Secondary Newsletter 25 – February 7, 2020
Upcoming Events
CAS Corner
Grade 6 Real-life Math Project
Grade 7 Get Creative
Taman Bacaan Giving Tree
Counselor’s Corner
What’s happening in Science!
Grade 10 Music Field Trip
Bali Maths Competition
DP Teacher Sighting in a Grade 6 Classroom!
Upcoming events
Monday, February 10 – Parent Information Session – Online Learning Planning Update
Tuesday, February 11 – Teacher PD (students finish at 12pm)
Tuesday & Wednesday, February 11 & 12 – ISA Testing (Grade 6-10)
CAS Corner
EOTC Trash analysis – Radhita Anggono Grade 11
Upon arriving at Les Village, we quickly settled down and got straight to work to improve on our efficiency. We introduced ourselves to the villagers and made ourselves familiar with the groups we would be working with for the next few days. On the first day, we were informed of the initiatives to improve the waste issue in the village. This includes things like paying the villagers a certain amount based on the trash that they collect and to see how policies affect the frequency of certain types of trash in different areas. There is the question of how measuring the effectiveness of the legislation will affect the people. I’m not entirely sure of the whole process but I think that if we want to measure the effectiveness of the law, then we will also have to consider the mindset of the society around us. Is this a good measure to correct littering? There’s always the problem that this will cost quite a bit to enforce and to pay the villagers, which is money that could have been used for education instead.
In order to recognise and consider the ethics of choices and actions, we participated in a group activity where we all had to make a presentation detailing the effects of climate change to a given topic and think about certain solutions. With the impacts of the different issues, we thought about what the global issue of climate change could do to many people around the world. Everyone contributes to the issue but not equally and some will feel the impact more harshly than others. Drastic weather changes and a sudden surge of extreme floods that may destroy people’s homes and in the most severe case, take lives. Every action will have a reaction and with the negative impact it has on people, there will always be the question of whether the benefit of cheaper products outweighs the cost of this very real and very terrifying problem.
I will clarify that with thinking out solutions, most of them included decreasing consumption of a certain product or switching out existing ones for goods that were more sustainable. This included solutions that were on a personal level, things like turning off the lights and taking shorter showers, to a larger community, things like investing in solar panels and having certain hours of the day where only a select number of cars could drive so pollution from gas emissions were reduced. In doing this, I was able to see how certain actions may cause an impact and contribute to the ever-growing problem of enhanced global warming and that with certain decisions, there will always be a hefty cost: whether it be monetary or environmentally. It’s important to realise just how much these small things can add up with every person that contributes to it and the impact it can have on people.
The research that we have done and the activity that we had to do also demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance because I firmly believe that climate change is an issue of worldwide scale that needs to be dealt with.
Grade 6 Real-Life Maths Project
Olivia Johns Grade 6
On Thursday 30th, Grade 6 had a wonderful experience with Ibu Liza Latif. Ibu Liza is the owner of the ‘Bali Florist’. She was able to take some time out of her busy schedule to come in and teach about creating a flower basket to meet the specific requirements of a customer. We then looked at how much the basket cost us to make by thinking about all the different elements that were needed to make it. We also then considered profit and loss and how businesses run. We also linked this to work that we had been doing on patterns and sequences, and the patterns that can happen in real life. We would like to thank Liza very much for coming in and teaching us this, it made a few of us think about what it would be like to a florist. Thank you Liza
Grade 7 Language & Literature Students Get Creative
Grade 7 students are just finishing up our latest novel unit. As we finish the book The Lions of Little Rock by Kristin Levine, students are getting their creativity on by making a series of assessments that showcase their knowledge of the book. Students could choose from several different assessments such as creating their own comic book, acting out an interesting scene, videoing a book talk, or even creating a diorama. All assessments should include MLA citations, written descriptions of the scene(s) depicted, and quotes from the actual story. Look for more updates next week of the final products!
STUCO’s Taman Bacaan Giving Tree
By Seung Gun Oh
Secondary STUCO gave the gifts collected by the BIS community to the Taman Bacaan kids on Tuesday of this week. It was nice to be able to give to those who are less fortunate and give them a chance to have nice things, whether it is toys, school supplies or candy. In order to get these gifts, the STUCO team created this Gift Giving tree which contained tags for each Taman Bacaan child. After giving the gifts to the Taman Bacaan kids, we were able to realise how thankful and grateful we are to have this chance to experience what some kids around the world can’t afford. Not only that, but we also saw how we must help continue to help these kids to have a chance to enjoy the little things in life in the future.
