2024 Meeting - SGIS IB DP Geography Group
Date
Friday 24th May 2024
Location → International School of Berne
Arrival
On arrival, please make yourself known to the office team at the Main Entrance. You will receive a badge to wear whilst you are at ISBerne. Some volunteers will show you to room 325, where there will be tea and coffee before we start our sessions at 9.30.
Arriving by public transport
If arriving by train into Bern, take the number 6 tram towards Worb and get off at Siloh (Gumligen). The tram stop is around 300m from the school, signposted on Nussbaumallee.
Arriving by car
You can access the school car park via Allmendigenweg.
Agenda
09h00 | Arrive for a 09h30 start. Coffee/Tea will be available. |
09h30 | Welcome and introductions - Richard Allaway, International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations and Anna Phillips, International School of Berne. |
09h45 | Review of the exam - Anna Phillips, International School of Berne. |
10h30 | Break. |
11h00 | Culturally responsive curriculums - Daniel Grocott, International School of Lausanne. |
11h30 | Developing ArcGIS literacy for the DP - Ben Weston, Haut-Lac International Bilingual School. |
12h00 | Lunch. |
13h00 | Student use of AI in the DP Geography Classroom - Richard Allaway, International School of Geneva - Campus des Nations. |
14h00 | Deep dive into Unit 1 Population: case studies, content and quantity - Matt Podbury, International School of Toulouse. |
14h45 | Geo Pub Quiz - Ecolint La Châtaigneraie Geography Team - Matthew Roberts, Sarah Shippey and Christelle Favre. |
15h30 | Finish - with the option for people to have a drink if they wish! |
Session resources
Review of the exam
Paper 1





Paper 2




The photos were uploaded to ChatGPT 4o with the following prompt →
These four images of notes reflect on a recent IB DP geography exam. The notes are divided into four sections: Expected, Surprises, Feedback for the IB, and Things to inform future teaching. Summarise the notes under each heading.
Here is the output →
Expected
- Infographic 6 marks
- General expectations about question formatting and content
Surprises
- Internal and voluntary migration, economic development - too specific
- Policies, challenges, ageing societies - worth 10-mark question?
- Survey biased
- Migration felt by individuals
- Questions need to be worded more clearly
- First-person accounts and case studies need better synthesis
Feedback for the IB
- Poor French translation for Paper 2
- Add time to Paper 3
- Accessibility of questions for EAL learners
- Questions should be more balanced
Things to Inform Future Teaching
- Focus on PPPPSS
- Bias and skills checklist
- Use of past papers
- Contemporary knowledge and news articles
- Emphasize key themes and interpretation of statements
- Encourage light-weight examples and answering the question in every paragraph
- Balance in question parts
- Use first-person accounts for case studies
- Introduction of key themes, interpretation, and examples
Culturally responsive curriculums
Unsettling decolonizing geographies, Sarah de Leeuw, Sarah Hunt, 25 June 2018, Geography Compass
Classroom strategies for tackling the whiteness of geography, Charlotte Milner, 21 September 2020, Teaching Geography Vol. 45 Issue 3
Pedagogies for diverse classrooms: why should geography matter to me?, Daryl Sinclair, Teaching Geography Vol 47 Autumn 2022