Earth Day 2015

Clean Up! Clean Up! Everybody Everywhere!

We just celebrated Earth Day this past week and it was a complete success - especially the Rhine Clean-Up which took place on Friday!

Activity Planning

Several weeks ago, we were offered by our fellow students of an opportunity to help organise the up-coming Earth Day celebration. To our enthusiasm on another CAS activity - we could not help but say ABSOLUTELY!

After two meetings with Ms Welsh as a group of DP1 students, along with other teachers who were keenly involved, we were responsible for four tasks in this project: Firstly, we were in charge of making a big, bright and bold banner for our Earth Day celebration which we would use to represent and unite our school. Next, we were asked to help set up and supervise the younger students of our school during the Green Market - which will occur during the very day of Mother Earth. Following that, was the major task of organising and mapping out of the Rhine for a special clean-up (on which I will evaluate further on in just a moment). Finally, we had to give a short informative presentation to the whole Primary School for the purpose of explaining the Rhine excursion. The whole gist of this CAS activity is to celebrate the Earth we all live on and to (more importantly) raise awareness to care for our environment more devotedly.

Reflection

We had a brilliant time taking leisurely trip to the Rhine for some CAS planning! Essentially we were trekking, tracking our position on the Rhine river bank with a mobile GPS as well as taking plenty of photos in order to localise our various cleaning regions and marking the critical sites. This was all done for us to get a clear idea of the terrain we are in and how we should prepare the classes of students for the clean-up. The only downside of the walk was when we realised just how vast the bank truly was and then planned to hurry the mapping process.

DP1 Class CAS - Seniors enjoying the Rhine

DP1 Class CAS - Seniors at work!

Painting the banner was a pleasure! It took a team of four dedicated students to finally produce this Earth Day banner in one and a half days. We were honestly quite proud with our creation since it was exactly what we had envisioned at the start of the drawing phase. We worked cooperatively and gave each other ideas and tips to bring the piece together. I certainly would not mind making such an artistic contribution again - after all it is one of my hobbies.

Painting for our Earth Day banner

Proud to present the final product!

The very day we completed our banner, was the very day we were to present to the primary school students of their hard-working activity on the following day by the Rhine. At first, we were somewhat nervous but as soon as we were handed the microphone, all anxiety evaporated. With the help of a friend, both of us were giving the presentation in English an in German (hence this shows the international mindedness of our IB school - *wink wink*). It felt wonderful to see their excitement and hype as soon as we showed them the photos of the regions to be cleaned and informed them on the necessary footwear and other necessities. To be a part of expressing to these children on the importance of Earth Day - which should in fact happen everyday - was a tremendous accomplishment in itself - even before the whole clean-up had begun! To my surprise, I was complimented at the end of the presentation by two primary teachers on my oratory skills. I was truly honoured by their statements and could not believe they felt so. Perhaps an idea for my next CAS activity could be something to do with improving my public speaking…

The view from up here - the Rhine!

Walking and mapping and snapping panoramas!

Back to the main course of the Earth Day celebration - the CLEAN-UP! One of the most significant things I learned that splendid day at the river was that cleaning is fun! Much to my surprise, the younger students found joy in collecting as much litter as they could in the time slot they were allocated.

Collecting litter!

A successful clean-up for Class 3/4 D!

Altogether, I had a brilliant time showing them just how helpful their actions are to our community. When directing and supporting some of the shyer ones, I asked “why do you think people do this? Why do they carelessly throw aluminium barbecue trays or plastic wrappers or even slippers away on the grass?” It was unfortunate but many could not answer for they simply did not understand how such an occurrence could happen. I gently informed them that it was because as you grow older, you think less about the environment and worry more about other complicated things - which I strongly believe is true! The city life can spin you into a world of hectic chaos that you forget the basics of life itself! Walking several metres would not do anyone harm to throw away an unwanted item in a recycle bin properly. In fact, it would promote health and fitness!

Fun by the Rhine!

Region C of the Rhine cleaned!

Clean up boys!

After exposing myself to this Earth Day Clean-Up, I finally understand what many dedicated environmentalists have to endure. The ceaseless pressure society inflicts upon their job, as well as the constant perseverance for awareness raising and more. I have never respected those at work to keep our community clean more than ever and I will look up towards them continuously. 

Keep it up girls!

More recycling and collecting!

All 18 classes who participated in this activity, from the youngest primary students to the 7th Graders in middle school, had experienced a great clean-up along the Rhine. Engaging with the local community had never been more enjoyable! The splendid day came to a rest after six full hours and with a grand total of 200 bags collected!

Success for the Seniors!

