I participated in an Innovation Programme (IvP), organised by Gifted Education Branch, this year. The programme lasted almost the whole year, and during the programme, we learnt about inventions and how to invent things. My group mates were my two good friends, Lauren and Liesel, and we named our group "Clockwork Mice", as it was the first thing that came to our minds when the teacher asked us for a group name.
We were supposed to invent something and the item that we invented have to pass two judging rounds before a few of the teams would be selected to display their inventions at a Science fair for pupils in other schools to admire.
After having a few lessons about different inventions (vacuum cleaner and Velcro etc.), we started working on our invention. After a lot of planning, we decided to make a Dustband. The Dustband is a duster with a band attached to it. As teachers usually don't have a lot of time to erase what they have written on the board when they are teaching, they will just use their hands or wrists to erase what they have written. With the Dustband, teachers don't need to use their hands or wrists to erase what they had written. They only need to use the Dustband, which is just attached to their wrists, to clean the board. It is very efficient and saves a lot of time.
We had to make a poster for our invention, and I think that was one of the best parts of the whole programme! Other than the poster, we also had to make a prototype (of course!). Surprisingly though, making the prototype was much easier than making the poster.
Our first meeting for the project was at my house. Before Lauren and Liesel came, Mummy and I bought loads of scrapbooking materials for the poster. Lauren and Liesel came to my house after school and we started on the prototype first. It was quite easy as we only had to take the Velcro strips and stick them onto a duster. Lauren had already volunteered to sew on the cloth on the Velcro at her house, so that was all we had to do with the prototype.
We took quite a long time writing the report, as well as making and decorating the poster. We played Taylor Swift music while doing all our work, so it was really enjoyable. I wrote the report, Lauren decorated the board and Liesel stuck everything onto the board. In about 2 hours' time, we finally finished making the board and it was so glittery.
When we showed the teacher our board and prototype the next day in school, she told us that it was really nice and that we put in a lot of effort. However, she also said that it was a little too overly decorated, but she still selected our team and another 2 teams to go for the first round of the judging. That following Friday, we were going to NUS for the second round of judging - this time by the organizers of the IvP programme.
None of my friends were able to make it for the second round of the judging so I was to go alone. Thankfully, two other close friends of mine from two other teams were also going for the second round of the judging.
When we were there, the judges came to our table and asked us about our project and we just had to explain what it was all about. It was really quite easy.
Our teacher received the results of the second round of the judging really soon and our team passed through! That meant that our inventions were going to be put up in the Science fair! Sadly, one of the groups did not pass the second round of the test.
The day of the fair came really quickly. Before we went for the actual fair, we had a workshop with 3M. We were supposed to make an eco-friendly, rubber band powered car out of chopsticks, some paper and rubber bands. We made our car really quickly and it was the fastest car in the whole room (where we were in), so we got a little goodie bag from 3M! Yay! :D
We had a very tiny little area to put up our poster and display our invention, but the fair was still a very fun experience. The Science fair lasted for about 2 hours and pupils from many different schools participated in it. Lauren, Liesel and I manned the booth and talked to the students who had any inquiries about our invention. We also met a lot of our other friends from other schools so the fair was really memorable for me.
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Thursday, 10 October 2013
Tuesday, 20 March 2012
My First School Camp Part 2
I spent the whole night packing for just that two days of my camp. Mummy helped me pack loads and loads of stuff into my camping bag that night. She must be anxious whether I would be able to sleep well, eat well, be safe..... (I can't finish my list of examples or I would use up half of this page) She and Papa even drove past my school during my dinner time hoping to get a peep at me!! ;)
15th of March 2012
I went to school at eight forty-five in the morning, carrying an enormous camping bag. I dropped my bag off at a nearby classroom and went to join my friends at where we are supposed to go. We played some rather babyish games there like Splat and Murderer. My group was named Mermaid( I didn't choose the name). I had no idea why suddenly, my group was named Mermaid by our group leader who was eleven years old. We even got made fun of by some of the other groups like Yogi Bear though their group's name is much worse than ours. :(
We then proceeded to one of the classrooms and spent one and a half hours on boring leadership training and after that we finally got to eat our lunch. I don't think I should say eat. I only nibbled at some of the rice and sweet and sour pork! The rest of the food was just all unusual vegetables that I had never seen before. After lunch, we needed to tidy up the canteen and pick up little disgusting bits of food from the floor with our bare hands. I didn't want to do it nor my friends, but we were forced to do it by the teachers. Yuck! Anyway, there are even more gross things to come!
My group then came out with a group cheer. It was like this:
Mermaid, mermaid we will decide your fate.
We will win and you will lose, it is not for you to choose.
After that, we started our fun games! The first game that my group played was called Hula-hoop Walk. We had to hula-hoop and walk all the way to another place. It was very easy and we finished the whole game in four minutes. The second game was called Make-up Madness. There was a plate of flour and each of us had to put our face into that plate of flour. We also had to smudge a bit of green paint onto our noses! That was the worst game of all. >_<
We went for many more exciting games but the last game that my group went for was the best! There was a leaking pipe that was full of holes and most of us had to cover them. The rest of us carried styrofoam cups that were already broken on our heads so we were all very wet after the game.
