Discover & Explore – "Virtus" at the High School of IB-Mthiebi Boarding School
The High School of the IB-Mthiebi boarding school contains three branches of modern education: the School of Technical Sciences, the School of Natural Sciences, and the School of Humanities, with students in classes based on their interests and talents.
During the pandemic period, IB-Mthiebi is offering students an online study process and a variety of educational projects, with an academic curriculum oriented on theoretical knowledge development, as well as developing students’ analytical and critical thinking abilities. In the frames of our cooperation with Georgian and European Universities, the IB-Mthiebi curriculum is based on universities’ academic curriculum, and supports students in preparing for future student life.
In 2015, the High School launched the "Virtus" academic project, aimed at the strong development of students' academic and creative skills in cooperation with the Georgian-American University, The Caucasus University (CU), and the Grigol Robakidze University (GAU).
During the three-week Virtus project, students carry out research in different academic fields according to the class they are in, under the supervision of their teachers, university lecturers, and students.
What in Virtus has the strongest impact on students' academic development? What are the expectations after completion of the three-week project?
First, through Virtus, the High School aims to create a school-university link to help high school students understand the university education structure, system, and requirements.
Second, school students become better-aware of academic programs they might face at university.
Third, school students study how to carry out research independently, but under the supervision of experienced tutors, who provide a fruitful direction through the selection of printed or online / internet based academic sources.
The next aim of the project is to instruct school students how to write a research abstract and find or discover information that was unknown before: scientific news!
Another important goal of the project is to teach students how to follow the rules and requirements of scientific research, how to avoid plagiary, and how to find reliable sources for their paper-based work.
The storing of the research abstract at IB-Mthiebi’s partner universities, or in other scientific institutions, is the final stage of the project, with students and their supervisors presenting electronic (PPT) abstracts to the academic staff and being graded for their work.
Recently completed projects (December 4, 2020) are currently being stored on the Google Meet Online platform. Students presented interesting research to an online audience and evaluation committee of IB Mthiebi academic staff and representatives of CU and GAU. The presentations were both inspiring and interesting, and all merited approval, and some gained particularly high scores.
Research topics included pandemics in history of civilizations, international systems and economics in times of pandemic, and cyber-physical reality.
The participating high school students obtained good, fresh knowledge in history, physics, math, and more, and earned excellent evaluations from the university lecturers.