To summarise, I have accomplished the following Learning Outcomes…

1. Increased my awareness for areas of strengths and growth as I manage this task to organise, plan and educate the younger pupils. People skills will be necessary to communicate effectively with the teachers.

2. Undertook a new challenge to plan a huge cleaning for the benefit of the local community as well as paint a huge banner to represent our school in the city.

3. Prepared and organised the mapping out, times slots and program for the classes visiting.

4. Worked collaboratively with Ms Welsh and Ms Nowak, as well as my classmates during planning. And certainly with the children during the cleaning trip!

5. Showed much dedication to this project to realise the task successfully!

6. Engaged with issues such as global warming, ecology and learning through experience with the children.

7. Considered important ethical issues when engaging with the environment and awareness raising to local citizens.

8. Increased my expertise in an established area of skill: communication, presentation and finally cleaning!

All the hours I have accomplished during the whole Earth Day CAS activity

Together as a class, we look forward to next year’s Earth Day celebration with much excitement. Hopefully, more CAS comes my way before then…

Evita ☺

World Reading Day '15

A visit from the Gruffalo - or in German: der Grüffelo!

The purpose of this CAS activity is to celebrate World Reading Day on March 5th, to recognise the importance of books and the skill of reading throughout the world, for which most of us take for granted. It allowed me to plan and arrange a date to meet with the teachers of whose class I will be reading out a book to in my foreign languages such as French and German.

COSPLAY! The Phantom of the Opera - Queen of Hearts - Minho from the Maze Runner
Daisy from The Great Gatsby - Hermione from Harry Potter - Heidi

Activity Planning

This activity was simple yet very achievable. The chances of a successful experience was high as long as I remained motivated throughout the activity. It was a challenge in several ways for me: (1), to read aloud to a large group of young students in my school (2), to read confidently and amusingly in my learned foreign languages and (3) to involve them in an interesting questioning session after the book reading. I hope I was able to successfully show them the importance of reading books for knowledge as well as entertainment!

Ms Mukherjee, a teacher in our school, had first organised a list a e-mails of several class teachers to whom my classmates and myself were to present ourselves to. Then it was up to me to e-mail them and express my interest in this CAS activity by providing my skills and showing them the benefits of the project for the class and myself. Finally I had selected a book together with the teacher of the class, Ms Reich, suitable for the age group and their amusement. She also offered me some tips as to how I could best engage the children in the story and with practice, she assured me success of the reading!

Reflection

By the end of this CAS activity I have accomplished the following Learning Outcomes:

1. Improved my skills such as meeting with new people and especially interacting with younger students of my school.

2. Undertaken a new challenge to read a children’s story book to a class out-loud in a foreign language that I have acquired in my academic years.

3. Planned and arranged shifts suitable for meetings with the class teachers and the actual narration to the class on World Reading Day.

4. Worked co-operatively with the teachers to make this a success for the children.

5. Showed perseverance as I practiced reading the book out-loud before the actual event.

6. Engaged with the importance reading on World Reading Day.

7. Reflected on my ethical implications on my actions to promote and support World Reading Day.

8. I have developed my confidence in reading excitingly out-loud in a foreign language and communicating with the students!

Fortunately, with this CAS activity, I had encountered only minor difficulties and it was overall an absolute success and pleasure to have done this!  The children were very enthusiastic as soon as I presented the book. I even had to ask them kindly not to spill the details of the book for anyone who is unfamiliar with the story! Luckily, they cooperated wonderfully and payed me their full attention as I read in clear intonations. Practicing beforehand several times at home with myself, with my father as well as a friend certainly helped boost my confidence in narrating the story. When Word Reading Day had arrived, I had practically memorised the story by heart!

Der Grüffelo!

It felt really wonderful knowing I was able to help make the children’s experience of WRD amusing and fun. I loved interacting with them afterwards with a short Q&A session where I asked simple questions to encourage them to think about what they have learned from the story. I personally enjoy reading as it is one of my hobbies and with that said, I do see the importance of celebrating World Reading Day in school as well as showing appreciation to authors and the presence of books - for without them we would not be inspired by the knowledge or imagination they carry.

Introduction

Reading out loud!

Q&A time!

Perhaps for next year’s celebration, the older students of the school could also enjoy the festivity by simply coming to school with a good book each. No tables, no chairs, just bean bags and hot chocolate for everyone to enjoy! This would be the perfect reading day! - Another CAS idea I believe?

Evita ☺

Tour Guiding at Open Day #2

Welcome to our school!  - Open House again!

Just two weeks ago,  it was the second Open Day of this school year for our international school here in Germany! As previously, the grade 11 students, i.e. my classmates and myself, were to provide extra help in showing guests around the school campus and facilities, as well as explaining the International Baccalaureate to potential new-comers.

