IS Secondary Science Week was a great success at SUIS Pudong! For the week of May 24th to 28th, Key Stage 3 students were engaged in a variety of fun and exciting STEM activities designed to expand their learning beyond the regular written curriculum.
Bridge Building Competition
Students developed their engineering and teamwork skills in a bridge building competition. Students worked in groups of four to five students and were given the task of building a bridge that would be able to span 40 cm using only popsicle sticks and glue. The metric used to judge the winner was the highest score which was calculated as the maximum mass that could be supported by the bridge divided by the mass of the bridge itself. The best bridges were those which were not only strong but also light.
The winning bridge was designed by Beeno Yue, Carlos Wan, David Shi, and Gary Wu in grade 6 which was able to support an incredible 16 kg with a bridge mass of 115 g for a score of 139.1.
The second-place bridge was designed by Alfredo Zhang, Claudia Zhao, Steve Yan, and Andy Chen in grade 7 which was able to support 14.1 kg with a bridge mass of 112 g for a score of 125.9.
The third-place bridge was designed by Diamond Qiu, Bella Zhou, Hozin Hu, Elaine Mi, and Tina Ji in grade 6 which was able to support 12 kg with a bridge mass of 120 g for a score of 100.
We were able to see an amazing variety of designs from all the students and were very impressed with their creativity and craftsmanship.
Museum Visit
Additionally, students went on an awe-inspiring field trip to the Shanghai Natural History Museum to support learning in both the humanities and science subject groups. Students learned about everything from the beginning of the universe until the present day, exploring and reinforcing a wide range of core topics such as variation, biodiversity, classification, conservation, geology, geography, and anthropology. Students were able to see dinosaur bones, rare and precious minerals, 3D movies, and many wonderful interactive displays.
Science Presentations
Later in the week, we were visited by SUIS Pudong Academy IG1 students who delivered presentations on various biology, chemistry, and physics topics. Melody Zhou, Valentina Zheng, and Fairy Wu gave a presentation about forces. Then, Steven Song and Allen Lu presented about plant and animal cells and the differences between them. And lastly, Aaron Zhuo and Helen Ying presented about the structure of the atom. It was clear that the Pudong Academy students put a lot of time and effort into their presentations creating a truly wonderful learning experience for our students.
The success of science week was possible because of the excellent collaboration between teachers, school leaders, and, most importantly, students. It was a tremendous pleasure seeing them have to opportunity to get more hands-on experience with science and really bring their learning to life.