Environmental S&S FAQs

IB DP Environmental Systems and Societies FAQs

Find answers to your questions

Below you’ll find the answers to your questions on teaching the IB Diploma Programme Environmental Systems and Societies 2024 Subject Guide from our expert author, Andrew Davis.

Andrew answers your questions on everything from planning your course to how the Pearson Environmental Systems and Societies for the IB Diploma Programme Student Book can support you. 

Assessment

Are IAs and CSP mandatory for the new curriculum for the ESS?

Yes, the CSP is a way of getting the students in the Sciences to collaborate together and students are expected to do it. There are 10 hours allocated in the time of the course.

There are also 10 hours allocated for the IA, the same for both HL and SL, even though the weighting is slightly different: it's 25% of the final assessment for SL and 20% for HL 20%.

Will the assessment model change, or will there still be a Paper 1 case study, and Paper 2 student response?

Will the case study for HL/SL remain same with a few more questions added in the QP?

If you look at the sample material from the IB, this will clarify things. It’s likely they'll have a case study from one region and for HL there will be more information, covering more legal, economic and ethical angles. The questions might start off similar for both SL and HL, then the HL will have more questions to deal with. Paper 1 is double the length for HL, so it's a weightier case study, but the approach is exactly the same, but with more information to take on.

How or where we can get sample question papers?

Course Content

In my country, we follow the EU Environmental regulations. In India, where I am teaching, the laws are different and more based on English common laws. So, while teaching Environmental Law, do I need to concentrate on international or local environmental regulations?

It's a bit of both! The IB have selected the key components of different aspects of Environmental Studies and try to unpack it in a way which is hopefully fairly easy to follow and say to use local or international examples that work best for your students and makes the most sense for them. Often the examples they give in the guide are quite general so that you can select your own examples. Ultimately, when it comes to the exams, students will want to use examples to illustrate their answers and if there's a local example, they're more like to remember it.

Which Practical Scheme of Work (PSOW) do we need for each ESS topics?

Many students who choose to take this course tend to think ESS is the easiest out of the Science course options and not out of interest for environmental topics, but then tend to do poorly because they’ve underestimated the effort they need to have to put into the class / how they need to practice putting various concepts together to make the appropriate applications/connections in Paper 1/2 longer response questions. How do you feel this will be reflected in SL vs HL? Do you think the 2026 exams will be a bit more reflective of this / according to the world averages ?

With ESS now available at HL, hopefully the subject will be seen in a new light. It is not, and never has been, an easy option. By embedding the concepts in teaching (there are now only three, so this should be more straightforward than in the 2015 syllabus where there were 6), students should be able to develop the skills needed (i.e. making connections between the concepts and the content) in the longer response questions.

What content has been removed from the old ESS syllabus in the new 2024 syllabus? Are there any changes of terminology in the new syllabus, such as changing the term "case study" to "real world example"?

Some material has moved from SL to HL, and so overall there has been a reduction of content at SL with greater time allowance for practical activities. This site has a useful comparison between the old (2015) and new (2024) course: https://www.thinkib.net/ess/page/53412/comparing-ess-2024-and-ess-2015

Most of the terminology is the same, but there are a couple of changes that come to mind:
• MEDC and LEDC are not used in the new Guide – these terms are replaced with HIC (high income countries) and LIC (low income), and also developing countries and developed countries.
• ‘cellular respiration’ is used in Topic 2 rather than just ‘respiration’

Which chapter is the most challenging in the new syllabus?

Higher Level

How can we guide students in the Higher Level lenses?

There are very detailed suggestions in the IB’s Teacher Support Material (TSM), with 3 different routes you could take. Pages 14-20 of the TSM show you how you might integrate HL lenses. This takes careful planning when HL and SL students are in the same class, so that you ensure you can engage the SL students whilst HL students cover HL material. The TSM is available on the IB website.

When we are teaching combined HL/SL classes, how might we integrate the Ethics & Economics HL lenses to benefit everyone? How about the Awesome Anthropocene Goals, SDGs and neo-colonialism?

Students will be doing Ethics within TOK, so they'll be very familiar with that. You start teaching the course with the Foundations; the expectation is that you start with topic one, and as you go through there will be chances to introduce ethics when you're looking at perspectives, and Economics when you're looking at sustainability law. You can integrate it that way to start off the conversation, and as you go through the course, through ecology or conservation, you can then see how you could apply the HL lenses to that particular topic. In the Pearson ESS Student Book, we give you ideas about where the HL lenses can be applied right through the course.

In the early discussions of the curriculum review it was decided that Awesome Anthropocene Goals should be included even though it’s a bit controversial. What the IB were trying to do with the new syllabus, also in terms of SDGs, was to futureproof it. The SDGs go through to around 2030, like the course. What we were looking for were models which you could pin ideas to in the course. They are used as examples of what sustainability is and how can you actually realise it.

Neo-colonialism is very much a talk approach. There’s plenty you could look at in terms of environmental law.

Can a student pursue an Environmental Science career at university with ESS HL? Has there been any collaboration with universities on this account?

Yes, during the development of the curriculum, various universities were involved in the consultation. The HL course was developed very much with a view to students applying to study the full breadth of environmental course, including environmental law, as well as environmental science. University representatives looked at the syllabus and what's in it and they're happy with it.

The Activity and Skills boxes in the Pearson ESS for the IB Diploma Programme Student Book have information and advice about skills that students need to develop and that can be used for their IA. The IA chapter has advice on how to structure a good IA, with hints and tips for research questions and methodology. There will also be worksheets as part of the eBook which have suggestions for practical activities.

Teaching Support

As a Biology teacher who will be teaching ESS for the first time next school year, what can you recommend on how I will mix-up the concepts required necessarily only needed for ESS in contrast to concepts intended for Biology students. Are these subjects totally different in terms of teaching approach?

ESS has three concepts which are taught ‘up front’ in the Foundation topic (Topic 1). In Biology, the concepts (of which there are more) are revealed during the teaching of the course. ESS is an interdisciplinary subject and so reaches across two subject groups (‘Sciences’ and ‘Individuals and Societies’), and has a holistic approach, whereas the sciences such as Biology tend to take a reductionist approach (although the idea if emergent properties is taught in the Biology syllabus). I would say that the teaching approach is different, although both have a strong practical aspect.

What percentage should be taught by a Geography teacher and Biology teacher if we are doing team teaching?

Initially, I actually taught the whole thing myself and I think there's a lot to be said for that, because you have an overview of the whole course. It depends on your particular College and who's available.

The Higher Level lenses incorporate Economics, Law and Ethics, but they're done to a level where a non-expert can teach them, using the advice in the material from the IB.

If you've got a geographer and a biologist who are interested you can both do it together. The course does divide up quite nicely: topics 1- 3 being Biology, and 4-8 covering the urban environment, which might be more familiar to a geographer, and then a joint effort on the HL lenses.

IB DP Environmental Systems and Societies FAQs

Assessment

Course Content

Higher Level

Online resources

Professional Development

Student book

Teaching Support

Discipline

Grade Level

Topics

Implementation

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