Activity Planning

With our CAS coordinator, we arranged and allocated shifts to each pair in order to form an organised scheduele that allows tour guiding time and leisure time on the following Saturday morning. The whole planning phase was identical to the one of the first Open Day Tour Guiding activity which we accomplished several months ago.

The next morning, we were ready for action! We wore our representative badges and looked forward to a half school-day of voluntary work. 

Reflection

Whilst some of us were on duty, the rest were studying silently in class. In the midst of our productive session, we were surprised by a visit from a fellow student’s father in our school. Initially, we thought the poor man was lost but as he introduced himself to us, we learned that he was eager to know about our experiences with the IB so far and the science behind it since his child will be growing up to be a grade 11 student in a few years time! We collected ourselves and began sharing our subject choices and views on the course so far. My classmates and I worked to bring the best possible interpretation together.

Overall, I believe it went quite well although it certainly would have been more professional if we were prepared for possible class visits. For improvement, next time we will remind each other to be ready at all times since life can throw random situations when you least expect it!

On this Open Day, there was unfortunately not as many visitors as we had estimated and so the majority of my shift was spent discussing with a teacher, who was with me on duty at the main entrance, about my future plans for university. We had a productive conversation although one hour and forty minutes later, I was only able to offer warm greetings to visiting parents of students in our school.

Despite the lack of tour guiding this time, I was still able to learn from this CAS experience. Firstly, when doing a CAS activity (or be it any activity at all), always be aware for the chance of surprises as they may turn out to be a useful and valuable lesson. Secondly, everyone in the team must be ready and willing to replace a shift in case of an absence which was unfortunately the case on this Open Day. After we were informed of this, my shift partner and I offered to take the empty slot. Soon enough, our classmates decided to accompany us which made it more enjoyable. Lastly, I was still able to achieve my objective of improving my people skills as I actively engaged in a conversation in German with the teacher. 

To summarise, I have achieve the following Learning Outcomes:

① Improved my ability to engage with others, i.e. people skills.

② Extended and continued a previous CAS activity.

③ Planned and arranged shifts suitable for my classmates and myself to be tour guides.

④ Worked collaboratively with my classmates organise tour guiding and being ready to replace absences.

⑤ Showed perseverance and support for one another as we explained the IB and shared our experiences so far.

⑥ Engaged with a very important issue of our local school community!

⑦ Discussed issues with the teacher in German which included: importance of after-school activities, paper costs and saving in our school etc.

⑧ Further improved people skills and foreign language, i.e. German.

Evita ☺

Volleyball Reflection #1

Training - for the love of the game!

Similarly to my previous CAS reflection on badminton club, I have been training devotedly every Thursdays after school in volleyball club for the past six months. Unlike badminton, I was unfamiliar with this sport and recently introduced to it about three years ago in school.

Reflection - Action

After a total of about 23 hours of training to date, I believe I have improved both my stability and agility. To this day, I can set the balls much more precisely than before. Likewise, my bumps are stronger and more directed, although not always as accurate. From our hour-and-half practices, I have learnt that no matter how talented each player is, without perfection of the basic skills, no game of volleyball will be thrilling since it is the simplest techniques that form the foundation of the sport. 

A Numbers sheet to keep track of my volleyball training progress

With exhausting warm-up activities, together as a beginner team, my club has improved substantially - right from the beginning where the majority of the class was completely new to the sport to now - where we are currently advanced players of sets, bumps and even an attack technique - dips!

Helping Mr Wessely to coach!

Furthermore, we have learnt the three-step approach to any attack. I can now do this well enough along with a dip, or in German: ein Lob. In the near future, I hope to be able to do this approach without much thought and allow it to evolve into a reflex movement over time, just as professional players can do so! Nevertheless, with all the patience and perseverance my coach teaches us with, he warned that approaches like these take years to truly master and naturally execute. With this, I therefore want to motivate myself even more for volleyball practices.

Three-step approach execution

A perfect Lob!

4 VS 4

Reflection - Service

As much as I have been training myself to improve the necessary volleyball techniques, I have also been actively using practice time from volleyball club as a Service activity! This was inspired by my CAS coordinator, who suggested me to enlarge my Action activity into something bigger than physical education. Therefore by thinking outside the box, I presented the idea of helping to train the new students to Mr Wessely, our volleyball coach. To my surprise, he was not only thrilled about my enthusiasm but wanted me to think up of simple yet purposeful volleyball drills that I could teach to the class at the start of every training. This is a very beneficial activity not only to my teammates, but especially for myself since I would have to practice the tasks I set for the team beforehand and also teach confidently of a sport that I am actually learning!

