On May 6, 2013, I woke up at 5:00 to catch the airport bus. From that day I would be spending a whole week in the Maekok River Village Resort and Outdoor Education Centre in Chiang Rai, Thailand. We did a variety of fun activities during the trip. Kayaking, hiking, rock climbing, and Thai cooking were just a few of the activities I enjoyed.

During this trip I think I have demonstrated quite a few IB learner profile attributes. I think being a Risk-Taker was one of the attributes I showed during this trip. This is because there were many activities that I have never done before or only done a few times. But I was confident and was very exited for each and every activity. For example during a trip to the Thai market to shop for the Thai cooking class, we were given a paper with the Thai language, and we were supposed to ask for ingredients from people in the market. At first no one in my group spoke up, but then I took the courage the speak up and ask for something. And surprisingly she understood what I was saying! Also during the confidence course (which is a obstacle course in the resort) the instructor asked for volunteers that wanted to go first, and I stepped right in. It turned out very fun, it was just like a Wipeout source! We had to balance on chains, swing around, balance on balancing beams, and going on steel chains and monkey bars. I really liked this activity and this was one of my highlights of the week. I was also Balanced during the trip because during free time I had a good amount of time resting and a good amount of time hanging out with friends and playing sports such as volleyball, basketball, and ping-pong. Also I had a good amount of sleep, because I found that everyone in my room slept even before lights out. We could still hear people in other rooms yelling and screaming, when we were resting.

How did you show personal responsibility on this trip?

I showed personal responsibility during this trip as I did my part to keep my room clean and tidy. Whenever there was trash on the floor I either throw it into the bin, or ask someone in my room to. I always felt that not everyone in the room were doing their job of cleaning their own rooms, but I just did what we were told, to have a neat and tidy room. In the end my efforts benefitted to our room, the room was tidy, and in the end we won the prize for the cleanest room! Which was a big bag of Mentos!

What did the community service activity help you understand about people less privileged than you?

After doing the community service of playing with the children and building the canteen for the school, I couldn’t have felt more privileged before. I realized how lucky I am to be able to study in the Canadian International School. And how lucky I am to be provided with so many facilities. When I was painting the canteen I realized that it was very small and only about 10-15 people could eat there once a time. This is a big difference compared to the two canteens in our school. When I was playing with the school kids, I realized how simple their needs were and how easy it was for them to have fun.

In conclusion, I think that a lot was learned during the trip to Chiang Rai, it was a fun and truly memorable trip for everyone.

Remember many weeks ago when I explained how I had a project to create a documentary on the Wong Tai Sin Temple? Well it is out now! HERE IT IS!

7B Wong Tai Sin Temple 2013 from Chester Chan on Vimeo.

These few months, we have been conducting many experiments on the Kinetic Molecular Theory. After this we have been doing a court case where the defense side tries to prove the existence of the KMT, and the prosecution side tries to prove how to KMT is false. I contributed to this court case as I was the jury and a witness of one of the experiments we did (the M&M Dissolving Experiment). In the end the final decision from the jury was a hung jury, which means no one wins, because two of the juries (including me) chose that the KMT  is true. And two other juries chose that the KMT was false.

“A picture of the defense teams lawyer”

“Picture of the jury taking notes and observing which team is right, and making their decisions”

I did not agree with the jury’s verdict (even tough I was part of the jury). Because it ended up as a hung jury. I think that the defense should have won the case because, they had lots of valuable information, and I thought that the defense lawyers did a very good job in persuading the court in why the KMT is real. The witnesses also did vey well because each witness proved that 2 or more statements of the KMT are correct. For example they proved that the M&M’s contained very small particles, that they were in constant motion. One thing the witness also showed was how the water particles absorbed the sugar particles from the M&M, which helped the M&M dissolve. In the plateau experiment it also showed that when heat is added to a substance there is more kinetic energy. This was proven right because when they mixed the substance with a stirring rod. The particles moved faster and the substance gained kinetic energy.

My job was to be a witness for the M&M experiment and the jury for the court case. I fulfilled my responsibilities as a witness by taking videos on my phone on the experiment. After, I put the clips onto iMovie and I created a mix of our findings and shots from the experiment. As a jury I fulfilled my responsibilities by taking notes as the witnesses were speaking and making the final decision.

If I could do a different job for the court case, I would love to be the lawyer because I thought that it must have been fun, being able to argue with the other team, while trying to persuade them. I think that job is the best, if I want the teacher to know how much I know about the unit.

One thing I learned about KMY during our investigations were that there are particles in matter. I learned this when I did the iron in cereal experiment. I found it fascinating. I always hear people talking about how there is iron in food, but I thought that it was really weird because you can’t see it and I always thought that iron was poisonous.

I think I improved as a scientist after this KMT court case. This is because we got to show our knowledge of the KMT on the spot, we   needed enough knowledge to answer to the questions the lawyers ask, which helps a lot with my critical thinking.

Where would you fall on the stress and learning graph? Why?

I think that I would fall in 4 because throughout the whole unit I was very nervous and anxious. Because I always thought that I was more behind than other people in my class

What was challenging about this unit? What was easy?

I think that this unit was not easy, and it was very challenging. This is because even tough I have learned this math topic before, I am not very familiar with it. And to me there are some things I need to memorize for example doing reciprocals.

