useful links


This page displays the websites mentioned in the book, organised by chapter. Click the links you would like to check, then press the back button of your browser to return to this page.

Chapter 3: Implementing the Diploma Programme in school

www.ibo.org lists addresses of reginal offices, a directory of all IB schools with (e-mail) contacts, library support, a very efficient online publication section, statistics (under publications, see the Statistical Bulletin), Subject Guides and teacher support materials (only be available after authorization), the Vade Mecum (the essential handbook to the IB Diploma Programme, under publications), University and Government recognition policies, Special Educational Needs, (calendars of) Workshops and conferences, just to name a few items. One can also subscribe to the quarterly magazine IB World through this website.
online.ibo.org the Online curriculum centre (OCC), only accessible for subscribers. It features discussion forums, coordinators notes (which list important amendments to the regulations for each subject area as well as the cycle of curriculum development and review), recommended resources. Applications can be sent to online@ibo.org.
www.aaibs.org is an australasian network of IB schools. The site has all the university entrance scores in IB terms.
European Council of International Schools is a Council of International Schools
The Association for Science Education is a good source of information on laboratory design, safety, and equipment suppliers. Membership is around US$75 per year.
CLEAPSS is an excellent source on safety issues.
www.turnitin.com is an anti-plagiarism site endorsed by the IBO. Send in electronic documents for automated plagiarism report.

Chapter 4: View from the UK

www.ibsca.org.uk is the website of International Baccalaureate schools and colleges in the UK and Ireland

Chapter 9: Creativity, Action, Service (CAS)

International Award (Duke of Edinburgh Award)
Eagle Scouts Award
Habitat for Humanity
www.ifrc.org International Federation of Red Cross and Red crescent societies.
Red Cross
Royal Geographic Society features, under its 'publications' header, expeditions, risk assessment, and guides; and many of these resources can be downloaded free of charge.
The Tabitha project is a Cambodian charity run by a Canadian. Many IB schools have linked with Tabitha to construct basic and simple one-room homes for Cambodian families. Some schools also help by selling crafts made by the families working with Tabitha.
Scouting documents links to varied resources that can be modified to help you in your planning. It also has equipment links, songs, and skits for download to help with the CAS camps.

Chapter 10: Theory of Knowledge (TOK)

IB Guide is a very interesting independent website, which seeks to provide independent guides for EE/TOK and general IB success. Guides written by successful former IB candidates and aimed at current IB Diploma students. The site also provides free downloads of grade A IB assessments.
Think is a periodical of the British Royal Institute for Philosophy. Published tri-annually, this magazine is aimed squarely at those with no philosophical background - great for students and very accessible.
Teaching Philosophy is a US publication aimed more at first-year undergraduates and university teachers than at high school students, but it still has lots of very useful ideas and articles.
The Philosophers Magazine is a British journal devoted to interesting issues within philosophy. Its scope is rather wider than Theory of Knowledge, though it is not an academic journal, and it is packed full of interesting and funny articles. The interactive 'games' page is particularly fun and worth a visit. There are several possible class activities here.
The British Prospect is another magazine that is more general but regularly has excellent TOK resources. As an example, the April 2003 edition contains, among other things, articles on why art galleries should show copies of great works rather than originals; why the scientific community rejects controversial environmental findings; how Hollywood movies are in effect rewriting history for today's movie-going culture; and why a particular brand of relativism does not stand up to analysis. Some of these may be too difficult for the students, but most of them are very accessible.
Parabola Magazine is published four times a year and is thematically based. The back issues on language, consciousness and several other issues are well worth ordering in. Highly accessible and stimulating it draws from universal sources of all types. There are videos as well.
Forum is the official IB Theory of Knowledge magazine. Discussing assessment, lesson plans and activities, schemes of work and conferences, it is an extremely useful resource. The paper version is distributed free to all diploma schools.
The IB Online Curriculum Centre (OCC) is a growing collection of links and resources. It contains a discussion forum, a resource centre, exemplar essays and the relevant chapters from the Vade Mecum. You need a password and user ID to log in - see your DPC if you do not have one.
Pathways to philosopy is devoted to distance learning of philosophy. There are some very good e-books that you can download.
Peter Suber's site is an extraordinarily comprehensive search guide to philosophy on the net. You can use it to find almost anything you want - probably in far more detail than you need.

Chapter 13: second languages

www.english-to-go.com is an excellent commercial site for text handling materials. It is linked to Reuters press.

