Year 9 showed great enthusiasm for using the microscopes as a way to look at things from multiple perspectives and how this relates to their Big Idea Interpretation. Learners were so excited to see what things looked like under the microscope that they were examining dirt under fingernails and even their own hair. Looking forward to seeing their enthusiasm engage with science as the year progresses.
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During this learning block Year 9 learners are participating in basketball during PE time. They have participated in activities to practice the different skills of the game but have also focused on the rules of the game and developing attacking and defending strategies. Learners have looked at how changing their speed and direction can help them to beat defenders to get open while attacking and how to run a zone and man to man defense. They have also looked at how their body movements can be interpreted by an opponent and how they can use that to their advantage through performing pump fakes and v-cuts.
In Year 9, learners are writing a script for a romance movie. We will first write it in English, and then translate and learn Spanish. Apart from working on listening, speaking, reading and writing, they also learn about ICT, such as movie and audio editing, Google tools, etc. They have already written the setting, chosen the characters and roles, decided the conflicts between them and just begun writing the first scene in the story.
Year 9 learners enjoyed a full day of activities for their Interpretation Entry Point today. They were challenged to consider how very few things are true for all people. First of all they studied some optical illusion pictures, followed by listening to a piece of music and responding - they chose drama pieces and a poem to do this. The highlight of the day was a trip to the restaurant Dine in the Dark. After a shaky start for some of the group, everyone relaxed a little and enjoyed the experience. Year 9 are now ready to begin exploring the big idea in their curriculum subjects.
In science, Year 9 have begun using the Bunsen burners which always adds some extra thrill and excitement to the day. Year 9 students have been making crystals and exploring chemical reactions, and realising that every chemical reaction is the end of one process and the beginning of another. Take a look at some of the great hands-on learning that has been going on in the science lab.
Year 9 have learned about coding since our last update. They have built upon their knowledge of coding in Python, getting to grips with different coding concepts that are used to solve different computational problems. They have been continuing to update their digital portfolios, uploading work from across all of their subjects. Finally they have been learning how to become upstanding digital citizens, covering topics such as cyber security and digital footprint management.
The Year 9s have been growing sunflowers and learning how to represent continuous data. They have been working hard to consolidate their data handling skills, and for their end of unit project they collected their own data by measuring the heights of sunflowers. The learners had to make comparisons between the heights of sunflowers grown by 9PX and 9PZ, and also the difference in height grown by each sunflower species. They were able to estimate the mean height from grouped data, represent the heights using a cumulative frequency graph and compare the sunflowers using box plots. Middle Years learners had a chance to display their science skills by designing experiments and collecting data to answer questions they were curious about. Some of the creative questions the learners come up with and explored included:
It was great to see the Middle Years Learners interacting with primary learners and demonstrating their projects in exciting ways. It was a fantastic to see how well many learners could articulate their findings to the primary learners and the learning facilitators. An exciting conclusion to the research the learners had been conducting for the past month. Year 9 Learners had an inspiring day during their Entry Point for the Big Idea Renewal - the end of the process is often the beginning of something new. We visited The Factory, Phnom Penh's new and exciting space which is an old garment factory that is being developed to accommodate Cambodian entrepreneurs, young start-up companies and a variety of artists. The learners had the opportunity to tour the site, both on foot and on the free bikes, before they were tasked with choosing a space and devising their own business proposal for a new company that would be both environmentally friendly and employ local people. The learners presented their ideas to a panel and received feedback. We were very impressed with their ideas and creativity. All in all, it was a great launch to their last unit at iCAN!
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