud to
welcome 10 students to the IB
Career-related class, making us
the first school world-wide to
offer the complete range of four
IB educational programmes.
Our new group of Grade 11 and
12 students are a truly international
bunch from the US, Russia,
Germany, Korea and Nor-
Issue no. 1
30th September 2011
What’s going on in class...
BERLIN BRANDENBURG INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
way. Apart from their course
work, the students have been
getting CAS (Creativity, Action,
Service) projects underway, for
example by participating in
some of our school‘s many extracurricular
activities such as
soccer or badminton; they‘ve
also been busy raising funds for
charity by selling the Market
IBCC NEWSLETTER
IBCC students developing their skills in
volleyball — and having fun!
Garden produce (see Science),
as well as applying for internship
places. Currently, we are
still eager to find suitable internships
in the fields of engineering,
banking, marketing or event
management – so please contact
me if you can help.
Julia Peters / IBCC Coordinator
julia.peters@bbis.de
IB Business & Management, Mr Pönisch page... 1
Physical Education, Mr Vandersteen 1
Science, Mrs Klooster 1
German, Miss Seehaus 2
IB English B / Lang & Lit, Miss Peters 2
Mathematics, Mrs Uspenskaia 2
Art & Design, Mr Reynolds, 3
ATL / Humanities, Mr Milner 3
How to contact a teacher 4

Page 1 IBCC NEWSLETTER
Understanding business
mission and vision statements…
...and students sharing their
work on their laptops in
Business & Management
“We have lots
of learning all
week, so PE is
important for
you to help
loosen up, free
your mind and
concentrate
better
afterwards.”
Valérie,
IBCC Student
IB Business & Management
For the first month of the
IB Business and Management
course the students
started, rather
appropriately, with some
business basics. The
focus has been on developing
sufficient background
knowledge to
allow the students to
further develop their
skills and knowledge in
the subject. The topics
covered so far are basic
economics, the nature of
business activity, and
different types of organizations.
The current
Physical Education
We are currently coming
to the end of our badminton
unit. After a quick
review of the rules, scoring
etc. we have learnt
the basic concepts and
strategies required to be
able to play singles, doubles
and mixed doubles.
This has included positional
play, correct movement
around the court
and the execution of the
various shots needed for
different situations and,
last but not least, the
Science
Life Sciences — and using Science to help save lives...
topic is organizational
objectives, amongst others
looking at mission
and vision statements,
ethics and corporate
social responsibility, as
well as various other
types of objectives. One
task was developing
S.M.A.R.T business objectives
for our IBCC
Market Garden project.
The next topic to be covered
will be stakeholders,
i.e. those who
have a vested interest in
a business.
The students have also
importance of fairness
and badminton etiquette.
The students extended
their skills in scientific
inquiry as well as in
processing of data and
communications. They
planned, designed and
executed experiments
and presented their first
formally written lab report
on their investigation
on the ‗value of commercially
bought paper towels‘.
As part of the Market
Garden Project they
just started using:
https://mrpoenisch.wikispaces.com/
IBCC+Business+and+Management.
Still in its early stages of
development, this online
resource was especially
created for the students;
it is just one of the components
planned for this
course that will help emphasise
the importance
of IT competencies for
learning, work and interaction.
High 5! Playing volleyball in the BBIS gym
harvested four varieties
of potatoes which they
planted in May. In conjunction
with Art and
Design and to encourage
cross-curricular learning,
marketing strategies
were developed to sell
the produce and to raise
money for humanitarian
purposes.