After each training and the dismissal of the class, Mr Wessely and I discuss his plan for next week. Hence the theme of the session would be my ‘homework’, i.e. to come up with one or two drills preparing for the actual training.

During the beginning of each session, I usually spend about three minutes explaining my activity to the class. We then use 15 to 30 minutes of the session to practice it/them. These activities that I brainstorm are mostly adapted from videos that I discover online for professional teams as well as my own experience from PE class with our general warm-up tasks.

Volleyball Team!

To summarise, I have had a great experience overall on coaching my teammates and helping them in their techniques as they practice given activities. There were times where I stumbled on my own words and even made errors on a technique. Mr Wessely would then support and help me coach the students. I have learned to speak clearly and slowly when explaining, which usually comes after several mental recaps to myself. Towards the start, I constantly felt nervous as I was afraid of making faults. However, I see now that with those errors, the class can learn just as effectively to see why it was wrong and how to avoid it. Whilst they practice, we patrol the hall and provide tips for improvement, which is usually my favourite part because I can focus with the student one-on-one and help them as best as I can.

In future trainings, I will work harder to improve my coaching skills and remain confident in  the explanations. This way, I can further develop communication with my teammates and even practice speaking in German when required.

Volleyball Team!

More recently, Mr Wessely kindly lent me his volleyball handbook from which I am able select ideas for warm-up. It also clearly explains every rule and regulation and demonstrates specific techniques with easy-to-follow illustrations. I have been regularly reading the handbook as it will improve my knowledge on the sport. In fact, it is entirely in German so it aids my language skills too!

Mr Wessely's volleyball guidebook

In regards to the Learning Outcomes, I think I have attained the following: ① ② ④ ⑤ ⑥ and will work towards successfully achieving the last two: ⑦ ⑧.

Last but not least, I should mention that I watched my very first live volleyball match two weeks ago! (It was actually also the first official match of any sport I have ever watched live!) It was suggested by my coach and since it was being held in my school’s sports hall, nothing could have been a more excellent chance! 

Live. Action. Volleyball!

The atmosphere there was completely novel and unique to me. To see this sport played by girls of the fourth league allowed me to realise the how to techniques were properly used to effectively score points and how to rules were applied to the match. Overall, it was a great experience and I definitely hope to visit more matches in the future.

Evita ☺

Badminton Reflection #1

Confirmed: No Pain - No Gain!

It has been officially six months since I commenced training in Badminton Club after school every Wednesday for an hour and a half and I can confirm that there are no gains without pains! 

Reflection

In regards to my physical health, I do feel more comfortable with my step-approaches as I play. An example would be that I can reach the shuttle and get swiftly back to my starting position ready for the next hit. 

My hits are much more accurate nowadays and although there is always room for improvement, I can see a difference from the precision in my shots currently as compared to the very beginning of the year, where before that I have always been playing badminton on and off as a hobby. To my surprise, my shots are also slightly stronger now which is an advantage to my control of the racket. 

Attack stroke

Likewise, I am more flexible with my backhand strokes now than previously. I recall initially having some wrist aches after a practice as I trained my stoke more and more aggressively. However after all that work, I can confidently say that the strokes come smoothly and naturally without much thought.

Backhand stroke

These little steps of improvement all lead me towards being the best player I can possibly be with only weekly trainings. As time progresses, I hope to continue the motivation I have for this sport just as in the previous months.

train - TrAiN - TRAIN!

Inevitably, there were some difficulties I encountered whilst doing this CAS activity such as my lack of energy at the end of the long school day - right before I begin badminton practice. This issue is a consequence of time management. Although I am very well aware now that it takes a lot of effort to organise homework, socialising time and sleep, this task is still a working process. I hope to further improve my time management skills as I grow older and prepare for arduous years ahead in university. Nevertheless, I look forward to my future studies with much enthusiasm!

Additionally, I can communicate more comfortably with my teammates now. Not only to provide moral support to one another but to offer some advice. I clearly notice some common mistakes that many of the younger students do - mistakes that I was guilty of as a child since I would unknowingly constantly repeat them. In fact, I also feel more at ease when speaking in German, even though I do catch myself making grammatical errors every so often.

Badminton Team

As in every sport, training never gets easier but the contrary - it toughens as you improve. Nonetheless, with every swing of the racket and each bead of sweat I have enjoyed this past few months more than ever in with respect to badminton trainings. 

So far, I have met the following Learning Outcomes with badminton: ① ② ④ ⑤. I plan to achieve the last three outcomes by the end of this school year.

