On Friday 15 March, our Year 13 Physics students attended a Masterclass on particle physics. Joining with schools from across Shanghai, students worked collaboratively to learn about the large hadron collider (LHC) at CERN, Switzerland/France. Exploring how the world’s largest scientific instrument functions to identify particles that make up all matter provided a unique glimpse into understanding the mysteries of what makes up the universe and how our understanding of these fundamental particles can be used in scientific, medical and engineering applications.

The Masterclass consisted of lectures regarding the LHC itself, its construction and function, including an in-depth discussion of the types of fundamental particles that it can detect. Students explore the different types of particles and their properties to determine how they might be detected.  Following this, they worked collaboratively using actual data sets provided from the LHC to identify particles themselves using the properties they exhibited. They will engage further with physicists from CERN on Saturday to follow up on their analysis.

Following this work, students travelled to the Shanghai Synchrotron, the largest in Asia, to have a lecture from the head scientist and tour the facility that is being used by a large variety of industries from examining bacteria to developing new crystals for use in electronics.

Dr. Christopher Hurley
Innovation Coordinator

It has been Well-being Week across the YCIS Puxi campuses. Loads of activities have occurred throughout the week that focus on mindfulness, well-being and self care. Many thanks to the Student Success Team and the Counselling Team for their hard work in creating such a positive and vibrant week of learning. As part of this week of well-being, the Parent Workshop held at Puxi Secondary on the topic of Raising A Teenager proved to be a very popular offering with over 50 parents coming to hear the sage advice of Psychologist Dr Sita Chen from Olivia’s Place. Clear advice was offered on how to set and maintain boundaries, how to continue to connect with the adolescent living under the same roof and how to keep the lines of communication open. Parent queued to ask for further advice from Dr Sita after the 90 minutes session.

At PXP, the week before was filled with a build up in expectation of the “Pie on the Face Assembly” A fundraiser for the Seeds of Hope Charity, students and families donated over 5500RMB as teachers were nominated through a donation system. The teachers (and one Co-Principal) who “won” due to the large amounts of RMB donated and allocated to them were: Ms Laurie Joynt, Mr Leon Weeks, Mr Jeffrey Torrance and Mr Don Collins all copped a “Pie in the Face”.

The Father-Daughter Dance was another major event last Friday. Almost a 100 families joined in the fun of the dance dressed in sympathy to the theme of golden glamour. Thanks to the Team PoP for hours of preparation to make such an event so special for all those who attended.

Sat April 13 YCIS Puxi will host the inaugural TEDx event at the YCIS Puxi Secondary campus. Speakers who are world experts in the field of technological innovation will be speaking alongside with YCIS students who will share their work and learning at the event… like creating an autonomous vehicle as a Year 10 project. You can check out Dr Clarence Tan at his website: https://drctan.com. Here is his bio from his website:
Futurist, technologist, academician, entrepreneur, innovator, inventor, investor, researcher, financial trader, knowledge seeker, writer but would really like to be a Chinese comedian!.

Best regards,
Mr. Don Collins and Ms. Isabel Xu
Puxi Co-Principals

The children’s interests and questions lead the daily planning in K4. Children frequently ask questions and share some experiences of their home life and families, as well as develop their PSED and CL skills in school. All this while having loads and loads of fun!

During Bilingual time one day, Olivia wanted to talk to the class about a photo her Daddy had emailed in, which showed she had been making sweets from different coloured playdough at home.

We all agreed they looked good enough to eat even though they were not really sweets!

Some of the children wanted to make some too so we made playdough of our own and set up a tray of corn flour and water. Corn flour and water creates a beautiful viscous texture for children to experiment with and has the added bonus of changing completely overnight as it dries hard. More water magically transforms it as it becomes viscous again. In fact, it looked so delicious, some of the children decided to add brown paint to make it ‘chocolate sauce’.

During play, some of the children asked how real sweets were made, so we asked them what ideas they had. The list was long:
They are mixed together.
They have much sugar.
They come from the candy place.
It goes in a bowl.
You have to cook them.
Flour. Flour is in them.
There are lots of different sweets.
Chocolate is different.
I like chocolate but I like candy too.
Sweets are candy. It’s a different word.

