Knowledge Festival Strengthens Link between IB World School and Local Community
Profile of Park View Education Centre, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, Canada
Every year, Park View Education Centre, becomes host to thousands of visitors for the Knowledge Festival – a two-day series of organized intellectual challenges and educational experiences for all ages.
What originally began as an idea for a one-day senior high student symposium has grown into a regional success that challenges students and engages the local community. In 2007 alone, 5,000 visitors attended the festival.
The festival came into existence when parents, community members, educators, current students and alumni created the Park View IB Society to promote the mission of – and to advocate for – the IB Diploma Programme. The Society sought opportunities to partner with the community, creating a positive relationship between Park View and the surrounding region. Park View hosts other area schools for this event, increasing awareness for IB throughout the region and encouraging potential students to consider the programme.
Park View students play a major role in making the festival an educational and community-building success. For example, Pre-IB and IB History students coordinate ChamplainQuest, a historical trivia activity that commemorates the 400th anniversary of Samuel de Champlain’s arrival in North America. Similarly, IB Math students supervise the Mental Math competition and IB English students encourage elementary school students during Superword.
Recent additions to the festival have included a voice competition modeled after American Idol and Canadian Idol; a spelling bee; a speech festival; a junior architect challenge; a “Wonder Writers” prose, poetry and essay competition; a math relay contest; a senior citizens’ relay; a rap contest; an archeology expo; a guitar-making presentation; and a French film festival.
An IB World School since 1981, Park View has more than 40 percent of its 50-member faculty involved in the IB programme and a fifth of its students are involved in IB in grades 11 and 12. The school averages about ten IB diplomas per year with more than 50 students earning IB certificates annually. In September 2005, McLean’s Magazine listed Park View in the top three overall schools in Canada, primarily because of the IB programme and the Society’s Knowledge Festival.
IB continues to grow in Nova Scotia with the province introducing ten new schools in 2007. Park View now enjoys provincial government support for IB, which lessens the Park View IB Society’s fundraising demands. However, the group remains an active and influential organization devoted to supporting IB in the community.
"Park View has more than 40 percent of its 50-member faculty involved in the IB programme and a fifth of its students are involved in IB in grades 11 and 12."
