Tag Archives: Year 12

Extended Essay: Creating and Sharing your Annotated Bibliography

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Year 12 students, your Annotated Bibliography is due Tuesday, April 16th.  You may submit it to your supervisor, Mr. Rancic and Ms. Katy either as a Google Doc or through NoodleTools.  If you need help with submitting your annotated bibliography, come to Extended Essay office hours on Mondays from 3-4 pm in the secondary library.

If you want to submit it as a Google Doc, use the slides below to ensure that your sharing settings are set to:

  • Visibility Options: Anyone with the link
  • Access: Can Comment

If you want to submit it through NoodleTools, share your project with the assignment drop box titled “Extended Essay 2013-2014 [Ms. Katy]”.  Don’t yet have an account with NoodleTools? See the secondary library blog post Research with NoodleTools.  Need help navigating NoodleTools? Check out

If you need help with submitting your annotated bibliography, come to Extended Essay office hours on Mondays from 3-4 pm in the secondary library.

Book Review: And Then There Were None

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“Ten little indians boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self, and then there were nine”.

AndThenThereWereNone10 characters.

A desert island.

A mysterious host.

That’s the setting of the Agatha Christie masterpiece, And Then There Were None. The plot of this amazing detective novel, which is the world’s best-selling mystery ever, has as its starting point a rhyme entitled “Ten Little Indians”. After being mysteriously invited by an unknown host to stay at a mansion on a deserted island, the ten guests are invited ​​to listen to a disc on which the voice of the owner of the house is recorded. The voice tells them that they were gathered there to expiate their crimes: in fact each of them is accused of a terrible crime for which they were never punished. It is with horror that, one by one, the characters in the house begin to die. And every death reflects a verse of the nursery rhyme…

The power of this novel lies in the suspense. In fact, as each character progressively dies, the circle of suspects narrows down and the tension rises. Trusting people becomes more and more dangerous and, as a macabre signal, each of the guests finds a copy of the rhyme in his room. Who’s going to be the next one? And, more important, under whose identity is the murderer hiding? But the writer manages to surpass herself. Clues, hidden symbols, amazing twists: Agatha Christie manages to write a finely crafted thriller where nothing is taken for granted and anything can happen.

If you like detective stories and thrillers, this is the book for you! Furthermore, several movies were made from the novel. The first film adaptation was in 1945 by director René SinitiniAvatarClair.  Even though the film is not the most recent, in my opinion, it is extremely well done and could be an excellent way to complement the reading of the book. – Thanks to Bianca S., Year 12 student, for writing this book review.

Book Review: Across the Universe

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AcrossTheUniverseCover“Across the Universe” is the first book in a gripping science-fiction trilogy by Beth Revis. In the novel, seventeen-year-old Amy is cryogenically frozen along with her parents so that they can endure a 300-year journey to a new Earth on the starship Godspeed. However, she is woken 50 years too soon. She then meets Elder, the future leader of the ship. Together, they join forces to find out who is responsible for unplugging the other cryogenically frozen passengers. This only leads them to a series of overwhelming lies, hidden for generations within the cold, metal walls of Godspeed.

Across the Universe is an enthralling tale of murder, mystery and action with a tinge of love. Beth Revis does an excellent job of bringing all of these elements to the table as well as truly immersing the reader in the atmosphere of the starship Godspeed.

Recommended for: Fans of science fiction, mystery and fast-paced action.

Want to try it? Check the book out from the LIS Secondary Library or purchase a Kindle copy on Amazon. If you liked “Across the Universe”, remember to check out “A Million Suns” and “Shades of Earth” the second and third installments in the Across the Universe trilogy.

– Thanks to Isabela C, Year 12 student, for writing this book review about Beth Revis’s Across the Universe. 

Extended Essay: Planning & Organizing Your Research

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Research Process

Research Process

Are you a Year 12 Diploma student?

If the answer is yes, then over the last few weeks, you’ve started your Extended Essay research process.  You have been in the pre-search stage of your research process, where you explore potential topics and start thinking about who might be your advisor.  As you determine the focus of your research, it is important that you begin effectively collecting your resources and taking initial notes so you can access them later.

The resource we will be using for saving, annotating and sharing your research is the social bookmarking tool Diigo.

Want to learn more about Diigo? Watch these videos:

Today’s tasks:

Your subject area teachers and supervisors will be added to these groups, and we will ask them to support your research by adding relevant resources to these Diigo groups.  As you ask supervisors to work with you, they may ask to see your Diigo account so you can discuss the resources you’ve found so far.

Pathfinder: Diploma Program Research

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Calling all Year 12s! You know your Diploma Program is moving into high gear when it’s time to start talking about Extended Essay and Core TOK research project!DPResearchPathfinder

These research are some of the most important assignments you will complete on your way to graduation. They can get overwhelming if you don’t have a plan. To support you on your journey, the library has created a Diploma Program Research pathfinder.  With this pathfinder and a solid plan, you’re on your way to conducting valuable research to share with the world.

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought”- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi, Hungarian BioChemist, 1937 Nobel Prize for Medicine

A Snapshot of the Library in Action on a Friday

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Today was an amazing Friday in the LIS Secondary Library.  Here are a few photos from throughout our day. If you would like to see more photos of the LIS library community in action, visit our LIS Secondary Library – 180 Project.

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Social Media & the News

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This is the second in a series of blog posts for LIS’s Year 12 Core TOK class. Outside comments are welcomed and encouraged.

In the 21st century, social media has significantly impacted how journalism happens and how we learn about and understand breaking events.

In his TEDxThessaloniki talk, Crowdsourcing the News, Paul Lewis discussing how his job as a journalist has changed with the rise of social media.  In his talk, he mentions several popular social media networks which influence how and what gets reported in the mainstream, traditional news media.  These are listed below along with a few others.

Earlier, we posted about Traditional Mass Media vs. Alternative News Sources and asked about the similarities and differences in their reporting of news stories.  Today, the LIS library wants to know: How is social media impacting journalism and therefore the news we get?  

To answer this key question, consider

What IS social media’s impact on journalism?
What are the positive aspects of social media’s impact on journalism?
What are the negative aspects of social media’s impact on journalism?
How can you use social media to stay informed?

Core TOK students, please use at least two different specific examples from Social Networks in your response.