We watched a short film of boiled sweets being made in a factory and read a lot of books. The children were fascinated with the way the sugar changed texture when it was boiled and they loved watching the sweet makers cutting the mixture with scissors. This became a new favourite occupation with the playdough mix. We were all amazed at how much sugar goes into making sweets.

Worried about how bad sugar can be, Emma brought in a book to share about a little boy who didn’t clean his teeth. This was a big help for us to remember why we clean our teeth, especially if we have been eating sweet things with sugar in. Now, a lot of children have decided to keep a toothbrush and paste at school to use after lunch. What a good idea!

As the children played, they talked about what made a sweet a ‘good’ sweet. Taste was important but they also said the sweets must look nice. So, we made a batch of green, red and blue playdough and divided into three teams. The children chose a colour each and set out to make their own sweets. As they worked, they decided what flavour their sweets were.

The Green Team said their flavours were dumpling flavour, kiwi flavour, apple, watermelon, rose flower flavour and surprise flavour!
The Red Team had strawberry flavour, red apple, vanilla flavour and raspberry.
The Blue team chose blue chocolate, minty flavour, pizza flavor, blueberry flavour, vanilla and mint flavour.

In the end, we decided the blue sweets were the best because they were the smallest and looked most like real sweets. “They would be easiest to sell,” said Alexander. What a good idea…

‘But if we sell them, they would have to be real,’ he added.
‘Well we can make some for real,’ suggested Maizy. ‘It would be easy!’
‘How much would you sell them for?’ the teachers ask.
‘One!’
‘A hundred!’

What good ideas…time to have another discussion!

It was a lovely time for us all to learn factual information and used our vivid imaginations. We developed our fine-motor skills and learned about the real world. We got creative, competitive and came up with lots of new ideas.

Oh, and if you want the recipe for playdough, just ask a 4-5 year old at YCIS!

K4B Co-Teachers – Anna KING & Kiwi CHEN

The Year Fours have been learning about solids, liquids and gases in a unit called ‘Mesmerising Matters’. Throughout this unit, we engaged in lots of ‘hands on’, practical activities and science experiments. One of the activities involved making the seemingly magical Oobleck. This fascinating ‘stuff’ is a liquid when left untouched, but when it is squeezed, it becomes a solid. We enjoyed getting a bit messy and gooey making this.

The students also learned that different solids have different melting points and used a candle to melt ice, butter and chocolate. They had to ensure that their test was fair and then reflected on their results.

We were also intrigued by the results of putting eggs into vinegar and waiting a few days. The shell became ‘rubbery’ and the egg behaved like a bouncy ball. We had to bounce them in the sink though because when they were bounced too hard, we could have got covered in egg.

Hands on learning does not stop at Science and certainly isn’t restricted to school. Many students are kinesthetic learners and really benefit from working with their hands. Maybe parents could join in the fun at home and engage in some cookery or some painting with their children. Hands on Learning really is fun.

Y4 Leader & Y4D Co-Teacher – Julie Girdham

Calligraphy is one of the miracles of classical Chinese Art. Among other handwritings all over the world, no-one can compare to the handwriting of Chinese characters. It has eventually developed to a unique kind of art and has been passed on for generations.

In the recent Chinese Studies Classes, under the teachers’ instructions, the Year 1 students had approached the unique charm of Chinese calligraphy. In class, the children got to know the famous calligrapher WANG Xianzhi and his story of practice. They much admired his perseverance and consistent efforts. In addition, they were even more interested to know that from an early age, WANG Xianzhi was able to use the soft writing brush and had beautiful handwriting with the Chinese ink. As a result, the children tried so hard to imitate the way their teachers held the writing brush. They also compared and corrected each other.

The students were quite curious during the ink grinding process. By pouring a little clear water to the ink stone, the children began to gently move the ink stick clockwise and was amazed to see the clear water became the thick black Chinese ink. When it finally came to the part of practice, every child was so dedicated and careful with their brushes and handwriting. Despite their shaking hands and un-straight Ji character, the children were still overwhelmed by joy as they had tasted the sweetness and bitterness of being little calligraphers.

