Secondary Newsletter 14 – November 20, 2020
STUCO Among Us Tournament
CAS Corner by Portia Tagalo
Service as Action
Science News
Grade 6 and 7 Fine Arts Sharing
University Counseling
Counseling
BIS Is Proud To Be An Inclusive School
STUCO Among Us Tournament
By Selina Ko (Communications Officer, STUCO)
This month, Secondary STUCO decided to host an online gaming tournament to help boost morale and encourage communication between different grades and ages, all while maintaining COVID protocols. This tournament took place from November 16th ~ 18th, 3:00-4:30 pm.
Each group played as many games as possible in the span of an hour. During the game, we had STUCO executives record the points from each individual participant, and added them up in the end. We had 7 people per group during the first day, then the top 4 participants from each group with the highest points proceeded to the next day (Semi-Finals). After compiling points from participants in the semi-finals, they were split into 2 groups and the top 5 students with the highest scores proceed to the finals.
Throughout the tournament, we had students from different grades form groups and participate together. This gave the students a chance to communicate and work with each other to win the game while making new friends along the way. Each day, groups were changed so everyone got to play with different people.
We had a total of 35 students participating. Coming in 1st place, we have Declan (G11), second place was Josephe (G11) and 3rd place was Remy (G11) Congratulations to you guys, and thank you to everyone that participated in this tournament, and we’ll look forward to seeing you during our next event. Hopefully, we can have another awesome event like this!
CAS Corner by Portia Tagalo
Green Team
Goals:
In this year’s Green Team, we have three main topics and areas of concern we want to cover; That is the idea of sustainability, issues relating to the coronavirus as well as reducing the food waste in our community. In a time where we are worried about a global pandemic, we strive to think about issues that are still prevalent in our community while still staying within the guidelines and staying safe. These activities would be done through many different forms of media that invite the community and group around us to speak up about the issues in our community and make Bali Island School an even better place.
Reflection on Learning Outcomes:
Initiative and Planning
We plan to achieve this learning objective through each taking turns in controlling this group and planning different activities that would benefit our community. We plan to share our ideas together as a team and pick an idea that we strive to change the most so that we can overcome this issue with focus. Through planning our steps together and having a person lead, we can agree on ideas faster which allow us to focus on many different issues that we are each passionate about.
Ethics and Choices & Actions
We plan to achieve this learning objective by encouraging the Bali Island Community to think about their personal choices as an individual and striving to change their personal habits to be more eco-friendly. We will do this by raising awareness in different forms of media such as posters or creating videos for the assembly. By putting it out there that we are worried about different issues in our community, we would allow people to understand that there should be some changes done to their personal actions. Some ideas as of now would be relating to the coronavirus and single-use masks that build up waste overtime if just discarded after a short use as well as overuse in paper towels when it would be easy to be using individual towels.
Collaborative Skills
We plan to achieve this learning objective by directly involving every member of the Green Team in planning the activities we are hoping to do and coming up with ideas that promote eco-friendliness. We will do this by having different leaders for each term and having different people manage different aspects of activities we will be doing such as project and partnership leader, DP management leader, and MYP management leader. Having a different leader for everything ensures that every member of the Green Team is actively collaborating and participating in our activities and projects.
Service as Action
Service as Action is in full swing at BIS! Sienna Sutherland and Mrs. Erickson have been working hard together on organizing an exciting virtual fundraiser to benefit a few of the villages at the base of Mt. Agung. Virtual “races” are all the rage now where you register for an activity and do it wherever you like during the allotted event days. What a great way to build community online and help people in need at the same time! Please check out the information in the poster below and register by December 2nd for this fun event.
Science News
Grade 6
Grade 6 students have been busy measuring accurately and precisely like a scientist! After learning all the theoretical knowledge, they were excited to be in the lab practicing their lab skills. Students also had fruitful class discussions where they explored the concept of “Science as a way of thinking” aiming to identify patterns in the world around us to understand how the world works as well as explaining why things happen like that. In order to achieve this goal, they are now using their lab skills in the process of designing their own experiments. In these experiments, they will be creating their own research question and hypothesis and develop a method to test their hypothesis. Stay tuned to see the results of their creative inquiry process!
Grade 7
Grade 7 students completed their Criterion D presentations on a very interesting topic “Bioprinting”. Through research, they learned about real-life issue of organ transplantation and why it is a problem and explored bioprinting as a possible solution to this problem. Furthermore, they analyzed the implications of using bioprinting either through an economic or ethical perspective. They improved their presentation skills and had the opportunity to give and receive meaningful peer-feedback.
