Events
MYP Trauma Day:
One day in the fall MYP goes off timetable to spend a day out in the woods in Kongsberg for our annual Trauma Day. The event is tied to the curriculum in PHE and the topic is First Aid. Students will be working through trauma scenarios concerning first aid and health. They will be divided up into groups and be working with each other in the roles as 1. First Responder 2. Victim 3. Evaluator and 4. Documenter.
KIS MYP Outdoor Focus:
KIS is unique in that it connects its curriculum to the environment around us. Students explore the forests around Kongsberg and use materials in science classes, individuals and societies classes, and English literature classes. The PHE curriculum uses the environment as our gym and units include activities like rock climbing, skiing, and slalom skiing. KIS continues to try to focus its curriculum to an appreciation of understanding where we are and where we come from. The outdoor focus of KIS continues to inspire students to take their learning from inside the classroom beyond the walls of a building.
Model United Nations (MUN)
Students at KIS use real life situations to promote learning and display their research. The curriculum at KIS is not held to the boundaries of paper tests, and students are continually pushed to engage in debates and real-life authentic activities that they can apply to 21st century jobs. In the Spring semester students take on a debate where they combine science and individuals and societies classes to debate the ethical implications of future technology and genetics. KIS continually promotes and participates in MUN debates and sometimes joins schools around Norway for nationwide events. Kongsberg International School aims to make its curriculum real to the students and give them the tools needed to engage in the workplace that lies beyond their graduation date.
A school in a technology town
Design and technology is intrinsically weaved into the fabric of Kongsberg and it is only natural that this has a high focus at KIS. With the support of, and to support, international and local companies and the University of Southern Norway, our design curriculum and projects aim at mirroring real life projects. As a link between Science, Maths, and Arts, our Design programme incorporates programming, robotics and electronics using the IB design cycle, which is familiar to both researchers and engineers. With a focus on innovation and creativity, we want our students to learn how to collaborate in a safe environment, learning how ‘failing well’ is part of the process and development in learning how to function in a future where technology is ever-changing. As extensions of their learning in the classroom, our students take part in projects such as Lego League and CanSat in collaboration with other companies.
First Lego League:
FIRST® LEGO® League (FLL) participation is designed to encourage young people, working in FLL teams, to further develop innovative solutions to real-world problems through research and presentation, and to challenge their technical skills in robotics. KIS participates annually, with a team comprised of all levels of the MYP, based on students' specific interests and on potential links to the curriculum.
Democracy workshop:
MYPC and MYPD students participated in a 3-day workshop on the island “Utøya” together with from other schools the past few years. This year event started at the European Wergeland center in Oslo, followed by a visit to the 22. July centre where they learned about the terrorist attacks on July 22, 2011. During the workshop they met survivors and close relatives of victims who talked about their experiences during and after the attack. It was special to see the damage (from gunshots) inside “kafébygget”, now called Hegnhuset and the display of text messages sent to and from victims during the attack. The workshop is focused on understanding democracy and citizenship, fostering student engagement, and how to stop hate speech. Over the course of the three days, students engaged with different activities and learning tools and created their own plan for carrying out activities in our school.
Educational Field Trips
Educational field trips are a very successful way to learn by doing and address authentic inquiry and learning challenges in real life. At KIS we value trips highly, and in addition to countless skiing, climbing, and tenting trips, we have visited places such as: Tromsø, Iceland, Portugal, Boda Borg, Paris, Sevilla, the Canary Islands, Ireland, Svalbard, London, Stavanger, Bergen, Busan and Seoul in South-Korea, Nagpur in India, Singapore, Bosnia, Slovakia, Germany, – amongst others.
From our bigger projects and trips, we should mention Kongsberg to Korea, known as K2K, which was “A THINK TANK OF YOUNG MINDS ON THE ISSUES IN COMMUNICATION, TECHNOLOGY AND THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE”. Over three years, KIS students travelled to South Korea and worked with Kongsberg Automotive studying perfection in assembly lines and 5Ss, Aker Drilling – who, after we nearly crashed their drilling simulator, took us on board at the oil rig CATD1 – Equinox which was under construction at that time at the DSME shipyard as well as several vessels , DNV GL – teaching us about safety and security processes and procedures, The Norwegian Consulate and Embassy and their role in a globalised world, Kongsberg Maritime for EFMEA tests in relation to design cycles, the Goliat building at the Hyundai shipyard, Aker Solutions Pusnes who became Mac Gregor Pusnes - who taught us about mooring and loading, Dwight School of Seoul where we transferred the principles of dynamic positioning into body positioning via animation suits, a global responsibility focus with Busan Foreign International School, SM Entertainment who taught us about arts and performances in a digitalized world, and more.
We should also mention CCRG, the Curriculum Committee Research Group, who undertook a full action research study on student action in curriculum writing via the University of Bath. This was a project which took us to Washington DC to present our findings to the research department at the Global IB Center in Bethesda, Maryland.
