STEAM Festival Trip in Pattaya

It will be a fantastic week for students attending the STEAM Festival in Pattaya!  

Day 1 (03/11): 

After an early start and a long day of travel from Hanoi to Thailand, we have reached our beautiful beach-side hotel. 
The six students that were chosen to attend the annual STEAM festival met Miss Göppert at Noi Bai international airport at 8am and we spent our time going through the airport, playing games of 'exploding kittens' and eating snacks. When we landed in Bangkok airport we met some of the other participating schools including BIS HCMC and BVIS, Hanoi. We were greeted by members from Regents international school who showed us the way to our private buses.

After almost 2 hours, we finally arrived in Pattaya and were so delighted to see our comfortable hotel rooms and the beautiful view of the sea stretching out beyond us. 
We took part in our first challenge in the late afternoon which involved breaking codes to open a chest. The students managed to open it, thanks to their perseverance and amazing collaboration skills. They won tokens for this challenge which they can use later this week as currency to trade in tools and use equipment. This definitely peaked our curiosity and excitement for what lies ahead tomorrow. 
We ate dinner beside the beach - our first proper taste of Thai food and we loved it! Everyone is exhausted after their first day and is busy preparing their presentations for tomorrow. It has been a great start to what is sure to be a fantastic week!

Day 2 (04/11): 

We have had a fantastic start to our STEAM challenge today! We had an early start with a  buffet breakfast in the hotel, and then got buses to go to Regents International school at 8:30am. We all met in 'The Globe Theatre' where we listened to a keynote speaker, Pritika Maharaj, from Ford cars. She explained the design and development process in creating the Ford Raptor Ranger and showed how all the STEAM elements play an important role in this process. Nhat Ha won a prize at the end of the talk for asking an interesting question, while Aymen demonstrated an exciting collaborative challenge on the stage in front of everyone. The students were split up into teams and attended a range of different exciting workshops including: using a Raspberry pi, robotics, presenting designs using AR and VR,  creating 3D structures, Batik workshops and many more.
After a delicious lunch, the theme of this year's STEAM challenge was revealed: Extreme Environments. 
The rest of the day was spent presenting individual ideas, selecting an extreme environment, designing prototypes and building them. 
Evening entertainment included traditional Thai dancing and each school created a Loy Krathong; a floating flower display with a lit candle. We called ours, 'Fred the flower' and in my humble, unbiased opinion, I feel that ours was the best.
Everyone is feeling tired after a busy and exciting day, but are looking forward to finishing and presenting the prototypes tomorrow!

Day 3 (05/11): 

Today students stayed in the same groups and finished making their prototypes. This involved a lot of resilience as the students tested their designs to make sure they worked. It wasn't always easy but they persevered. We then had an expo where the final designs were showcased to all participants on the trip as well as the whole of year 6 at regents international school. Students were rewarded with MIT points for their efforts and feedback forms on the designs were completed. The work they created was amazing and everyone was incredibly impressed. At the prize-giving event, points were added and two of our students were placed in the top 3 projects: Nhat Ha's group (year 7) came 3rd, while Aymen's group (year 8) came 1st. We were very proud of our whole BIS group for all of their efforts. After the Expo, we said our goodbyes to new friends from other schools and went back to the hotel for a swim and dinner. We will be very sad to leave Pattaya tomorrow, but I know the students will be looking forward to sharing their experiences with both friends and family.

Day 4 (06/11):

Time to go home... But not before a big buffet breakfast and a swim in the pool! See you all at school tomorrow :)