How was your effort in class and at home reflected in your assessment results?

I think my effort in class and at home was entirely different reflected on my assessment. At home and school I could answer the questions easily most of the time. But I was so nervous the day of the test I did many careless mistakes.

What activities did you like in this unit?

One activities I really enjoyed in this unit was when we got to work in moving groups and do many fun activities, for example the iPad fraction game.

Watch this space for my Hong Kong Heritage documentary about the Sik Sik Wong Tai Sin Temple. You can watch the movie in progress in my website HERE! COMING SOON!

On Thursday was our second Drop Everything And Design Day. And it was loads of fun. We found out which Hong Kong Heritage site my group was going to explore, we did some research, and also made our own websites! I really enjoyed it.

I liked how we got to learn to make our own websites, because it was something new to me and I have always wanted to make a website but never got to learn how to. I wish we got more DEAD Day time, (Maybe a DEAD Day week), because there is just so much to do. Also I wish there were more teachers that could help, because one of my group members had to wait for 20 minutes in a line just to ask a question. What if we had more time for the DEAD Day? Would we be more successful with every task?

A bad habit that I know I have is, whenever I arrive home, I always ask for a 20 minute rest first, which is alright because I have to get a snack. But while eating, I turn on the TV then find a good show to watch, then I ask for another 15 minutes, after that I go on my computer to work, but I get distracted by certain things such as checking my email, checking Facebook, and sometimes when I am researching I find other interesting links, then I click on it, then click on many other links, and that can waste me another 35 minutes. I think it is very important to change my bad habit, because it it keeps going on, it can affect me in school, my grades, and the amount of hours I get for sleeping. This bad habit can be changed if right when I get home I have to be principled and do my homework when my rest time is over, maybe I can set a timer which will ring in ten minutes. Then I have to work. While working using my computer I can also log out Facebook so that it won’t be easy to check it fast, I will have to type the username and password again and then log in. So that there will be fewer distractions. One thing that might distract me is my environment. If I work in the living room there will be a TV and people to distract me, but if I work in my room, there will be peace and quiet and I can work affectively.

• What did you like most about our Patterns unit?
• What did you like least?
• What do you think you learned really well?
• What questions do you still have?
• Why is the study of Patterns important? How has it or can it help you in life?

One thing I really liked in the patterns unit is the long sentence questions because it always had me thinking very hard, I really like it, especially when I get the right answer without help.

I don’t think there is really anything that I don’t like, except for how it is very frustrating when I am trying to figure out the answer. But I always feel good when I get the right answer.

I think I learned a lot in the patterns unit. I think I did really well in the input and output functions, because at the start it was really hard to figure out the pattern, but after a few week it started getting easier and easier.

I don’t have any questions.

The study of patterns is very important because you need to use it in real life as well. It is just like any other math topic you might have to use it any time anywhere. Maybe during a read-a-thon when your relatives give you money per each page you read you need to figure out the pattern of the money you get. And estimate what the total will be.

The dinner table worksheet that I thought helped me improve this math topic a lot.

In science class we were told to think that we have been in a year-long expedition in the heart of an unexplored area of our planet and found an unusual bird that may be a new species. So our task was to create our own bird and habitat, including the structural adaptations, and how they can help the bird thrive in its environment. Some strengths I had was, I had a realistic bird and habitat. And I had many structural and behavioral adaptations, and explained clearly how each of them help. Some weaknesses are, some words are a little too small, so people can’t really see what I wrote and have to refer to the papers. The work outside of class for this was sufficient because I spent lots of time drawing at home, and most of the time researching at school. I think that this a good way to work because at home you have all the materials you need for making your bird, but at school you might not have them all, and finding them can sometimes be a challenge. I think that I had used my time efficiently in class most of the time, but at some points I get distracted, and don’t get the work done, but overall I think I managed my  time well, but need a improvement in not getting distracted by others. If I were to start over I think I would have written larger words in the poster, and draw a little more animals, which can show the birds predators and prey.If I used the rubric to assess myself I would give myself a 5 for criterion B. because I put in many details for my bird, and showed what habitat the bird is in through a drawing, also I used scientific vocabulary while explaining my bird and its adaptations. I would give myself a 5-6 because I had 7 structural adaptations and 4 behavioral adaptations, and I explained each and everyone of them clearly through my papers. Also all of the adaptations fits the environment I have drawn.

My Bird Poster

In the last few weeks we have been working on a new unit. The Shi Huang Di unit. He was responsible for the building of the Great Wall, the unique terra-cotta warriors, and unified China. He also had a cruel and vile side of him, he was responsible for the burning of the books, and the burial of the scholars. I leaned many things from this unit, not just about Shi Huang Di. For example how to write a good essay using sentence fluency and an organizer for your notes, and using the Noodletools notecards. This helped me develop many skills, such as writing skills, and organizing skills. After this unit I can now organize my notes in many different ways, and they all work very effectively. Sentence fluency helped me lot, because I found out that it can be really boring to just read information in an essay,  it has to engage the audience, then it would be more interesting. I really enjoyed this unit, I think I did well in writing an essay and organizing my work. If it wasn’t for this unit I wouldn’t even know that there were such thing as notecards in Noodletools, also now I not that scared of the word “essay”

.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qin_Shi_Huang