G7 students were so enthusiastic to come back to the lab! As the introduction to their new unit, they started with an experimental inquiry into acids and bases and pH indicators. Finally, they were able to do experiments! They had many moments of wonder and awe as the chemicals changed colors. Well, it’s not magic. It’s SCIENCE! They will use their understanding of this preliminary experiment to design their own experiment to make their own indicator. Stay tuned to see the results of their creative inquiry process!
Grade 9
Grade 9 students have been busy investigating waves. Building on their knowledge and understanding of sound waves, the students designed their own experiments to test the effect of either the length or diameter of a string on the pitch. They used the Google Science Journal app to collect data.
This experiment allowed them to critically think about effectively controlling all variables, collecting sufficient, relevant, and reliable data, as well as tabulating data and drawing graphs. They then applied their critical thinking skills to draw conclusions, evaluate their method, and suggest improvements. Here is a link to one of their videos.
ESS
What does the Lorax have in common with Trump and Biden? How is it possible to fit them in a DP class? If your lens is sustainability, then everything is possible!
Students analyzed the Lorax through the lens of sustainability and environmental value systems (EVS). An EVS is a worldview or paradigm that shapes the way an individual, or group of people, perceives and evaluates environmental issues, influenced by cultural, religious, economic, and socio-political contexts. After watching the
Lorax, they discussed the implications of unsustainable management of a renewable resource and identified the EVS of the characters in the movie. This activity allowed them to identify specific actions that belong to different perspectives as well as to structure arguments with justifications.
Then they had the inspiration to apply what they have learned to the real-life situation: the American elections. Students analyzed various sources to compare Trump and Biden’s environmental policies in order to decide which EVS they have. Their analysis focused on the candidate’s policies on energy, climate change, wildlife protection, water pollution, and toxic chemicals. Collaboratively, they decided that Trump is a technocentrist whereas Biden is an anthropocentrist. You might want to ask ESS students if you’re wondering what these terms mean!
Biology
The Grade 11 Biologists came back to the lab to look at cells in the microscope. Students prepared their own cheek cells onto a slide, added a blue stain, and with a magnification of 400x, this is what they saw:
If you are wondering what is all this, look in the image below:
This lab allowed students to compare animal cells (above) to plant cells (on the right) and identify their different structures.
We also looked at prepared slides of onion root tips to study cell division. Interphase and Mitosis are the processes that allow cells to create exact copies of themselves and below is a photo with all the five phases identified. Mitosis has four phases: Prophase, Metaphase, Anaphase, and Telophase.
QUIZ TIME: can you identify the four phases in the image below? What phase is missing?
(Note: answers are at the end of the Biology section of the DP Science News)
Here is a reflection written by a student about this activity:
“It was fun to see my classmates in school again. We learned about the cells themselves as well as mitosis while having fun.”
Grade 12 students have been working on data collection for their Internal Assessment. This is an experiment designed by the student to answer a research question of their interest. The final lab is submitted to the IB for moderation. Given our new safety protocols, and the fact that this work was started months ago, some students opted for writing a report based on secondary data, while others came to the lab to collect data.
Morisa is studying “How does temperature affect the spoilage of fresh milk by measuring the pH of the milk?” Look at her setup on the right. She is using our Digital sensors to measure accurately the pH of her milk samples.
She also used her water bath to keep the temperature constant for her samples.
Malikha is studying the “Correlation between Human Development Index and Mortality Rate per 100,000 People due to Tuberculosis in Top 30 Tuberculosis Burden Countries” and Anastasia is looking into the correlation between lung cancer incidence rates and the average concentration of particulate matter that are less than 2.5 µm in diameter in the air.
Adrian will explore the effect of prolonged exposure to incense to the lungs, while Seung Gun is questioning “How does the light intensity measured by lux impact the height of the ivy plant measured from the soil to the end of the stem after 2 weeks?” Seung Gun is running his experiment at home with material provided by the school:
| Answers to the cell division quiz:
A – Telophase; B – Metaphase; C – Interphase; D – Prophase. The phase missing is Anaphase. Did you get them right? 🙌 |
Chemistry
Grade 11 students have been studying elements and the periodic table. Each student completed a research task and produced a poster about an element of their choice.
See some of their posters below.
They also helped create a new periodic table for room 15 to aid our Chemistry classes, when we are back on campus. Now, no matter where students are sitting in the room, they have access to the most commonly used tool by chemists!