After all the activities, we started our water bombing! Each group had a limited amount of water bombs that we could use to hit the other groups. It was extremely fun but soon, we had to all clean up. :( Some of the groups( not my group ) got to bathe first and didn't need to help us to clean up our school.
After that, I went to bathe ( very cold water! ) in the toilet cubicles that people use to poop and pee! We ate delicious fish and chips for dinner. That was the best meal of the whole camp!
At around eleven at night,we were all still all awake doing another activity that was called Water Source. The primary three and four students were supposed to find a water source and where it would end while the primary five students were to find pipes that were hidden all over the school and connect them together. The primary six students needed to write a poem about how precious water is.
Finally, at twelve midnight, we snuggled into our sleeping bags and tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't sleep so I fell asleep at two o'clock and woke up at six in the morning.
Wait for my next blog entry and I will tell you about my next day at the camp and my horrible night!
15th of March 2012
I went to school at eight forty-five in the morning, carrying an enormous camping bag. I dropped my bag off at a nearby classroom and went to join my friends at where we are supposed to go. We played some rather babyish games there like Splat and Murderer. My group was named Mermaid( I didn't choose the name). I had no idea why suddenly, my group was named Mermaid by our group leader who was eleven years old. We even got made fun of by some of the other groups like Yogi Bear though their group's name is much worse than ours. :(
We then proceeded to one of the classrooms and spent one and a half hours on boring leadership training and after that we finally got to eat our lunch. I don't think I should say eat. I only nibbled at some of the rice and sweet and sour pork! The rest of the food was just all unusual vegetables that I had never seen before. After lunch, we needed to tidy up the canteen and pick up little disgusting bits of food from the floor with our bare hands. I didn't want to do it nor my friends, but we were forced to do it by the teachers. Yuck! Anyway, there are even more gross things to come!
My group then came out with a group cheer. It was like this:
Mermaid, mermaid we will decide your fate.
We will win and you will lose, it is not for you to choose.
After that, we started our fun games! The first game that my group played was called Hula-hoop Walk. We had to hula-hoop and walk all the way to another place. It was very easy and we finished the whole game in four minutes. The second game was called Make-up Madness. There was a plate of flour and each of us had to put our face into that plate of flour. We also had to smudge a bit of green paint onto our noses! That was the worst game of all. >_<
We went for many more exciting games but the last game that my group went for was the best! There was a leaking pipe that was full of holes and most of us had to cover them. The rest of us carried styrofoam cups that were already broken on our heads so we were all very wet after the game.
After all the activities, we started our water bombing! Each group had a limited amount of water bombs that we could use to hit the other groups. It was extremely fun but soon, we had to all clean up. :( Some of the groups( not my group ) got to bathe first and didn't need to help us to clean up our school.
After that, I went to bathe ( very cold water! ) in the toilet cubicles that people use to poop and pee! We ate delicious fish and chips for dinner. That was the best meal of the whole camp!
At around eleven at night,we were all still all awake doing another activity that was called Water Source. The primary three and four students were supposed to find a water source and where it would end while the primary five students were to find pipes that were hidden all over the school and connect them together. The primary six students needed to write a poem about how precious water is.
Finally, at twelve midnight, we snuggled into our sleeping bags and tried to fall asleep. Unfortunately for me, I couldn't sleep so I fell asleep at two o'clock and woke up at six in the morning.
Wait for my next blog entry and I will tell you about my next day at the camp and my horrible night!
Friday, 16 March 2012
My First School Camp Part 1
On the 14th to 16th of March, I went for my school's leadership training camp. It was three days and one night. We went to East Coast Park on the 14th of March and on the 15th and 16th, we stayed overnight in school. The camp was very fun, exciting and interesting, though at some parts, it was tiring. We learnt to work together as a team, speak confidently in public and develop leadership skills.
14th of March 2012
We were going to build sandcastles at East Coast Park Castle Beach! :) I was immensely ecstatic when I heard that we were going to one of my favourite places - the beach! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the same team as one of my good friends, L. :(
The weather was quite bad that day. The sky was brewing with dark, gloomy clouds threatening to rain. At twelve thirty when I reached school, it was already drizzling a little. We could still make the sandcastles but we must wear ponchos though. My group, White zone, was going to build how my school was going to look like thirty years later. We were in charge of creating our school's imaginary future boarding school and chapel. The boarding school was shaped like a rocket and the chapel was shaped like a moon. Our sandcastles also needed to be taller than 1 and a half metres, compared to my usual tiny, 30 cm sandcastles. In fact, the sandcastles turned out better than I expected. :o
We started building our sandcastles at two o'clock sharp after being introduced to many different kinds of tools used to build them. We dug here and there, smoothened out the sand and built our sandcastles higher and higher. After three hours of hard work, we finally finished making our sandcastles. The sandcastles were brilliant, superb and wonderful. I think my group's rocket boarding school was over 2 metres tall!
