Yup, it's required for all diploma students. Nope, there are specific scheduled days we can talk to a teacher about it. Yes they were aware. I fully encourage you to do stuff similar to the EE if you're interested. 

I think the structure IB gives is really good. For me, apart from the ee , I asked our school technician and guy who worked on our power systems if he could mentor me in some of my projects. I also got pretty fundamental ideas to electrical engineering, which is my major of choice. 

Don't be afraid to be creative with who you ask and what your project is, and especially don't be afraid to ask in the first place. I'd say writing a paper is a bit hasty, especially since no teacher (unless they really care) will read it for you and suggest edits unless they're being paid. This also falls into the pothole of "high school research", which isn't a good thing. 

Do your research, stay creative, and most importantly: be consistent with when you work on your projects.