Y1C Co-Teacher – Katrina CUI

 

Next week our Year 2 students will be running their own eco-friendly stores and information booths at school. They have spent the past few weeks investigating the problems with our plastic waste in Shanghai (and YCIS). Thanks to the company Precious Plastics Shanghai, they were taught how to properly recycle; including the different types and grades of plastics. The company allowed Year 2 to hire their recycling machine which they kept in their learning space for a week. This machine allowed them to create stunning colourful, durable plastic sheets (made out of the type 4 plastic they had collected) which they then cut and fashioned into reusable objects. The students made lots of keyrings, wallets and coin purses. These will all be on sale next week to raise money for Seeds of Hope, our YCIS charity organization.

But it doesn’t stop there! Students in Year 2 were inspired by a video of their school captain, Kyle Ko who managed to persuade our cafeteria to stop selling water, juice and yoghurt in plastic bottles. Instead, the Year 4 and 5 students now bring their own reusable water bottles to lunch and they have organized some Ikea cups and water jugs for those students who have forgotten. This is also a healthier option for children who don’t need the sugary drinks and yoghurt. Year 2 were so inspired by this video they set about writing letters to the Ronghua Cafeteria (135 letters to be exact!) and these will be on display at their shops next week as well.

After many discussions, the Year 2 students decided they wanted to share their ideas about plastic usage at YCIS with the wider community, so they spent time making bilingual posters to be displayed around the school and encourage everyone to stop and think about their use of plastic. Look out for them soon in the Ronghua campus and why not stop and ask a Year 2 student about their understanding of plastic waste in the world, they may have even more tips and tricks for you to save our planet!

* This weekend the Year 5 and 6 Student Council will be attending the Eco Warriors National Conference with 10 different schools, discussing environmental issues affecting schools right now.

** In Apri, the Year 3 Students will be beginning a new unit on Sustainable Fashion, and will be visited by the founders of Loop Swim, formerly FINCH Designs who will be speaking to the children about exciting innovations in textile recycling & their use of recycled plastic bottles to create swimwear.

YCIS Puxi Primary are eco-warriors!

 

Lower Primary Coordinator – Natalie Gray

On March 8, four students in the Chinese class took a school bus and visited a cooking class San He Hua Yuan on Yanping Lu. It only took half an hour. As we entered the door, two cute puppies greeted us. Our cooking teacher was warm-hearted.  The dish we were going to cook was Baozi. The teacher has already prepared the ingredients with which we could cook.

First, we made dough with flour, baking soda, and water. While the dough was fermenting we made the contents. We combined vegetables, pork, and ground with soy sauce, sugar, salt, etc. We stirred them up and mixed them well. Then, after the dough was fermented, we divided it up and made the dough thin so that it became the round skin of the baozi. Then we wrapped the content into the skin and made about 30 baozi. In the end, we tasted the baozi and they were delicious!

YANG Changyu Y9B

We have come to an exciting end to the CISSA Badminton season 2019. Firstly, a huge thank you to all of our amazing coaches who provided their time and effort into the Badminton teams.

The Badminton teams steadily progressed throughout their practices and the Cross-River Events/tournaments were a huge success for all. The coaches reported that all teams displayed skill improvement and that the students represented themselves and the school proudly. The following awards were selected by the coaches.

Badminton Senior Boys awards:
The Most Improved Athlete:  Daniel MESRAN.
The Coaches Award for a consistently positive attitude and highest level of effort: Ethan LEUNG.
The Representative Award for high levels of skill and sportsmanship: Hongchan KIM.

Badminton Senior Girls Awards:
The Most Improved Athlete:  Yo Rong LIN.
The Coaches Award (for a consistently positive attitude and highest level of effort: Victoria DE FELIP.
The Representative Award ( for high levels of skill and sportsmanship): Christine YANG.

