Marimba Pamberi is an activity where we create music and it is where I learnt how to play the marimbas. During each session we would learn and practice sections of the final ensemble piece. I was playing the bass sections of the song, some may say that the bass isn’t important because you can’t hear it. However, the bass is the backbone of the piece as the melody is shaped according to the chords of the bass, it is just like the structure. Towards the end of the activity season, we performed the work in front of the school, that we had been working on throughout the season. I feel happy with the results of this activity as at the start, I had no idea how to play the marimbas.
Author: tsao11405@gapps.uwcsea.edu.sg
CAS Final Interview
HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)
HIIT is an exercise that focuses on short bursts of high-intensity workouts. These workouts are very tough, and I have to persevere through. Over time, the more reps you do, the more the strain on your body and at times, you just want to quit. However, I know that the exercise benefits me greatly, and with everyone there doing all the exercises, I also feel like I should continue, doing the exercises with other people makes you mentally stronger. Not only that, but the idea of getting fitter made me continue showing up to HIIT week after week.
ACE GC Service Expos
During the service expo, we at ACE GC are trying to look for new students in younger years to join the service. In the GC, we spend weeks planning on how we can get those in the younger grades to join so that they can replace the grade 12s who will be leaving. We come up with a series of games that teach people about what we do, we also create a 1 min pitch so that the new students don’t get bored listening to every single thing that we do. This short and concise pitch also makes the service sound even better as we are condensing everything that we do.
Brochure that I created with two other members to let others know who we are working with (Jaago):
HS Basketball 19&U C Boys
I have been playing basketball for less than a year, and since it is my last year, I decided that I wanted to try out for the team. I made the C team, however, I knew that I wasn’t that great of a player. My dribbling with my left hand wasn’t very strong as well as my layups. I decided to work on these areas of the sport by building up arm strength and practising, basic drills over and over again. Now, after some time, I can say that I feel a lot more comfortable dribbling with my left and right hand, as well as laying up from both the left and right sides. However, I still feel like I can work on my execution speed as well as the speed that I run at when dribbling.
Me in a home game
Extended Essay Viva Voce
The Extended Essay has finally come to an end, along the way, I learnt many different skills that will help me for University. In Uni, essays will no longer be short I will have to write essays similar to the EE or longer. In order to write a good research essay, I’ll need to incorporate theories learnt from lectures to real-life situations using evidence from reports written by experts in the field.
I have learnt so much and now have a basic understanding on how hard it is for countries to find a solution to problems, as parties may not agree with one another. If I were going to continue this EE, I would want to broaden my research to renewable energy as a whole or focus my understanding and find out more about people’s personal geographies in order to understand why people would not want to purchase electric vehicles.
HS Cross Country Team 19&U A Boys
I joined the HS Cross Country team during the middle of the season. I was convinced by a friend to join in order to train for the NS IPPT 2.4 km run. Before I started Cross Country, my stamina during the 2.4 km run was really bad. I could run fast at the start, but couldn’t maintain it. This made me realise that I needed to work on managing my stamina. In Cross Country, we did a lot of endurance training and 5 km training. Over the course of the activity, I can say that my stamina has improved. I can now run 5km with only 1-2 breaks in between, this shows that I can run for longer periods of time.
I didn’t make the SEASAC team, however, hopefully I will be able to make the Track and Field SEASAC team in any of the runs, as that is what I was aiming to achieve. I am confident that my 2.4km time has improved after all the training at Cross Country.
ACE GC
In my GC, Asian Children’s Education(ACE), we work with an organisation called Jaago located in Bangladesh, to support the kids there and provide them with an education. The reason why this is an issue of global significance is because I believe that education should be accessible to everyone. In our GC, we raise money through events such as the summer festival, and with the money, we sponsor a child for US$27/month or we can donate to the organisation. Currently, we are successfully sponsoring 5 children. With this, we can educate more people and hopefully make peoples lives better.
The reason why I joined this GC would be because I believe that everyone has a right to receive a basic education despite their circumstances. At ACE, I can make a difference and allow a kid to receive an education with the organisation with JAAGO, whether it is by raising awareness amongst students and parents in the school community.
Tech Tinkers
For this aspect of CAS, I signed up for a college service called tech tinkers. I have been a part of this service since grade 11 and this year, I am one of the leaders running the activity. The reason why this tackles issues of a global significance is because of E-waste. In a day and age where technology is becoming more integrated into our everyday lives, technology that is obsolete will be disregarded and disposed of. At tech tinkers, we reduce E-waste in our school community. We accept donations of old technological devices such as phones, tablets and laptops. Once we receive the donations, we refurbish them into working condition and donate them to those that need it. E.g in Grade 11, we fixed a bunch of laptops, phones, DS and tablets for a project week group to donate to the kids at Blue Dragon.
In the world, we are using more and more technology, and this generates more waste that is harmful to the world. By joining tech tinkers, I have managed to take in old technology, refurbish them, and redistribute them to communities that would greatly appreciate the technology.
EE Interim Reflection
The research that I conducted was successful in providing me with the academic understanding and context of my research question. At first, it was hard to find information as I didn’t know what I wanted to mention. However, after consultation with different people and reading up on the topic, I managed to come to a consensus. When researching, I learnt many things about the process e.g there was a lot of information that I gathered and had thought it would be useful but ended up not being used in the actual essay. I also learnt about academic sources and how they contain lots of substantial data and evidence which can easily help back up theoretical claims. I had to submit my first draft of my EE twice as the first submission wasn’t very clear in terms of the direction taken. Due to this, I had to re-strategise my approach. Throughout the research process of the EE, my knowledge on this topic has deepened a lot. I have learnt more about the interconnectedness of the global manifestation of this issue and how it impacts us locally in Singapore.