Cobras Excel at World Scholars 2019

Over May 11 and 12, twenty-four students from grades five to twelve competed against more than 300 other students. In debates, writing, quizzes and multiple choice contests, students explored the topics for World Scholars 2019. This year the theme was “Life on the Margins,” but our students performed much more than marginally in their events.

In debates, students had fifteen minutes to prepare on topics ranging from robots for all households to teenagers living in poverty. Each team competed in three rounds on the first day.  The next event was collaborative writing where students had a choice of topics that they divided amongst their three teammates. After writing, they were allowed to share their writing and change these before turning them in. The last event for the day was the Scholar’s Challenge, a very hard multiple choice quiz. Students said their brains hurt, but the results showed that they did very well!

Throughout the event, the students celebrate the animal mascot of the competition: the alpaca. On the second day, students were given their own Jeffy, or baby alpaca, of various colors. These stuffed animals become a member of their team for the Scholar’s Bowl, a quiz bowl competition, and help them on their way to victory.

Congratulations goes out to all our competitor. All of the teams qualified for the Global Round, one team was fifth place overall and one student scored the highest in the Scholar’s Challenge compared to all the other competitors. Well done, Cobras! You wore your alpacas well!

Exploring the Rich History of Tea: Mandarin Class Insights

Of the three major beverages of the world– tea, coffee, and cocoa– tea is consumed by the largest number of people.

China is the homeland of tea. It is believed that China had tea-shrubs as early as five to six thousand years ago, and human cultivation of tea plants dates back two thousand years.  Tea from China, along with her silk and porcelain, began to be known the world over more than a thousand years ago and has since always been an important Chinese export.

The word for tea leaves or tea as a drink in many countries are derivatives from the Chinese character “茶cha.” The Russians call it “cha’i”, which sounds like “chaye” (tea leaves) as it is pronounced in northern China, and the English word “tea” sounds similar to the pronunciation of its counterpart in Xiamen (Amoy).The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese, though pronounced with a slight difference.

Grade 7 Mandarin class learned about the topic of tea. We brought different types of tea to school and made them in different ways. We really enjoyed the process to make the tea and the different flavors of the tea.

Grade 7 Takes on Robotics: Success at Open Robotics Competition

This year, grade 7 learned about Robotics and had a chance to participate in The Open Robotics Competition 2019 held at Lenmarc Mall, Surabaya. The event was organized by the Robotics Community in Indonesia and supported by the Ministry of Communication and Information.

This was the biggest Robotics Competition nationally with more than 200 participants from different regions in Indonesia. Nine students from SIS participated in this event. The students worked hard practicing and attending workshops that were arranged to help them prepare for the competition. Even though this was the first time they joined, they showed that they were able to compete with more experienced students from other schools.

They were persistent in facing the challenging tasks presented in the competitions. Two teams were awarded the Special Awards in two different categories. Team SIS 2 received the Special Award in Gathering Robot category. Team SIS 3 received the Special Award in Transporter Robot category. Based on the performance at this event, six students from SIS received an invitation to participate in the upcoming Open Robots Competition in Japan on August 24 – 25, 2019.

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