Chapter 14: group 3

business and economics
www.bized.ac.uk is one of our favorite business sites.
www.asa.org.uk is the site of the UK's Advertising Standards Authority.
www.adb.org is the site of the Asian Development Bank
www.brw.com.au is the site of Business Review Weekly
www.consumerjungle.org is dedicated to promoting consumer literacy for young adults
www.eclac.cl is the site of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean
www.latin-focus.com is a site on Latin American economies.
www.nationalstatistics.gov.uk is the UK's site of official statistics, reflecting Britain's economy, population and society at national and local level.
www.swcollege.com featuring great ideas for teaching marketing.
www.jobsletter.org.nz is a good site on Keynes.
www.onepine.info People Organisations theory models concepts.
www.s-cool.co.uk is a popular UK site dedicated to school students.
www.economist.com is the site of The Economist magazine.
www.thetimes100.co.uk is a free educational resource for students, teachers and lecturers of business studies.
www.tutor2u.net is a good site for online learning resources.
hdr.undp.org is the site of the UN Human Development reports.
test.woodgreen.oxon.sch.uk is the site of Wood Green Schhol, winner of the Guardian school webite of the year 2001.

ITGS
www.easybib.com helps students to create properly formated bibliographies.
www.lawrencevillepress.com provides students with resources to increase their level of IT competency.
www.atomiclearning.com allows students, teachers and parents the opportunity to learn a wide variety of software packages. The website currently offers more than 3,000 tutorials, with regular updates and new tutorials. Subscribing to an online tutorial system allows for easier updating of resources, rather than relying on having to purchase textbooks of this nature every year.
www.computerconfluence.com is the companion site to a comprehensive text book, 'Computer Confluence' by George Beekman.
Sarah Baase's page is the website accompanying one of the best textbooks for providing students with an overview of social and ethical issues: Gift of Fire - Social, Legal, and Ethical Issues in Computing, by Sara Baase, published by Pearson Higher Education.

geography
www.internetgeography.co.uk is a support site with subject information that can be used in lessons : case studies, etc. It is a British site so not IB specific, but easily transferable.
www.gtasa.asn.au is the site of the Geography Teacher's Association of South Australia. This site contains support material such as a glossary, image bank and links to IB notes and IB revision notes (although these are links to other sites and the quality is not as good as it could be, and naturally not necessarily specific to what is taught by each centre).
www.ibgeog.com is published by the Geography Department of the International School of Toulouse. Contains a selection of information that is directly relevant to both students and teachers of IB, including list of skills, assessment criteria, coursework information and so on. Also has a course outline with some links for some of the topics, which can be used to build activities around. Very clear - especially useful for schools just starting the IB as it includes outline of assessment process and skills required by students.
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/REVgeography.htm features a list of links which relate to all parts of the syllabus.
www.geoworld.co.uk provides excellent ideas and activities designed to encourage students to develop their thinking skills. Suitable across the age range but many are suitable or adaptable to IB.
www.pupilvision.com/mainframe.htm has won many awards and has information relevant to any geography course. It is aimed at teachers rather than students.
www.geographyinthenews.rgs.org is a Royal Geographical Society site which selects news stories related to geography. A great way to illustrate an topic with contemporary material or to start a discussion.
www.nationmaster.com is a great resource that allows for comparison of a wide range of statistics.
www.geog.ouc.bc.ca/physgeog/contents/table.html is a general introduction to physical geography - contains some useful notes and glossary of terms relating to some of the optional themes.
www.geoimages.berkeley.edu/PhysicalGeography.html is a bank of images which can be used to illustrate a range of physical geography topics.
www.georesources.co.uk - although designed for the British National Curriculum, this site has a whole range of relevant pages - photos, case studies, teacher resources, outline maps, etc.
www.geographypages.co.uk - although based around UK examinations, this list of links would be useful to any teacher of the subject. Very comprehensive.

history
www.encarta.msn.com is a good starting point for weaker students.
www.encyclopedia.com is also a good starting point for weaker students.
www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cold.war is the website that accompanies the video series.
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk a simple website for students to start but is lacking detail.
www.historylearningsite.co.uk is again a website that gives a general overview but is lacking in detail.
www.ihffilm.com offers military, political and social historical films of the 20th century.

