Freshmen visited Holocaust Museum as a part of the IB MYP Interdisciplinary Units

Madeleine Pale, Staff Writer

Five years ago, the IB program started to require Interdisciplinary Units(IDUs) because of how valuable they are. Around this time, teachers across ELA, Biology, and World History And Geography came together to plan the IDU. Almost all of these original teachers no longer work here. 

“We were very fearful that the original intention was not going to be conveyed by us because it was not our original vision. It was somebody else’s,” WHAG teacher Luke Milne said.

The IDU was set up for freshman year because it was the only time where all students take the same classes. 

“As you get into your sophomore year, you’ll see people go into APUSH, Government, Economics, and other things,” Milne said. “We don’t have one class that everybody will take, so freshman year is the perfect time for it.” 

 The first trial of the IDU got halfway through before covid hit. 

“We tried it last year when we returned from our COVID years,” Milne said. “And we were successful, but not as successful as we’ve been this year. We didn’t have the structure built up, it was mostly a trial run.”

The main theme of the students’ museum assignment is that the misrepresentation of identity leads to consequences.

“We want to show students through many different ways—three times a day—that racism, sexism, and the other isms are present because of misrepresentation.” 

The schedule was thrown off by the “ice days”, so WHAG was the only class to do their portion of the IDU before spring break. “I would like to have all of us start at the same time whether or not we all end at the same time,” Milne said. “I actually really like the staggered approach.”