At five thirty, we went back to our school, tired but elated. That was the best sandcastle in my entire life that I ever made!
14th of March 2012
We were going to build sandcastles at East Coast Park Castle Beach! :) I was immensely ecstatic when I heard that we were going to one of my favourite places - the beach! Unfortunately, I wasn't in the same team as one of my good friends, L. :(
The weather was quite bad that day. The sky was brewing with dark, gloomy clouds threatening to rain. At twelve thirty when I reached school, it was already drizzling a little. We could still make the sandcastles but we must wear ponchos though. My group, White zone, was going to build how my school was going to look like thirty years later. We were in charge of creating our school's imaginary future boarding school and chapel. The boarding school was shaped like a rocket and the chapel was shaped like a moon. Our sandcastles also needed to be taller than 1 and a half metres, compared to my usual tiny, 30 cm sandcastles. In fact, the sandcastles turned out better than I expected. :o
We started building our sandcastles at two o'clock sharp after being introduced to many different kinds of tools used to build them. We dug here and there, smoothened out the sand and built our sandcastles higher and higher. After three hours of hard work, we finally finished making our sandcastles. The sandcastles were brilliant, superb and wonderful. I think my group's rocket boarding school was over 2 metres tall!
At five thirty, we went back to our school, tired but elated. That was the best sandcastle in my entire life that I ever made!
Saturday, 3 December 2011
My School Carnival
I went to my school carnival on the 29th of October. Mummy was going to sell mouth-watering fishballs and delicious fried bee hoon in the canteen. The carnival was called "A Rainbow of Colours". After reporting at my class at 8.45am, we started the fantasic carnival! Rachael, my best friend, went with me as usual. We were both apparently in seventh heaven. Alethea, another one of my best friends, was having her violin exam so she could not come with us for a few hours :(
Rachael and I rattled on like a machine gun while our arms gestured wildly. We then went to ride on the slow ferris wheel and a very boring spinning ride that even my sister dared to take. At 11 o'clock, we went to the canteen to help Mummy sell fishballs around our gigantic school. I held the small tray of yummy fishballs, while Rachael was in charge of collecting the tokens from people who bought our big fishballs. After one hour of hard work selling fishballs, we went to meet Alethea at the huge canteen. After eating lunch, Alethea, Rachael and I then went to ride some more rides.
Timid Rachael did not even dare to ride a single ride that we took! Alethea and I took 3 rides - a "sky-spinner", some sort of car ride and a teacup ride. We also played little games to earn tokens. If we had enough tokens, we could also redeem prizes like stuffed toys.
I won a humongous brown bear. Very soon, I needed to go home. This school carnival was one of my happiest days in the year.
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| My sister taking a train ride with my parents. |
Timid Rachael did not even dare to ride a single ride that we took! Alethea and I took 3 rides - a "sky-spinner", some sort of car ride and a teacup ride. We also played little games to earn tokens. If we had enough tokens, we could also redeem prizes like stuffed toys.
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| The bears we won!! |
Saturday, 5 November 2011
Forest Adventure
I went to Forest Adventure at Bedok Reservoir for my school field trip on the 20th of October. Although it was only a 2 hours trip, it was very fun.When I reached Forest Adventure, my mind was whirling with excitement while chatting nineteen to the dozen with my best friend. The day had dawned crystal clear and cheery. After queuing up to wear the harness, we started the tree-top challenge!
My class went for the kids course. Some parts of the challenge were tricky, though most of them were actually quite easy. My favourite part of the challenge was the zip-line. It was exactly like a flying fox. I fastened the harness onto another rope and pushed myself off the little area to stand. The zip-line was fast and swift while my legs dangled in mid-air. I landed on the sand-pit at the bottom of the zip-line and sand went inside my shoes.
After a short rest, we needed to walk all the way to where the bus was. While walking, it began to pour as if a river had been let loose. As we all did not bring umbrellas, we had to run as fast as our legs could carry us another 150 metres to where the bus was. We were all drenched when we reached the bus! We finally sat on the bus and went back to school. It was a tiring but wonderful day.
Monday, 8 August 2011
Marvellous Musical!
Two Fridays ago, I went to my school's musical with Mummy. 2 of my friends were in the main cast. The first part was splendid, and the second part was even more brilliant! My friends sang so nicely that I was mesmerised. Mummy was fascinated too. I could not believe that my friends could sing so beautifully, so I made up my mind to tease her on Monday.
During the intermission, I played with my friends and bought some musical merchandise from my form teacher. My friends and I chatted about loads of things in school.
After the musical, I left the hall in an exhilarated mood and walked home with Mummy in high spirits.
During the intermission, I played with my friends and bought some musical merchandise from my form teacher. My friends and I chatted about loads of things in school.
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| My friends and I |
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