High School: Tube Hacks on YouTube

Check out the Tube Hacks created by Y7-Y10 students.  It’s Year 6-9 Project Week in the High School, with the students working on one of around 20 different projects all week.

Tube Hacks

A few weeks ago, we launched the Nord Anglia MIT collaboration at St Andrews International School Bangkok with a Tube Hack event for  Years 7-10. When a student has been accepted to study at MIT they are sent a tube in the post with their acceptance letter inside. They must then 'Hack' this tube and bring it with them on their first day of term.

Hacking a tube means to change the tube into something new; ultimately glorified recycling. It can be turned into anything, serious or just for fun, to amuse or to inspire. Each group of students has created a 15 second long video to demonstrate their hack and creative genius.

Five of the best are included in this YouTube playlist, with all 79 videos available here.

Please have a look at some of their fantastic videos, and do not forget to give them some likes if you think they deserve them.

Project Week

This week is our annual Project Week, while students in Years 10 and 12 take their End of Year Exams. We are also looking forward to welcoming Year 6 to join us for Project Week for the first time, when they will continue their process of Transition to the High School, building on their Transition Day that took place two weeks ago.

The students are working on one of almost twenty different projects, all all based in some way on this year’s NAE MIT challenges: Smarter Streets, Greener Skies and Rethink/Refuel.

The projects are:

Airpocalypse: Air pollution is becoming a significant health concern globally. Students will research and design a prototype that would improve air quality and validate their findings with quantitative data obtained with the school's air quality monitoring equipment.

Animating the Environment: Students will be working in teams of five, creating an animated fairy tale based on one of the three NAE MIT challenge themes.

Arguably the Best!: By creating scenarios to debate current environmental issues, students will grow in their ability to think critically, express viewpoints rationally and reflect upon the views they hold. The group will explore, acquire and develop strategies and techniques that will equip them to become "Arguably The Best".

Better Life, Better World Through Two Wheels: The students will create their own style media to promote the Better Life, Better World Through Two Wheels campaign.

Brain Power: Students will design and create a game entitled Brain Power, that celebrates the awesome power of thinking using Adobe Photoshop and/or Illustrator, sound production/recording, Unity, Scratch ….

Bring Back the Zeppelin: The era of giant airships ended in 1937...but maybe now is the time to bring them back again. Students will find out what the past, present and future of Zeppelins is and produce a video documentary manifesto to sell the idea of a new age of Zeppelins in clean skies to a skeptical world.

Courtroom Drama: In this project students will prepare for a debate on a recent, high profile and controversial issue from the international news, developing a real life (well... nearly) courtroom drama.

Designing and Building Hovercrafts: Students will design, build and race their own hovercrafts, ready for a future when Bangkok gasoline fueled automobiles will be banished due to their polluting nastiness, noise and their sheer inability to be able to travel on water.

Different ways of transportation: Students will explore different ways of transportation (by land, sea and air) from the past to the present, creating models, posters, booklets and videos.

Escape Room: Students will create a range of Escape Room activities based on the topic of Greener Skies. As demand for air travel is expected to double or even triple by midcentury, will they be able to take off or will they be grounded?

Fossil Fuels are Dead: It’s the year 2050, and there is no fuel left in the world. How are we going to get to school?

Imagine that all the major car manufacturers have come together to show off their alternative energy powered prototypes for the mass market. What designs can students come up with to compete? Endurance and sustainability are key!

Green Car Race: Students will explore green energy and invent the latest model of solar powered car, which they will design, build and race, as well as creating a promotional video to sell their  top of the range vehicle.

Greener Skies: Our job this week will be to create a VISION for the FUTURE! What will our skies look like in 50 years? What will happen if the number of flights continues to grow at the same rate? Will the sky be full of drones or will we have our own private jet-packs? Will we even be around to see it if current pollution levels keep rising? Will there be GREENER SKIES or will it be something completely different? Let's find out…

Life or Death Decisions: How should driverless cars make life or death decisions? There have been many recent news stories about the advantages and disadvantages of driverless cars, including some recent accidents. In this project, students will be investigating ethics and decision-making using computer simulations and ideas from psychology and philosophy. Can we make the world's streets safer by Friday afternoon?

Radio Adverts: Students will use their musical, acting and computer skills to produce a radio advert encouraging the public to think about how their life affects the environment. Students will write songs, music and scripts that really get their message across and produce a radio advert ready for broadcast.

Ready, Set, Grow: Students will design a Community Garden that will be enjoyed by, and which will inspire, our community, thinking about sustainable development and how we can offset our carbon-footprint.

Science Mural: Students will design and create a mural, depicting a sustainable future, for the blank walls of the new Science Department in the Red Building.

Solving Bangkok's Transport Problem: Students will research and design solutions to Bangkok's transport issues, working together to create new modes of transport between key locations in the city, making Bangkok a better city for us all.

Utopia: Students will use their Art, Drama and Music skills to create a create a vision of the future, which will be performed as a Performance Art installation in the Atrium on Friday.

All of the projects will be run using a Project Based Learning approach, allowing students to make their own decisions and problem solve, and develop their Independent Learning, their Collaboration, their Growth Mindset and their Oracy, as included in the High School Effort Grades Criteria, as they prepare for Friday’s Exhibition of Beautiful Work. All the groups are also mixed groups of students from Years 6-9, building our Great St Andrews Community and helping Year 6 to to be ready to join the High School as Year 7 students in August.

Graduation

At the other end of their High School journey are our current Year 13 students, some of whom have been at St Andrews since 2003,  and who will graduate on Saturday afternoon - always one of the highlights of the school year.

All of Year 13 are leaving St Andrews this year, but we also know that there are students leaving in other Year Groups. We are currently processing a large number of applications from parents who would like their sons and daughters to join St Andrews at the beginning of next academic year, so need confirmation from parents that their son(s)/daughter(s) will still be a student at St Andrews next academic year.

Please can any parents who have not yet completed complete this Google Form, e-mailed by Heads of Year last week, complete it as soon as possible. I look forward to seeing Year 13 and their parents at Graduation on Saturday, and hope that everyone else has a great half-term.

Mr Roo

High School Calendar: Term 3

The full School Calendar is available on the school’s website.