High School Science

Grade 9 Biology

9th Grade has been working on their introductory unit on the Biosphere. They have previously studied what is science, science in context, studying life, the nature of matter, properties of water, carbon compounds, chemical reactions and enzymes, what is ecology, energy, producers, consumers, and energy flow in ecosystems. The learning has involved several activities where students applied scientific methods to design an experiment to investigate whether light affects the sprouting of eyes on a potato. The skills focus in this lab was how students can form a hypothesis, set up a control variables, and organize data.

Grade 10 Chemistry

In Grade 10 Chemistry, students have just finished a unit on nomenclature.  They learned about the difference between ionic and covalent compounds and did a lab experiment that involved testing the melting point, solubility, and conductivity of various substances to determine whether they were ionic or covalent in nature.  

AP Chemistry

AP Chemistry recently finished a unit with similar topics in which they investigated bonding, calculated bond energy, bond strength, bond length, molecular geometry, electron orbital hybridization, bond order, electron dot diagrams, and have been learning to independently seek understanding outside of class. 

Environmental Science

Environmental science students are currently engaged in a project in which they are making a children’s book about the atmosphere. This book is meant to teach about the structure of the atmosphere, its importance, as well as problems such as indoor and outdoor air pollution and possible solutions.  We are excited to see what the finished products will look like!

General Physics

It has been a busy and challenging 1st quarter for the General Physics students. The students are in the midst of doing a wide range of activities, including inquiry-based investigations, to cultivate their understanding of physics as they explored kinematics. The class has successfully covered units in motion in one-dimension and has extended their learning to motions in two dimensions. We are currently finishing up the unit on projectile motions before we proceed to Newton’s Laws of Motion.

AP Biology

The AP Biology students have been working on Cellular Energetics. They have previously studied Cell structure and Function, Cell Communication, The Cell cycle, Enzyme Structure, Enzyme Catalysis, Environmental Impact on Enzyme Function, and Cellular Respiration. The learning has involved several activities where students investigated the concept of Osmosis by designing an experiment to determine the effect of different concentrations of sucrose solutions on potato cell content. Students used the results to plot a graph and explained the trend shown by the graph using their knowledge of Osmosis and water potential. 

Middle School Music

Middle School music classes are organized by grade level. This semester, Grade 6 and Grade 7 have music class.  Grade 8 will have music class after the December holiday break. All of the Middle School classes meet twice a week for 45 minutes for this subject.

The students are excited to learn about the various elements involved in the unit: Introduction to Band. They have started exploring what instruments they want to master and have selected their own repertoires with guidance from the teacher, Pak Priyadi. The SIS music program allows students to have opportunities to learn the basic techniques of playing instruments as well as singing. Students have a chance to learn more than one instrument in class and they learn the basic mechanics of playing the instruments. Good posture and fingering are emphasized in this course.  Middle School music classes prepare the students for the more challenging classes in High School. 

Middle School students will participate in the Fall School Concert at the end of semester. This year, the concert will be held on November 26th. The sixth and seventh graders will show what they have learnt for the last four months. The concert will be a culmination of the many skills they have developed during the course. I look forward to the concert in the very near future.

Comments are closed.