Chapter 15: group 4

general science sites
CLEAPSS stands for the 'Consortium of Local Education Authorities for the Provision of Science Services'. This service is mainly for schools and colleges in the UK but international schools are usually able to gain membership. Their safety publications are excellent and are designed to be used by teachers in schools, and provide essential safety information. Although it is designed for UK schools and with UK safety regulations in mind, it would be of great use with any system. Electronic versions of publications are available. The 'hazcards' containing safety issues relating to specific chemicals are particularly useful for classroom teachers.
www.osc-ib.com contains details about the new revision book for the DP by Roby, Pat (2003) 'IB Physics Revision Guide', Oxford Study Courses (OSC). OSC also cover chemistry and biology material, including some interesting work on the options.

biology
www.campbellbiology.com is the companion site to the book of Campbell, N. A. and Reece, J. B. (2002) 'Biology, 6th edition', The Benjamin Cummings Publishing Co. Inc. A brilliant resource for teachers, although quite high level for students. Its main attraction is the fantastic CD-ROM that gives you access to their website, and provides all the diagrams within the book, as well as many detailed animations of biological processes such as meiosis, protein synthesis and respiration. Incidentally, the website can be subscribed to without purchasing the book. Highly recommended!
www.biozone.co.uk/products.html is the companion site to 'Senior Biology 1 and 2' (2002), Biozone International Ltd. These workbooks are designed to be bought and written in by students, and cover IB topics as outlined on the front. There are spaces for answers, as well as data analysis style questions. A useful companion for students. There is an answer book available for teachers as well. Different versions exist for different countries.
www.biology.arizona.edu is the Biology Project of the University of Arizona. It provides some excellent virtual labs, such as determining the phases of mitosis, and is a mine of information.

physics
www.prenhall.com/giancoli is the companion to the book by Giancoli, Douglas C. (2001) 'Physics Principles with Applications, 5th edition', Prentice-Hall. This book meets the challenge of the more difficult concepts in the course and, as the title implies, refers to many applications of the relevant physics principles. It also contains questions at the end of each chapter of increasing difficulty level. The website is excellent as well. Although more advanced-level textbooks like this one contain material relevant to the DP, they are probably best used by teachers and students for reference only.
www.harcourtcollege.com/physics/pse is the website companion to the editor's all-time favorite physics book by Serway, Beichner 'Physics for scientists and engineers (fifth edition)', Saunders College Publishing. This book combines the enthusiasm and far-sightedness of Feynman's famous three text books, but consistently caters to weaker students as well. It has interesting historical anecdotes and takes great care to explain why the topics at hand are of interest to physicists, both at a basic application level and at an advanced post-doc level. It manages to do so without ever trivializing things or going over people's heads. Exercises start with the very basic and end with really fun and challenging problems. While officially designated a first year university book, teachers and students will find an endless source of inspiration in this book. A must-have text.

Chapter 16: mathematics and computer science

general mathematics and IT
www.becta.org.uk/research/impact2 is the report of a major UK government survey into the effectiveness of IT in the classroom. The report caused somewhat of a storm in educational circles because despite optimistic conclusions, the statistical data seem to imply that IT has brought little, if any, benefits to the quality of education.
www.ticalc.org is a support site for the TI-83 calculator (popular in mathematics examinations), from which programs can be downloaded.

mathematics
www.spasoft.co.uk/omnigraph.html - a shining example of how great software can be. The only disadvantage of Omnigraph graphing software is that it is only available for the PC. It is very easy to use (within 2 minutes you're up and running), it can do an awful lot, it has great interactive exercises, it allows you to enliven your lesson presentations, it is small (1 MB), it runs on all Windows versions, and it is very cheap. You can try it out at no cost for a month. The mathematics chapter contains many ideas of how to put Omnigraph to use.
www.keypress.com/sketchpad is the website of Geometer's Sketchpad (GSP) software. It is brilliant for plane geometry issues, and no teacher who wishes to do the plane geometry option in MHL or analytical geometry in MMSL should go without it. With a little experience, teachers will find that an amazing number of problems can be worked through with GSP, even those that don't seem related to geometry.
www.hotmath.com is a website which takes the student step by step (controlled by the student) through every odd-numbered question of a large number of mathematics text books. In particular, it supports the book by Stewart, J. (2004) 'Calculus, 5th edition', Brooks, Cole, a very popular text for first-year university programmes in the USA. This book is more of a teacher resource that includes useful work on series and vectors in addition to the obvious coverage of calculus from the basics to the level required for the analysis option (and beyond!). The website, however, is a great tool for motivated students to test their understanding.

computer science
www.uwcsea.edu.sg/comp/ib.html links you to the United World College of South East Asia Computer Science Department. Contains detailed notes of the theory topics and detailed help for Java programming. The programs are explained and the source code is available; they can be run from within the browser.
www.wollum.net/Disc.htm links you to the Computer science at Shanghai American School, discussion web. This website allows students from throughout the world to post questions on their dossier. Other students or teachers around the world can read and answer.
www.bluej.org is the companion to the book by Barnes, David and Kolling, Michael (2003) 'Objects First with Java: A Practical Introduction Using BlueJ', Prentice Hall, a book about BlueJ (an integrated Java environment designed for introductory teaching). The environment BlueJ is available free for PC or Mac systems. The website features the Java compiler which had enormous support from teachers at a recent computer science course.