What’s happening in Science!
Last Saturday, 1st February 2020, BIS students took part in a Science Fair Competition. The competition, held at Dyatmika, was open to all schools on the island and had entries from BIS, Canggu-CCS, SLK, Green School and Dyatmika. The theme this year was sustainability, with the aim of encouraging the students to think about how they could solve some of today’s problems. Our BIS students; Uliana, Nina, Kristina and Philip designed an experiment to investigate if they could show that soap nut, a sustainable alternative to commercial cleaning products, was as effective as a commercial soap. Their work on this project led them to investigate how well the soap nut could remove lipstick from glass, using light transmission through the glass to compare the different cleaning agents.
A huge congratulations to the BIS student team who won the Junior Category for their Soap Heros – Sustainability Project. In recognition of their work, the students received a trophy, medals and gift vouchers. The judges, comprised of science teachers from different schools across Bali, acknowledged the wonderful work done by the BIS students and awarded them an astonishing 44/44 for their science project.
Grade 10 Music Field Trip
On Monday, February 3, the grade 10 Music class traveled to Ubud to meet with environmental activist Robi Supriyanto. Famous for being the frontman of the band ‘Navicula’, Robi was able to share some of his experiences writing music and using art as a means to vehicle drive social change. The students also participated in a yoga session and visited the Bumi Sehat Foundation (childbirth clinic). Here are some of the students’ favorite moments.
Laura: Robi signed up for a music video contest and submitted just a video of him and his friends jamming out in their homemade rehearsal studio. It was the most raw thing and he took a chance and ended up winning the contest as well as an opportunity to record in Los Angeles. I think that it’s crazy how your life can change just from the opportunities you choose to take.
Jacob: When Robi explained his story in the taxi, of how he made his most famous song. He was telling us about how his emotions helped him gather ideas for his song. I think this is really inspiring because it shows that anything is possible and that you just have to note down any ideas you get.
Pablo: The most inspiring moment for me was when Robi told his story about how he wrote one of an award winning song called ‘Metropolutan’ in a taxi.
Jared: I think the most inspiring moment for me was when Robi told us to follow what we love doing no matter the money or anything that comes with it. If we do what we love, then everything will be fun and enjoyable. ‘Do what you love, and love what you do”.
Tara: I think the most inspiring moment was when we went to the Bumi Sehat Foundation because I got to see how this foundation started from such a small place but then built up into a foundation that is known all across the world.
Lachlan: I think the most inspiring moment I experienced while attending the workshop in Ubud was when Robi told us about his musical experience and how he had a dream and how he told us he planned out his dream making the dream a reality and a lot more accessible.
Mir: My favourite moment of the field trip was when Robi told a story of being stuck in a taxi for 3 hours and using the time to write a hit song about the traffic problem in Jakarta… he used his phone to sing his ideas for all the parts of what is now one of their most famous songs.
Bali Maths Competition
Bali Maths Competition was on the 1st of February 2020. 126 students participated in the competition. 60 students in the Junior Division, whilst the other 66 were in the Senior Division. The event, when measured on a happiness index, was a huge success and the atmosphere of the event was quite lively. On a more objective scale, we didn’t go over budget and 10 unique schools were willing and able to join the event.
This is a huge relief to the BMC team since we’ve been preparing for this event since October and it has been a long and hazardous journey. We had to deal with finances and trying to figure out how deposits and ledgers work was not fun. Fortunately, we did get a lot of people and our questions were finished as the two week push to finish our preparations rolled around.
With the help of our 14 volunteers, we sludged through our workload: printing papers; cutting out name tags; ordering the items and requesting help from grounds staff. The delays for registration had us at the edge of our seats and the repetitive snipping of scissors almost had us. It was therapeutic to see people enjoying our hard work.
DP Teacher Sighting in a Grade 6 Classroom!
Grade 6 have been busy learning all about physical geography and economics in their current unit. We’ve explored how landforms and climate can impact the economics of a country, what part people play in the economics of a country, and today, with the help of DP Economics and Business teacher Klause Weber, the Grade 6 learned about what role governments play in economics. It was really fun to see the Grade 6 engage with Mr. Klaus, actively participating in his activities and discussions. Thank you, Mr. Klaus for sharing with us some of your expertise, we learned a lot!