Integrating the indomitable spirit of innovation amongst students with holistic skills imbibed at school, GIIS Innovation Fest 2013 held on February 1, 2013, energised students across all levels. In line with GIIS East Coast Campus’ theme WINGS - Way to an Innovative and Green School, GIIS innovation Fest 2013 brought together schools from Singapore and South East Asia to celebrate creativity and innovation in teaching and learning. The event had a glorious start with the lamp lighting by the dignitaries. The Guest of Honour for the day was Mr Harnek Singh, Vice-President and Director, Business Excellence, Singapore Technologies Engineering Ltd. Dignitaries for the event included Ms Radha Yogendran, Principal Assessor, Business and Service Excellence Division, SPRING Singapore, Mr Atul Temurnikar, Co-founder and Chairman, GSF and Mr Kaustubh Bodhankar, Deputy CEO, GSF. Mr Temurnikar speaking on the occasion highlighted GIIS’ journey of Quality Excellence and pointed out that the learning from the Gold award winning Quality Circle last year on ‘Community Integration’ has been integrated in the school’s Corporate Social Responsibility policy and this has helped the campus to build positive and strong relationship with the neighbors, engage with the community, collaborate with charitable organizations and take active part in local community events. “Synchronising steps with changes happening globally, GIIS has reinforced the concept of holistic education to empower the next generation. The GIIS Nine Gems Model takes students’ creativity beyond academics and empowers them with skills for holistic development. Out of these Nine Gems, one is Academics- Project based learning and second is Creativity Development. GIIS Innovation Fest provides a learning ground for students under these two Gems,” said Mr Temurnikar. The concept of innovation was foremost in everything at the festival from various scientific models displayed to paintings by students, quizzes and Real World Challenges Convention 2013 (RWCC) to Quality Circle Presentations for those with a quench for excellence in every field. GIIS East Coast Campus was joined by Casuarina Primary School, Bedok Green Primary School, Yuvabharathi International School, Mount Litera Zee School, India and sister campuses from GIIS Queenstown and GIIS Balestier campuses in Singapore and GIIS Tokyo, Japan. The Real World Challenges Convention 2013 began with Mr Harnek Singh hoisting flag of Quality followed by a pledge. Ms Radha Yogendran addressed the gathering on ‘What Innovation means in a school environment’ and ‘What innovation means to a student’. Five competitions were held as a part of the GIIS Real World Challenges Convention 2013: the Conference followed by Transformation Turncoat, Quality Circle Presentation, Essay Writing and Art Competition. Participants for these competitions included students between the age group 3-16 years. The Essay competition was based on the topic ‘Role of Innovation in 21st Century education’ and received great response from different schools in the form of many entries. The Conference on ‘Creativity & Innovation in Education- A Global Challenge’ served as a platform for the young future citizens to discuss and find solutions for a global challenge. The Conference had participation from students of Classes 9 and 10 and three best speakers were awarded trophies. Transformation Turncoat, a debate with a twist, was an excellent opportunity for the participants to portray both sides of the same topic. The participants were given a general topic to speak both for and against the topic within a given time frame. The competition provided an interesting platform for students to speak both for and against a topic and encouraged them to understand the topic in depth. In the Quality Circle Presentation, participants showcased their views covering a wide range of issues related to Transport in school, Water scarcity as a resource, Waste management, Green Initiatives and Anti-littering. From the 14 entries received for the Real World Challenges 2013, the top 6 teams presented their QCs at the event after being judgment by assessors from the Singapore Productivity Association. The judges for various competitions in GIIS Real World Challenges 2013 included Mr Patrick Jonas, Editor of Tabla, Ms Rinkoo Bhowmik, a journalist based in Singapore, and Assessors from Singapore Productivity Association (SPA). The Quality Circle Presentation owes its success to the Quality Circles conducted regularly in all 3 campuses under the guidance and leadership of Mr B G Shenoy, Director, GCEE. The RWCC came to a conclusion with remarkable performances from the GIIS East Coast Campus rock band and team of dancers. Winners of all the competitions were awarded trophies by the GOH Mr Harnek Singh. GIIS Innovation Fest provided an opportunity to the audience to share their innovative ideas and get awarded for the best one.
