This school year we launched our Centre for Excellence offering an ever-growing and diverse range of opportunities for students to discover and develop their strengths. We are currently offering over 40 additional programmes across all subject areas for students in the IB Curriculum and German Curriculum.
We visited some of the science programmes on offer to share with you some of the exciting projects the students are working on.
Just recently, a designated project time for student science competitions was set up. Students who are interested in chemistry, physics or biology competitions are able to sign up for this programme and meet once a week to work on their experiments, research and tasks that are part of the respective competitions.
One group of students, together with their teacher Philipp Griebling, is taking part in a German National Physics Competition (Bundeswettbewerb Physik). When we dropped by, the young scientists were busy working on an experiment involving a ‘globe-lamp’. Eight little lights are placed into a small foam globe following the instructions set out in the competition manual. They are intricately connected and there are several switches to turn on different light combinations. Students then have to create a circuit diagram and observe which lamps light up and how brightly they light up. Certainly not an easy feat.
Meanwhile, Sandra Fenzl is supporting middle school students in the German Section who are taking part in the International Junior Science Olympiad. In the first round of this hands-on competition, they have to conduct four experiments related to enzymes and electricity, e.g. investigating the role of enzymes in detergents and their effect on gummy bears.
During Singapore’s Circuit Breaker last year, Krishna Kumaresan started to offer the locally organised Young Scientists Programme at GESS which allows students to explore self-directed activities in various disciplines of science. Our young researchers can follow one of the programmes offered by the Young Scientists Programme, collect points and win badges. One of our students in Grade 9, Roxanne Yap, became a finalist in Singapore’s Young Sustainability Champion Programme. The group meets once a week after school. Students work independently in small groups or by themselves on their projects and tasks.
It is amazing to see our students so engrossed in their projects, focused on their tasks and on taking ownership of their learning journey.
