Time to Celebrate at the IB Extended Essay Extravaganza

January 29, 2021

Academics

GNS

Grade 12 IB Diploma candidate students celebrated the completion of their IB Extended Essays on January 21. Each essay is an independent 4000-word research paper that students begin in May of Grade 11 and complete by mid-October of Grade 12. Students choose a topic related to a course they are currently studying and work with one of our GNS teachers as their supervisor throughout the process.

“These students, especially this year, put in so much time and effort and sweat and tears to accomplish what they do with the Extended Essay, and we feel it’s really important to celebrate them. It’s an amazing accomplishment,” said Mme. Angie Girard, IB Diploma Coordinator.

There were 30 different essays written, in topics like English, Global Politics, Geography, World Studies, Economics, Biology, Physics, History, Chemistry, and Mathematics.

“Commitment, perseverance, true grit and resilience like I don’t know I’ve ever seen in a group of students. Maybe it’s the circumstances that we all had to dig deep to get the job done, but they did it all in spades,” explained Mme. Girard.

We checked in with a couple of students to talk about their Extended Essay journey.

Tara Golonka’s topic was Economics, and the question she focused on was “In what ways have the 2018 and 2019 increases in the BC carbon tax affected BC Ferries’ operations?”

“I chose it because I liked the local setting, and how it was pertinent to me being here in British Columbia, and using BC Ferries so much. And the carbon tax involves a lot of current issues like climate change, so I found that interesting,” she explained.

Completing the Extended Essay is no easy feat, and it isn’t without some ups and downs, but Tara said it was manageable after she figured out her topic.

“Narrowing down my idea was the most difficult part, but once I got my research question it was just a lot of research and putting it all together,” she said.

Connor Bosenberg explored World Studies, Physics and Geography for his essay, and looked into the question “To what extent has Boeing met the goals and regulations set out by the UN to help combat climate change?”

“I’m someone who likes airplanes, and knew I wanted to do something with that for my Extended Essay, but also incorporate physics because it’s also something I’m interested in,” he explained. “Geography was also something I was interested in and wanted to include.”

While it was a long process that started in May 2020, Connor said it was well worth it to get to the end.

“I did have to change my topic three times, but I think it was all worth it in the end,” he said. “I’m happy about it, and I managed to produce something I’m quite happy with. In terms of ups, it was submitting it and the ‘ah-ha’ moments when you are trying to connect two subjects and finally arrived at it.”

Congratulations to all the students who were able to complete their Extended Essay! A journey such as this requires a great support system and we would like to thank the supervisors, parents, and host parents!