In May, the Standard Level Grade 12 students of the IB Mathematics: Applications and Interpretations and IB Mathematics: Analysis and Approaches courses completed the additional Vectors unit of study, a requirement for students by the Kultusministerkonferenz (KMK) to obtain recognition of the IB Diploma for Allgemeine Hochschulreife (general university entrance within Germany) as of February 2021. This is the second time the additional unit of study has been successfully implemented at the Franconian International School, and has also been adopted by many of the schools within the Association of German International Schools (AGIS).
The Vectors Unit of study is a foundational one in the development of geometrical structures in multiple dimensions and finds many applications within Physics in the description of structures possessing magnitude and direction, such as displacement, force, velocity and architectural statics. The focus for this unit is on the algebraic and geometric representations of vectors in two and three dimensions, the applications to constant linear velocity modeling and the definition of the vector dot product and orthogonality relationships.These topics extend many of the themes addressed in both elementary Mathematics and Physics classes such as the concept of work done by a force, motion of a car or plane along a straight line trajectory and the proof of geometrical properties of triangles and polygons. Attendance to all of the four sessions was mandatory, with excellent attendance recorded both in 2021 and in 2022, and students successfully completing a cumulative assessment of all the learning completed in this short and intense course. The response to the unit by students and parents alike has been resoundingly positive.
For the school year 2022/2023, the plan is to have students complete the Vectors unit in the first semester of Grade 12 to enable further connections to be made with the other syllabus topics.
Recognition of the IB Diploma Programme as the Allgemeine Hochschulreife offers our students an opportunity to continue their education at any publicly recognized institution of tertiary studies in Germany.
For any questions about the Math Vector unit please reach out to , for any queries about Allgemeine Hochschulreife reach out to .
