Outstanding Performance of Bilingual Department Students at WSC Global Round Hosted in Dubai

The Global Round of the World Scholar’s Cup was held in Dubai from June 20th to 23rd with 1600 participants from various different countries. Bilingual Department students Matthew Wang (10B), Leon Pao (10A), Jasper Chen (10A), Daniel Hoover (11A), Jonathan Pan (11B), and Michelle Li (11B) represented the Taiwan region in the Global Round. Their performance was outstanding, as the senior team was awarded with fifth place in the Scholar’s Challenge Senior Division and the junior team was awarded with Honorable Mention for Writing and Debate. Each participant also won several individual awards, with the most outstanding being Michelle Li, earning First Place for Literature, Ninth Place overall in the Senior Division, and Honorable Mention in the Senior Division Current Affairs. The Senior Division Debate and Writing categories were challenging in terms of knowledge and critical thinking, with topics ranging from whether Syria’s civil war should involve international aid to the relationship between one’s birthplace and nationality to the advantages and disadvantages of globalization. Contestants from all over the globe each expressed their own opinions, their acute points of view and their confident auras on stage won ardent applause from the audience.

Our School Participates in the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium¡¦s 2013 Coral Reef Ambassadors Project

To deepen the students?understanding of marine ecology and expand their international views, our school is participating in the National Museum of Marine Biology & Aquarium’s Coral Reef Ambassadors Project starting from 2013. The goal is to give the students indepth understanding of Taiwan’s ocean culture and coral reef ecology, and to encourage students to exchange learning and culture between different countries. There are three main parts of the plan: First, a primary aquarium will be constructed in the high school department’s biology lab and a secondary aquarium will be placed in the bilingual department, where students will be trained to take care of and observe the ocean life. The school invited the Dean of the museum Dr. Fan to give a speech and provide indepth education on ocean ecology as well as set up a remote learning system. Next, the outstanding students will be selected to participate in the aquarium’s activities and training in order to encourage involvement with the cutting edge of technology, and the study and protection of coral reefs. The aquarium will provide the coral reef ambassador IDs to allow the students to enter the aquarium freely and to volunteer as guides. Every winter vacation, each participating school will choose 2 coral reef ambassadors to visit High Tech High School in San Diego, the Birch Aquarium, and the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, to expand the students?global perspective and develop international ocean studies.

High School Department Performs Superbly in National Science Fair and 2013 Intelligent Iron Man Creativity Contest

H304 ChingFung Chen and TsungYi Chen placed second in the high school biology division of the National Science Fair with their project of “The Connection Between Courtship Rejection and AlcoholConsuming Behavior of Fruit Flies,?while H305 Chi Chang, YiShuan Gu, ChenYi Lee, YinSho Pung, and FungYuan Liao placed third in the 2013 Intelligent Iron Man Creativity Contest. The 24 of 1336 teams which advanced from the preliminary round, along with teams from Belgium, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Korea, attended the 2013 Intelligent Iron Man Creativity Contest (which took place from August 2 to August 6 at Yuan Ze University). Contestants were instructed to design, make, and test whatever the mission specifies in 72 hours, which requires teamwork and people with all sorts of different skills. The biggest challenge was to make whatever the mission specifies with tools bought with prize money earned from previous missions. To make the contest even more exciting, contestants were completely cut off from the outside world; only their progresses were displayed on the computers. Many thanks to all the instructors for their guidance and efforts.

Our School¡¦s Fruitful Results on Promoting Service Learning

In attempts to promote service learning to encourage our students to express their love and enthusiasm for community service, our school has held several interesting events. First of all, it is the first time where our Senior High School Department formed an international service team called ¡§Simple Cambodian Dreams.¡¨ In this group, fourteen students spent their summers, from July 1~14, in Madrid, Cambodia to do community service. In a simple yet impoverished environment, the students led local Cambodian students in events to teach English, which allowed them to deeply feel that a ¡§simple life¡¨is the true meaning of life itself. Furthermore, our fourth Science Class (now H205) hosted a special camp in August centering on Science for the underprivileged children in Dong Yuan Elementary School. The Science Class students, with hands-on action and the spirit of community service, understood their own social responsibilities over the four days the service camp took place. Not only that, but on September 14th a total of over 300 7th and 8th grade students from the Junior High School Department took on the role as environmental volunteers, cleaning the Jing-Shan District and Science Park manmade lake with a diligent and responsible attitude towards environmental service.

Our School Attends the ¡§ 2013 Cross-Strait High School Science Camp¡¨

Sixteen handpicked students from the high school department and the bilingual department stayed in Xi¡¦ An China from July 19th to 25th to attend Xi¡¦ An Jiao Tung University¡¦s ¡§ 2013 CrossStrait High School Science Camp.¡¨ The seven day event was hosted as a learning exchange program for science students from Henan, Shaanxi, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. It included famous professor seminars, laboratory research, innovative base visits, as well as museum tours, allowing cross-strait students to pursue scientific knowledge and imultaneously broaden their international horizons. Hosted by the China Association for Science and Technology, Chinese Youth International, the Chinese Institute of Public Affairs Management and Hon Hai Educational Foundation, the camp aimed to stimulate young students¡¦ interest in science, guide them towards honorable causes, encourage them to take on scientific research careers, culture their scientific spirit, innovate in knowledge and put into practice their full capabilities.