HS Dance showcase, team member/co-leader        17th November 21 – 16th February 22

Performance – Dance Showcase, Latin-American dance                                     LO2, LO5, LO7

It is now mid -January and we are fast approaching the dance showcase performance, on the 16th of February. I am nervous for this however I am definitely looking forward to having a good time and performing alongside my team of dancers.

“For us “momentum” is the present, our way of living and seeing life, but above all the importance of always leaving a positive mark wherever we go. This is where our stimulus comes from, which is Latin American culture and history. Latin America has been rising in recognition for the last few years, and this is because of that sense of joy, that vibrant culture that makes us feel proud and happy of our Latin roots. The Latin community is being seen more than ever around the world, and especially the Latin family at UWCSEA, that is why we want to continue leaving our footprints, showing our essence here in Singapore and in our next destinations where life will take us, but overall teach people to have fun and enjoy every moment in life, because we are the only ones in charge of writing our own story.”

LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] – The whole process so far has been completely new to me, as someone who has never danced before. It is now mid-January and I have been practicing the dance along with my group rigorously, and  I am continuing to get more and more comfortable with dancing in front of others and more comfortable with my own body and how I move my body. Furthermore, I have been going to practice sessions during the winter holidays and making sure I know every move in every dance. It was difficult but asking the choreographers for clarifications helped me eliminate any doubts and removed improvisations. This allows my dancing to match everyone else and correctly portray the choreography and songs. The performance itself was so much fun, by the day of the show – I was feeling confident and knew all of the dances/dance moves. I believed that our team could execute a spectacular dance piece, and that it would link well with the other dance pieces in the show. During the show I enjoyed it and moved to the rhythm, and followed the moves from practice with a lot more energy.

LO5 [Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively] – During this time, I have been getting to know the people in our dance better, and making new friends. This allowed me to expand my social network, and let me meet new people – a lot of them are boarders and scholars who come from South America. Interacting with and watching these people dance have opened my eyes as to how nice these boarders are. Furthermore, a lot of them have been able to help me develop my dancing skills by teaching and showing me the dance moves better and correcting and letting me know if I make any errors during the dance. This also works vice versa where I made sure to let anyone know if I spot any errors they made during the dance. Moreover, working collaboratively in practice sessions improved my communication as during these sessions I made sure to ask questions if I had any doubts, as well as generally being able to communicate effectively online (during organisation of rehearsals, information, and the performance details themselves.

LO6 [Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance] – As the world currently has a limited resource problem due to scarcity, as well as increasing waste from many developed countries – this year we decided not to order uniform costumes for everyone that would only be used once before being thrown away. Instead, we decided to wear clothes that we already had at home, with a white shirt, black joggers, and a Hawaiian shirt with white shoes. This allowed us to be more environmentally friendly, and sustainable in our performance. Waste of clothes (textile waste) is a big issue of global significance as it contributes to a large portion of landfills. Upon research, on average consumers throw away 60% of textile purchases within the first year which is shocking. Another striking point is that at the current rate, there will be over 150 million tonnes of clothing in landfills, and in 2020 alone there were reported over 19 million tonnes of clothes in landfills.

Performance video linked here

A group photo of the team:

I would definitely like to try out another dance event in the future, possibly in university as this new experience has opened my eyes to the field of dance and how much fun it can be.

HS Dance showcase, team member/co-leader        17th November 21 – 16th February 22

Performance – Dance Showcase, Latin-American dance                                     LO2, LO4, LO5

In November, I took initiative to audition for a Dance showcase, called Momentum. I learnt and auditioned for a Latin-American dance piece choreographed by 2 student leaders.

“For us “momentum” is the present, our way of living and seeing life, but above all the importance of always leaving a positive mark wherever we go. This is where our stimulus comes from, which is Latin American culture and history. Latin America has been rising in recognition for the last few years, and this is because of that sense of joy, that vibrant culture that makes us feel proud and happy of our Latin roots. The Latin community is being seen more than ever around the world, and especially the Latin family at UWCSEA, that is why we want to continue leaving our footprints, showing our essence here in Singapore and in our next destinations where life will take us, but overall teach people to have fun and enjoy every moment in life, because we are the only ones in charge of writing our own story.”

LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] – This experience so far has been something completely new to me, I have never danced to a standard such as this. The main challenge for me was going down and learning the dance alongside a squad of people. Although it was a bit embarrassing for me initially, after the first 2 sessions, I let go and enjoyed dancing and moving my body. Dance is an art form, although challenging, can reveal so much about a person’s character, and dance pieces overall express messages, ideas, and convey stories. At the present moment, I am enjoying dance so much more and truly appreciate the art form, as well as dancing with other people.