And finally, they came on campus to collect data for a titration lab started over one month ago. Now that they have data, they will work on their first data analysis task, which prepares them for their Internal Assessment in Chemistry. Here are they in the lab:
Grade 12 Chemistry class was the first of the Science students to complete their Internal Assessment – it was due today! Congratulations! Han looked into the correlation between the number of carbons and oxygen in organic compounds and their boiling point – he used secondary data. Anastasia used our lab over a period of days to collect data on and determine the total concentration of dissolved iron(II) on some of our school faucets.
Physics
The Grade 11 DP students have been working on completing required practicals for their course in Physics. These are demanding lab experiences that prepare them for further study in science at University or beyond. The practicals help students gain knowledge regarding content and skills in the course. In this lab, the students experimentally derived acceleration due to the force of gravity by dropping strips of cards through a photogate. These trials are then mathematically and graphically calculated and compared against the expected value.
Grade 6 & 7 Fine Arts Sharing
Students from Grades 6 and 7 shared their artworks, dramatic pieces, and musical performances from the first rotation of the Arts for this academic year. Students and teachers worked creatively to utilize technology and the physical spaces available to them in order to construct an entertaining afternoon of artistic expression. Gardens and living rooms became theatrical and performance stages, household items became props and artifacts representing self-identity. Whilst the performers and audience were physically distanced, there was an undeniable sense of collaboration and togetherness through the processes involved in creating and sharing art. Below is a link to the recording of the performance, if people would like specific items from the show in high definition, this can be arranged on request by emailing eandrews@baliis.net.
Grade 6 & 7 Fine Arts Recording
Once again, congratulations to all the students and staff that brought this thoroughly entertaining afternoon to fruition.
University Counseling
EduCanada Virtual Fair on Saturday, November 28th, hosted by the Embassies of Canada across Asia-Pacific.
November 28th from 9 am to 1 pm WITA.
Counseling
This week, I have had parents explain that their teen is struggling more than they expected after returning to school. Where they thought their child would be purely excited about going back to school, varied emotions are surfacing. When they return home, they are sometimes showing anger or frustration, and there are sleep disturbances. First, I want to normalize this. There has been a lot of change in their lives in the past year. They have spent more time at home, learned about the importance of wearing masks and washing hands to prevent the spreading of a virus, and figured out how to learn online. The disruption in their lives might be showing in declined confidence in learning capabilities, regulation of emotions, and behavioral control. Now they face another change of going back to school. Change is hard.
How can you help?
- Prioritize well-being and adjustment to their return over learning outcomes.
- Provide art supplies for releasing emotions.
- Listen to and acknowledge their concerns.
- Speak kindly.
- Reassure by explaining all that your family and the school is doing to keep them safe.
- Understand that they likely do not have the stamina for being physically in the classroom.
- Check how they feel about wearing the mask and washing hands throughout the day.
- Normalize their feelings, including those of anxiety or stress.
- Ask how they are enjoying their cohort.
- Check your feelings because they pick up on how you are coping.
- Make sure you are focusing on being balanced as a family.
- Seek support if you are struggling. I am here for parents and students.
- Provide time in the evening before bed (shoot for two hours before bedtime) where screen usage stops.
- Be patient with them and yourself.
- Get out in nature.
- Laugh and have fun together.
- Remember that you are your teen’s safe space. Sometimes this means they displace their feelings on you. Think connection before correction.
BIS Is Proud To Be An Inclusive School
BIS is an inclusive school. This means we welcome students with various learning differences and challenges. Some students in our community have physical, cognitive, language or emotional challenges that preclude them from learning successfully at home or online. In order to support these students, we have accommodations in place so that they are able to access learning in ways other children are able to do independently. Inclusion may sometimes feel unfair, but I can assure you that environmental and instructional strategies and supports in fact level the playing field so that learning can occur for each individual student equitably. For example, we would not ask students who need eyeglasses to leave them at home because it gives them an unfair advantage of seeing more clearly over those who don’t wear them.
Why is BIS an inclusive school? When children attend classes in a school that reflects the diversity in real-world populations, they learn to understand and appreciate these similarities and differences. Thanks to our inclusion practices at BIS, ALL of our students learn the valuable character traits of empathy and respect, caring, and open-mindedness. It is a real strength of our school and an aspect I hope you are all equally proud of the BIS inclusion program.
Of note, over the past 15-20 years, there has been an increasing number of international schools that offer inclusion programs. Prior to this important development, expat families who had children with learning challenges would often make the decision to stay in their home country. BIS was an early adopter, providing greater access and differentiated learning and support for families considering Bali, Indonesia.
We have invited students whose identified learning differences put them at greater risk for failing to learn during this Distance Learning period, onto campus for support. They follow the school’s stringent safety procedures while learning on campus.
Thank you for celebrating differences with us and for your understanding of the supports we have in place for some members of our BIS family.
