The Informer - the International School of Stavanger

News from the Exams CoordinatorIGCSE Drama and Science students please note: there are examinations for you in the week after school closes for the summer(Drama on 9th June and Science on 10th June, both in the morning). No school buses will run on those days. Please arrive atschool between 08:00 and 08:30 and someone will let you in the building!IB Art exhibitionAlthough most of the assessment for the International Baccalaureate is in the form of written essays and examinations or oralpresentations, this is obviously not entirely adequate for the Visual Arts group! Every year I am amazed by the creative talent andskills of our students, and enjoy viewing their work. However, this year is something really special. I will let Ms Jeane Svihus,who guides our students through their artistic explorations, explain a little more. “This year the IB Visual Art class has had theopportunity to exhibit at one of the region’s largest visual and performing arts centers, Tou Scene. Every spring the IB year twostudents put up an exhibition to which an examiner comes and assesses their work. This group is so big this year (11 students)that it was necessary to find a location outside of school. It has been very exciting to experience a new space, and one in whichprofessional artists and performers use. The students have done a fabulous job creating art over the last two years, and with thehelp of their parents mounted an impressive exhibit.”The students have the opportunity to spend about half an hour showing the visiting examiner around their exhibit, discussingtheir work. In addition, an open exhibition was held in the evening of Wednesday 22nd April, to allow parents and friends toadmire the students’ artwork. There cannot be many young artists who have the privilege of mounting a personal retrospectiveexhibition in such a prestigious gallery space!Unge forskere and Fritt Ord competitions 2009Each year, our IB Diploma students become experts in one aspect of their IB studies through the ‘Extended Essay’. With thesupport and gentle guidance of a supervisor at the school, students explore a theme of their own choice, and write a research paperof up to 4000 words. This is perhaps one of the most important parts of the IB Diploma, and many ISS alumni have commentedon how easy it was for them to tackle research papers at university, in comparison with their friends from other educationalsystems, because of the experience of writing the Extended Essay. We are always very proud of our students’ achievements, butit is also extremely gratifying to find that others also appreciate the work that they do on these research projects.This year, two students were invited to Oslo for the final of national competitions. Mateen Ram won third prize inUngdomskonkurransen Fritt Ord, a competition which looks at aspects of free speech. Mateen’s essay, ‘The path we choose totake in life…’ examined the writing and speeches of three great world leaders of the last century: Shoghi Effendi, Martin LutherKing, and Nelson Mandela. He explains that he particularly focused on how ‘these three diverse leaders used the metaphorsof light and darkness to portray the battle between the forces of good and evil’. Kirsten Peacock won a second prize in thehumanities section of the Konkurransen Unge Forskere (the Young Researchers competition), with her essay on ‘The FemaleVillain’. She studied the characters of Medea, Lady Macbeth and Hedda Gabler – three famous female villains coming fromclassical Greek theatre, Shakespeare’s tragedies, and Ibsen’s modern drama. Kirsten explains that in these works the playwrightmakes a conscious choice to use a female villain, and that ‘she is more harshly judged than a male might be’ resulting in ‘theinevitable downfall of the women’.The finalists (chosen this year from 129 entries in the two competitions) exhibited their research projects at the Nordisk TekniskMuseum in Oslo and enjoyed a programme of events including a formal dinner at the famous Holmenkollen Restaurant in thehills above Oslo.More information about these, and other competitions, can be found on http://konkurransene.no/ andthen follow the links.Lynn ParkExam Coordinatorwww.isstavanger.noThe In f o r m e r 29 Ap r i l 2009 · 7