LO4 [Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences]  – Commitment and perseverance have been demonstrated by continuing this novel activity for me, something slightly out of my previous comfort zone. I have been going weekly as well as during certain holiday periods for a few hours at a time for rehearsals. Although this dance is quite short, at around 5 minutes in total, the dance is very fast paced and the number of moves makes it increasingly difficult to memorise. However, the number of rehearsals have allowed me to practice and wring out any doubts I have had in the dance choreography.

Between now and the performance I must continue practicing the dance moves both with the group and myself in order to have a sufficient muscle memory of the dance moves.

LO5 [Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively] – Being able to work effectively with other people is the key to a successful (group) dance. As time has progressed, I have become more comfortable with, and got to know the rest of the dancers in my group. Furthermore, working collaboratively in practice sessions has allowed me to both develop and refine my skills as a dancer. Observing and working off of other people’s movements gives me better ideas on how to improve my own. Moreover, in experiences like this, working together reduces the pressure and workload and makes the experience overall more fun. This group of people are diverse, and fun, all coming on board with different talents. Some of them are dancers, and have danced in the past- while people like me have not. Therefore, working together helps both develop my dancing as well as improve the dance as a whole.

My next steps are to continue rehearsing and refining my dance skills, as well as stay resilient during this process. I am looking forward to the performance, however, as time dwindles, I need to make sure I am prepared for the spectacle.

A small sample from a practice session below (file size restrictions):

 

HS F1 in School activity, member                                                       18th August – 2nd October

Challenge 1- CO2 powered cars on F1 track w/ fixed rules                                    LO2, LO4

This design activity has been going very well, throughout the first 2 months, I have been able to demonstrate my creativity and physics knowledge in order to formulate the fastest car on the ~20-meter track.

The video below shows my best attempt in the first challenge, and the fastest modified car going down the track in a mere 1.350 seconds. This was done with only an axle and wheel change in order to increase cadence and reduce friction on the track and axle. I found that as the base car itself was very bulky, and putting extra material on it to increase aerodynamics would result in an increase in time due to the extra mass and friction on the ground. I did many experiments with different models to come to this consensus.

 

LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] – During the duration of this activity so far, I have undertaken critical thinking in order to come up with models and formulate how what I design can make the next step and go even faster. This activity has been a lot of modeling, trial, and development which has been both a challenge- at the same time a success. This is due to the fact that I can see the process myself, and how I’ve improved not only my knowledge- but also design and technology skills that can be applied in various areas.

LO4 [Show commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences] – I have demonstrated this learning objective through planning, and putting in effort in order to produce the best result.  I foresee many challenges in the future, with miniature details and flows either going wrong, or simply not working to boost my progress. This is both parts of the process, and part of life- developing both myself and my products in order to make them better. I aspire to continue to win these challenges through critical thinking, application, and fundamentally- resilience.

I look forward to continue expanding my learning in this activity, and working alongside different people with ideas that can spark more ideas.

 

 

HS Investment Society, team member/co-leader                       18th August – 31st October

Competition: Wharton Global High-School Investment Competition          LO2, LO3, LO5

Throughout these first few months, I and others have been developing our macroeconomics & microeconomic knowledge in order to be successful in this international competition. I have teamed up with 6 others in order to compete against teams worldwide and hopefully make it to regional and global finals. This competition is based on developing a portfolio, for a client using critical analysis of the case study and performing filter and analyses on the approved stocks themselves. This competition has 2 competition deliverables, a mid-project review in November, and a final report due in December- followed by finalists’ results & individual group feedback. We are striving to win the competition, with mentorship from 2 members of the group last year that won the entire competition.

LO2 [Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process] – So far within the competition, I have learned many new economic concepts including long-run asset returns and macroeconomic cycles. This has been very interesting and I have developed my own skills through research, discussion with professionals, and practice. This will not only help me do wel in the competition, but will help me understand concepts better in the real world, and doing economics in IB. In order to be successful in this challenge, learning is a key factor that is required to improve your portfolio creation, it is recommended as well with given sources to learn about various economic concepts. Using these resources, and my fatehr and teammates I have been able to understand macroeconomic concepts and utilise them in order to formulate a strategy for the final report.

LO3 [Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience] +                                                    LO5 [Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively]  –      This competition meant taking action, forming a team, and working together in order to produce the best possible portfolio. Our team has had weekly meetings, and we have organised, learned, and planned out our best course of action. This is a strong creativity CAS experience as this doesn’t only show commitment, but also learning and formulation through a stock portfolio. This illustrates the initiation learning object 3 as it shows that we have taken action in order to join, and plan an experience.

Collaboration has been a key factor in our overall success, where collaboration can bring in different perspectives, and collate to form the best possible results. The benefits are not only this, but a smaller workload means higher quality work from everyone- and interpersonal communication skills. Our team is much more efficient due to the level of collaboration and communication within members. Collaboration improves the way our team is working together, and solving problems that we encounter.

 

Mid-Project review attached here