My Numbers sheet to keep track of training hours

In the coming months, I hope to work on my stamina so perhaps jogging or, more preferably, jumping rope. Additionally, I would like to acquire more knowledge about the sport by actively reading and researching articles and advice from professional players. It will be beneficial to learn about my hobby rather than to only simply play it.

Keep your head up and keep playing!

Besides these two main goals, I will certainly hope to develop my previous aims further and work to perfect my strokes in general. With the continuous support I receive from Mr Schneider and my teammates, I am able to train enthusiastically every time!

Evita ☺

Grade 11 Max-Planck Biology Trip

Pipetting, DNA amplifying, genotyping and more!

Exactly one week ago, my Biology class visited the nearby Max-Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research. As mentioned in my post months ago, regarding the Max-Planck Science Barn Trip for Grades 3 & 4 which I planned and organised, this institute was where I accomplished two weeks worth of student internship, learned so much externally of school and gained incredible experiences! This time however, I had organised a trip for my own classmates and teacher…

Activity Planning

Inspiration: This idea came into mind as I recognised similarities directly from our IB Biology course and the wide-range of things I had learned from working at the research institute in the summer of 2014. Just as I have done genetic fingerprinting and gene amplification there several times, my classmates themselves will get a chance to view how this is truly done (i.e. experiential learning) and not only from learning through pictures provided in a textbook.

Although I may have organised a larger scale school excursion before (i.e. the Grades 3 & 4 trip), this was certainly still a challenge since I had to organise this trip myself and make it a complete success for my classmates so they can enjoy practical biology at its best! With this CAS activity, I hoped to accomplish all eight of the Learning Outcomes!

To begin, I contacted my supervisor from the institute and informed him of my plan. Together we discussed all the possible activities we can do together to touch on the subtopics which we learned in school. Next, I explained to my Biology teacher, Ms Mutie, of the plan and then selected a date that best suits our school time-table, so that we are able to miss half a day of school for this productive trip. Since Ms Mutie accompanied us on the visit, she was therefore the most appropriate CAS supervisor for this activity.

Reflection

Arrived by Mr Max Planck!

After spending a total of 2 hours calling and planning, it was finally time for the trip on the 10th of February. The half-hour walk from our school to the institute in the late winter morning was very refreshing. Upon arrival, we were warmly greeted by my supervisor who brought us directly to the laboratory! There, we commenced with some pipetting exercises to learn how to use these highly accurate instruments used vigorously in research. We continued with the punching and making of FTA card samples and then together followed the protocol for the PCR mixture which would later be used for DNA amplification. All the while my classmates and Biology teacher were learning and asking questions and in fact so did I! There is always so much more to learn and it was exciting to be back in the lab once again!

Let's start pipetting

Careful pipetting

Vigorous pipetting

Ms Mutie carefully handling a young Thale Cress plant

Before taking a tour of the institute, we took a short break and allowed for snacks and warm beverages. Here, we discussed many curious issues about the research in the Max-Planck society, the ethical problems associated and also about global news in the world of scientific research.

Touring around...

Two hours later, we returned to the lab with full stomachs from lunch and analysed our gel that had successfully gone through electrophoresis. We studied the samples and had further discussions about the knowledge constructed from this piece of information. Finally, the excursion has come to an end and we were thankful for all the new things we learned that half-day!

Ready for the PCR machine!

Our gel electrophoresis results

This entire trip was a complete success! My main objectives were met and all my friends had a brilliant time learning by doing - so did Ms Mutie! It was enjoyable to be in another environment outside of school campus and to have a new learning atmosphere. My supervisor did a fantastic job in teaching us and I am very thankful for all the patience and support he showed us!

Nonetheless I did encounter two difficulties through this activity…

1. During school hours, attending classes means that I am unable to pick up the phone when needed. This was therefore a time management issue since my supervisor and I were to discuss the plan and time slots. In order not to repeat the same mistake I did previously when I called him during the wrong time, we e-mailed the times where we can exchange phone calls. This thus made things much easier for the both of us.
2. Initially, the visit was to take place on the 17th December. Unfortunately, Ms Mutie had suddenly fell sick on this day and it was due to her absence that I had to make the sad cancellation! This honestly frustrated me and it was because I worked with all the careful planning, I completely oversaw the rise of an unexpected event! This was a lesson learned to be prepared for anything and never take anything for granted as we might never know the what could happen in the near future.

CIS IB Biology Class at the Institute!

These were the weaknesses which I was able to overcome. I have learned so much from organising school trips and I believe I enjoy doing so. Hopefully there will be more chances in the future for more of such CAS activities!

A Numbers sheet to keep track of the hours spent altogether in this CAS activity

Evita ☺