Badminton Junior Boys awards:
The Most Improved Ahlete:  Sang Woo SON.
The Coaches Award (for a consistently positive attitude and highest level of effort): Swayam RAUT.
The Representative Award (for high levels of skill and sportsmanship): Chris SONG.

Badminton Junior Girls awards:
The Most Improved Athlete:  Yuri JURNG.
The Coaches Award (for a consistently positive attitude and highest level of effort): Jolyne VONGSADY.
The Representative Award (for high levels of skill and sportsmanship): Ife OLA.

Mr. Ryan Hotham
YCIA Puxi Secondary Lower Secondary Sports Coordinator

Collaboration is always a key element for the IB Visual Arts & Design Technology exhibition. The two departments, whilst very separate, have worked together in such a way to bring the visual elements of design, creativity, experimentation and risk taking together for an exhibition.

Exhibitions always rely on a range of things – great art, ideas and awareness of the audience. However, a key ingredient is collaboration, the sharing of ideas, themes, spaces and cultural awareness. This year the IB Visual Art and Design Technology students ended their two-year courses with a varied exhibition of themes, concepts and challenges for the audience and a celebration for our community.

On display in the gallery space at the Changning District Library are collections of original work that discuss issues of portraiture, sustainable design, world-wide topics and current events.  Many works were the outcomes of almost a year and half working and experimenting with themes, concepts and the challenges of the materials. This year we witnessed artworks made of card, wood and wax, and beautiful, vibrant paintings. We are challenged by concepts of sustainability and  social issues, questions of cultural heritage and modern design. Art can be bright and pleasing, making you feel warm and nice, but it can also challenge and shock the viewer.

The Design Technology students have drawn from a range of real world problems, fusing traditional products/practices with modern lifestyles and thinking. Concepts range from modernizing a traditional tea ceremony to the contrast of making modern design inclusive to the old. Materials range from carbon fiber, oak, 3D printing to fabrics and smart materials. Theories relating to Sustainability, Inclusion and User Centred Design whilst balancing Form verses Function have been the exploration of the students journey.

It is now over to the upcoming year 12’s to continue in the tradition and continue to raise the bar and challenge the viewers next time.

Mr. David Mitchell
Puxi Secondary Head of D&T

  

Last Friday, we had a chance to watch an exhilarating debate competition. This debate was focused on ‘whether interest should be developed as a career’. This question used to confused me a long time until experience in debating gave me a direction to think more deeply and critically. Positive and negative debaters put forward a lot of impressive points, for instance, I still remember one of the negative debaters proposed that Warren Buffett said “if Bill Gates went to sell hot dogs, he would’ve become the king of hotdogs”.

A career should not be only interesting, but suitable and valuable. In addition, I have learned skills of debating from senior students, which will be useful for myself to participate debates in the future—I can use a large number of examples to prove my points.

This debate was of great significance, and gave me inspiration of planning future career.

Many thanks to Mrs. Chen for adopting my idea of debate topic, which let me feel more involved as an audience.

HUANG Michelle Mao – Y7A

 

An Amazing Evening

Last Friday was so awesome. Year 7-10 got to watch a fantastic competition between them. They were talking about the change in their lives. The one and a half hour passed very quickly as everyone’s story was immensely interesting.

After everyone’s speech, the judges were talking about whom to select for the places. As they were discussing, there was a group of Y10’s who did a debate and the topic: “if your hobbies could be your job”. Everyone who did the debate were amazing. Everyone had good reasons, good responses. It was really good as most of the students were in the affirmative side.

After the debate, a teacher asked us what side are we in and why. After a 10 minutes talk, the Co-Principal Ms. Xu came and announced which side was the most powerful one. I saw everyone were holding each other’s hand for their supporting team. But the team that opposed the statement won. Their responses and retorts were amazing. On the opposite side, a student who was much enthusiastic from the beginning in his speech was awarded Best Speaker for the Day.

The Co-Principal announced the prizes and the winning team went upstage to collect their prizes. The whole audience stood up and gave a big applause. What an amazing evening !

  

阿兰卡 KADHER BATCHA Aathikah – Y7C