The second half of the day focused on the display of scientific as well as innovative projects and competitions for seven different categories. GIIS Innovation and Green Fest commenced with a virtual inauguration by Ms Smita Wargantiwar by launching a video. As part of the fest various projects were exhibitesd in classrooms. The creative works were truly enriching and represented the students’ zeal to give shape to their ideas through 3D projects. As part of Art Beat students’ artworks from Classes 6-8 were displayed in the hall outside the auditorium. As part of the curriculum, children had to undertake artist study, explore and reproduce a painting in the style of an artist. Using the medium acrylic on canvas students had recreated artworks inspired by Paul Klee, Romero Britto, Henry Matisse, Jackson Pollock, Amrita Sher-Gill, Vincent Van Gogh, Manjit Bawa, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and many more. The highlight of the fest was an exciting aviation show by Pegasus Aviation at the school grounds. The competitions for GIIS Innovation and Green Fest were held in the auditorium, and notable guests for the event included Ms Aparna Temurnikar, Ms Smita Wargantiwar, Mr Kenneth Gomes, Director of Strategic Partnership, American Institute of Innovation and Entrepreneurship and Dr Lum Phiu Yueng, Director, ThinkingSphere among others. One of the competitions was Vid-Ed, a movie making competition on two topics given to the students. The topics were - Anti-littering Campaign and Greatest Innovation of the Decade. The competition was open to students from Classes 6-10 and there were three teams per category from each school. The entries were judged by Mr Kim Siong Wong, Robotics Connection. Virtual Dub was an innovative competition where the participants had to write their own lyrics and create an original audio composition of Indo-Western fusion. The entries for this competition were judged by Mr Javen Ling, Director Alternate Tone. A t-shirt designing competition with the theme ‘I am a Green citizen’ titled - Tee Splash had participants from Casuarina Primary School, Bedok Green Primary School and other schools. The participants were extremely thoughtful and creative in presenting their ideas visually on the T-shirts. The Innovative Green Fashion Show put a spotlight on GIIS’ aim to inspire, encourage and educate young minds with skills to understand how the natural world works, see the patterns that connect human activity to nature and act effectively. Participants included tiny tots who walked on stage in eco-friendly and innovative costumes. They drew attention to the concept of being green yet fashionable through costumes made out of recycled materials. Students with varied talent from puzzle solvers to dancers and musicians to mimicry found the perfect platform in One Minute of Fame. This competition, where participants had to showcase their talent in one minute, was flooded with entries from every category and received an overwhelming response from those in the audience also. A preliminary round was conducted to shortlist the real talents to compete in the finals and the final competition brought talented performers from all age groups on one stage. Power Zone invited young innovative minds to make an innovative game or toy. Participants were required to bring the materials and assemble them at the venue with the prize going to the most creative game or toy. The competition, judged by Mr Kenneth Gomes and Mr Lum Phiu Yueng was open to 8-16 years old participants. Participants put up tough competition to be declared the final winner. Some of the most interesting games included a soccer match between Robo and Zzatt as well as Canbug, Nuclear Fission, and many more. A logical reasoning quiz for the young minds titled So you think you can solve it? engaged students with brain boosters and puzzles. Participants for this competition had to solve logic puzzles with technical gadgets using the MIMIO Vote assessment system. Every participant was given a MIMIO handset to vote his answer with a time limitation of 1 min per answer. Results were announced after viewing student responses; at the end of the quiz for each category. The remarkable student participation and attendance from parents as well as guests at GIIS Innovation and Green Fest was a result of excellent planning and devoted support from the staff and students along with guidance from the campus leadership. With peer mentoring, student committee members helped teachers during several events and displayed outstanding leadership qualities. The festive occasion came to an end with a grand prize distribution ceremony for all the winners, leaving the young minds with enriching and inspiring experiences to gear up for more such exciting events in the next academic year. • Click here for Results of GIIS Innovation Fest 2013 Links to view images of GIIS Innovation Fest 2013 |
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