ISSUE NO. 1
German A & B
For German, the students
are placed in two
groups: German A for
native speakers, and B
for students studying
German as an additional
language.
In German A, the students
got to know various
text types for example
diary entries, blog
entries, newspaper articles,
picture descriptions
and book reviews. They
(German, continued)
cartoons, posters and
flash cards to learn vocabulary
and sentence
structures. They will
move onto learning how
to introduce their family
and how to go shopping.
Mathematics
In Mathematics lessons
we studied and reviewed
the following topics: ratios,
proportions, equations
with proportions,
conversion graphs and
statistics. The students‘
task was to find, explore
and improve the practical
applications of their math
skills. According to some
students the most inter-
also started to read the
book ―Russendisko‖ by
Wladimir Kaminer which
is based on true short
stories that the author
with a Russian background
experienced in
Berlin after 1990. The
students produced various
text types themselves
after getting to
know type specific characteristics.
They also
designed a flyer and
grammar games. They
IB English B / Language &
Literature
In English, after an initial
assessment of the students
reading, writing
and speaking skills, we
began studying the
―dystopian‖ novel The
Handmaid‘s Tale by the
acclaimed Canadian
writer Margaret Atwood.
Students are improving
their language skills by
taking notes on a focal
character and theme,
practicing paragraph and
essay writing and discussing
key passages in
esting part of the course
was the statistical investigation
of the route and
distances of the school‘s
annual ―Move-a-thon‖
event.
You can see an excerpt
of this math project
here →
will continue reading
―Russendisko‖ and becoming
familiar with an
ever increasing variety of
text types.
In the German B group,
the students learned how
to introduce themselves
and give personal information.
They also
learned to express feelings.
We have just
started to learn and review
German numbers.
The students designed
class. They are also
learning how to write
different types of text
based on their study of
the novel.
Our one native-speaker
student is taking the
―Language and Literature‖
course in which he
will learn to analyze and
comment on the writer‘s
craft in more detail.
“I’m glad that
school gives us
our own
personal
laptops in the
IBCC class.”
Eugenio,
Page 2
Number posters in German
IBCC Student
Excerpt from Egor‟s IBBC project: “Statistical investigation of
the move-a-thon distance”.
My goal in the project was to measure the distance between
start and finish points. We had to use a compass, a pen and
a notebook for some
notes. We worked in
teams . For teams to
measure the a distance
took approximately
30 min for the
elementary school
loop.
We used statistical investigations of the step length to measure
distances between check - points. We had to use a
compass. We measured the angel, wrote it down and
counted our steps, but then we had idea to speed up our
measurements by counting minutes between check –points
and converting minutes into steps later on. That‘s simplified
our task and let us to finish earlier, than other teams. (…)
Finally, I understood how to use a compass.

Page 3 IBCC NEWSLETTER
Laptops and work journals—
using both modern and conventional
design tools in Art &
Design
Saying chosen
by Natasha at
the start of
the year:
“If you have a
garden and a
library, you
have
everything you
need.”
Marcus Tullius Cicero
Art & Design
Students in IBCC Art and
Design class are currently
working on a project
with the unit question
―How do I create a
functioning box that expresses
my cultural interests
through twodimensional
and threedimensional
design?‖
They are required to
research, plan and produce
a creative solution
to the brief of designing
a three-dimensional
wooden box with a lid
and the two-dimensional
surface design of the
exterior of the box that
focuses on an area of
personal cultural interest.
Students are required to
keep an organized visual
and written record of the
creative process in the
form of a work journal.
They will also need to
show awareness of other
artists‘ / designers‘ work
and use a range of
equipment such as hand
tools and in particular the
pyrography tool to realize
their ideas. So far
students have made
design drawings and are
creating card models in
order to know exact
measurements and be
able to evaluate their
ideas before they start
constructing their boxes.
Approaches to Learning / Humanities
In ‗Approaches to Learning‘
we have been thinking
about the places
where ‗learning‘ happens:
schools! We
watched an animated
clip of Sir Ken Robinson
talking about education,
we discussed what
schools can and should
teach, and each student
wrote some of their
many ideas as an assignment.
We also
watched and discussed
the ‗Story of Stuff‘ clip
about where stuff – the
material things we all
take for granted - comes
from and who pays for it.
Recently we have been
exploring communication
through music making,
thinking about different
ways to organise sounds
into music. In the future
— when the school‘s
portal is fully functional
Harvesting potatoes and zucchinis — so far the IBCC students have raised €80 to help the drought crisis in Somalia —
our goal is to beat last year„s €200 raised by selling our garden produce and donated to the flood victims in Pakistan
— we will be able to post
such music recordings
so that you can listen in
to them.

ISSUE NO. 1
If you would like to contact an IBCC teacher...
Subject Teacher Email
Approaches to Learning Martin Milner martin.milner@bbis.de
Art & Design Richard Reynolds Richard.reynolds@bbis.de
College & Career Counsellor Leslie Kamphausen leslie.kamphausen@bbis.de
German Stephanie Seehaus stephanie. seehaus@bbis.de
IB Business and Management Simon Pönisch simon.poenisch@bbis.de
IB English Julia Peters julia.peters@bbis.de
Mathematics Tania Uspenskaia Tania.uspenskaia@bbis.de
Physical Education Steve Vandersteen stephen.vandersteen@bbis.de
Science Claudia Klooster claudia.klooster@bbis.de
Ideas and suggestions...
This newsletter will be
coming your way roughly
every six weeks, providing
you with an overview
of what is going on in
each subject as well as
more general news
about the IBCC.
Comments? Suggestions?
Please contact
me if you have any bright
ideas about what we
could include or improve
in future editions.
julia.peters@bbis.de
If you would like to contact
one of the teachers
If you would like to contact
me
Saying chosen
by Fabian at
the start of the
year:
“Shoot for the
moon—even if
you miss, you
will land among
the stars.”
Page 4
Producing an effective lab report
is an important part of Science
HS Principal Richard Bartlett and the IBCC class in September 2011 (Fabian missing!); some impressions from PE class