GIIS Balestier Campus students won two special prizes, certificates and cash prize of S$1000 each at the Sony Creative Science Award 2012. This year the Sony Creative Award organised by the Singapore Science Centre marked its 15-year anniversary celebrations in the presence of Guest of Honour Mr Heng Swee Keat, Minister for Education. GIIS Balestier Campus received one prize for producing the most shortlisted toys in the Scizkid Award category, with 4 students from the campus being amongst 5000 participants and 4000 toy entries across 104 primary schools in Singapore. The second prize was in recognition of the efforts, commitment and support provided by the school, resulting in students getting the Second Prize in the top 3 Scizkid Award in the 3-6 category. GIIS Balestier Campus student Aditya Deshpande received an all inclusive 5-day trip to Tokyo, certificate and headphones from Sony. Three other students received merit award with cash prizes, certificates and headphones from Sony. Two teachers, Ms Shanoo Bhat and Ms Meena Patil received the Diamond award among 5 that were given out and Ms Rekha Varghese received the blue ribbon award among the 19 that were awarded.

Workshop for Toy creators

As a part of the Sony Creative Science Award 2012, twelve students of GIIS Balestier Campus, Class 4 accompanied by two teachers, Ms Meena Patil and Ms Shanoo Bhatt, attended a Technical workshop at the Science Centre in Singapore. The workshop aimed to provide useful insights and technical skills to enable students design and make innovative toys. The students made three toys based on scientific principles with guidance from instructors. The ‘Sliding Hovercraft’ was one of the toys made by students. With the instructor’ guidance and support, students also made an electric glove. Application of skills learnt at the workshop were very useful and will indeed steer the way to design innovative toys for the toy competition.