全國淨灘日　為環保盡一份心力

National Earth Day: Do it for the Environment
Every year on April 22, people from all around the world host a series of activities to celebrate in the spirit of National Earth Day. This year, several teachers from NEHS brought students who wanted to preserve our Earth's environment to Hsin-fuBeach (near the Nanliao Fish Port) to clean up litter. Nanliao Fish Port is one of Hsinchu’s oldest fish port, and it yields the largest production of fish in northern Taiwan. Today, Nanliao Fish Port is a well known recreational area, which, unfortunately, has also led to a massive increase in human litter. A group of environmentally conscious NEHS students were willing to put aside school work to attend this cleansing event on April 22. Picking up trash was only one part of the work the students had done; they also sorted all the trash into different categories of paper, trash, lunch boxes...etc. Furthermore, these students investigated the source of the litter: humans. They have learned that the environment needs everyone’s protection, not only them. Humans have made a huge impact on pollution, both positively and negatively; the best way to decrease the amount of litter is to start on our own daily habits.

Congrats! IBSH’s Lily Luan Wins the National Merit Scholarship!
IBSH does it again! 12A student Lily Luan wins the honorary National Merit Scholarship, which is awarded by the American Scholar Group every year. The organization seeks to promote research opportunities and intercultural education in the United States by selecting the top one percent among the 3 million PSAT examinees that is then evaluated by autobiographies and essays, before finally granting only 7400 distinguished students the highly coveted scholarship. While the financial award isn't particularly significant, the award truly isn't easy to win, and therein lies the value. Once again, congratulations to the student!

The Boo!-ks are Here: Ghost-Themed Exhibition at the Library!
Ms. Wen Wen Yang of the elementary department organized a “Boo!-ks” exhibition that will be at the library throughout April! With the help of the librarians, all of the books about “ghosts” have been selected and are displayed among drapes and paper decorations with patterns, large spiders, and monsters for a creepy atmosphere with an element of fun! Additionally, the library also hosted a “Missed the Ghost” event, inviting students to find books about “ghosts” that haven’t already been found by the librarians for the exhibit. Because of the heightened interest in “ghost” books, the library was filled with participating students every day after school! This exhibition enabled students to come into contact with lots of interesting books, such as “Leo: a Ghost Story,” “My Friend the Ghost in the Library,” “Monster Museum,” and “The Dark,” diversifying students’ reading experiences!

Exchange Program with the Cupertino District
Cupertino City, California is a sister city of Hsinchu; the two meet up every year to hold a student exchange program. On April 12th, NEHS welcomed seven students from Cupertino to join the middle school department as well as the bilingual department. Each Cupertino student had a guiding friend who led them around campus to be familiarized with the environment and attend different classes. The next day, all 31 students and teachers from Cupertino came to Taiwan to experience the “NEHS life.” 25 Cupertino students were assigned to different classes; among them, a student named Tim was already familiar with our school, so he adjusted into his new school lifestyle immediately and even brought along Ben, a student from Guang Wu Junior High School, to have class together! In the afternoon, NEHS administrators and PTA memebers led our guests on a visit to the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), introducing Taiwan’s history of semiconductor advancements. Special thanks to PTA and Principal Huang’s warm reception. Even though their stay wasn’t long, we hope that not only did the next generation scientists of Taiwan and America engage in a fruitful technology exchange but also that this international exchange program will thrive well into the future.

2017 International Rube Goldberg Competition: IBSH Students Win Third
The 2017 International Rube Goldberg Competition was hosted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Imperial College London, and the Israel Institute of Technology. A Rube Goldberg project is one that involves one simple machine that triggers the activation of the next machine, and so on, cascading into a great chain reaction. Not only does it test the students’ knowledge in physics and chemistry, it also develops their critical thinking skills and imagination. IBSH junior students, Alan Lee, Alex Ku, Brian Feng, Hong Huang, Hubert Hung, and Thomas Kim invested a month’s worth of time to this project, working on it during after school sessions and even during the long break. As a result of their hard work, they have earned third place in the worldwide competition. Following the theme of “Earth Day,” the students collected trash and recycling materials from the recycling house, promoting an eco-friendly lifestyle. With hints of Taiwanese culture peeking through, the project echoed of singularity, further attracting the judge’s attention.