The Extended Essay Senior Showcase will be held this Wednesday, Feb. 21, from 7 – 9 p.m. Attendees will meet in the auditorium for announcements, and then enjoy five, 15-minute senior-led presentations of their choice from this program.
“This is an inspiring event that creates enthusiasm about knowledge, research and education.The topics are student-selected and rich in variety. There is something for everyone. Anyone thinking about earning an IB Diploma should be coming to this!” said Jennifer Wiandt, Cleveland’s IB Coordinator.
Most presentations will be slideshows with time for Q&As at the end. The extended essays have been in progress since the second semester of junior year, and presentations will have been prepared for roughly a week prior to the showcase. The showcase will not be a walk-through of each essay, but rather a condensed version of the most interesting concepts addressed.
“There are a lot of English Literature and Language and Literature topics this year, so I think that’s always a huge draw for students. We really tried to spread those out,” Wiandt said.
There has also been a resurgence in popularity of music analysis. “One subject that kind of floats in and out of the radar over the years has been music, so I’m interested in seeing the one on the music of Wakanda, of which Mr. (Gary) Riler ended up being the supervisor,” Wiandt said.
There is only one math extended essay this year. “I believe it has to do with the intersection of math and disease, the ways that we sort of track diseases like COVID or infection rates through mathematical formulas,” Wiandt said.
Personally, though, Wiandt is “super interested in Solomon Barnett’s exploration of melatonin and circadian rhythms. I think he’s talking more about blue light and how it keeps us from producing melatonin in our sleep, which we need because it’s naturally produced in our bodies. I love it when we have local topics, those tend to come up a lot in Environmental Systems topics.”
Cleveland has 65 IB Diploma candidates (out of this year’s 374 Cleveland seniors) with 26 faculty supervisors guiding them. At the end of this year, 63.6% of seniors will be taking IB exams.
Because there are so many presentations available, Wiandt advised attendees to look “at the program ahead of time is a good idea. It just depends what you’re interested in.”