Marine Science Quest. Sprint 5 Week 4

It’s an exciting week. Life does not progress in a linear way. The studio energy ebb and flow.

There’s so much that happened that it’s quite impossible to get your head around it without a schedule of events.

This is not a special week. This is another week in ActonKL, with a bit more things to write about!

Hero Sharing by Cindy

The Elementary School Eagles (ES) started the first morning of the week with a new friend. Ms. Cindy came to observe the studios for a day, and she gave the Eagles a taste of her badminton life. It’s hard work to play to the national levels while still performing brilliantly in academic work.

The challenge: making decisions across different stages of her game. She shared the dilemmas she faced. There were times she had to make a choice, whether to commit to play or manage her other responsibilities as a student. Here’s an old TheStar article to prove what she managed to do!

I started playing, and my older brother always beat me. But it made me work harder!
“If you are injured, and there’s an important competition that you really want to win… Will you play or take a break?”

Thank You, Ms. Cindy, for giving the ES Eagles an opportunity to see life from a different angle!

The Eagles get on with their work feeling inspired.

Let’s set goals and keep to it. Like Ms. Cindy did.
Working seriously.

The Lunch Dilemma

However, the cheerful Monday took a serious turn.

During the last week’s Survey, we received comments about Eagles not finishing their lunch. It was severe!

Ms. Caryn brought it up to the Eagles in an emergency townhall, and they discussed what happened, their responsibilities, and the natural consequences of not eating lunch. So, this was the agreed points of discussion:

  • What happened: we chose to play and not eat, food is not yummy, too much food.
  • Moving forward: Eagle buddies check on each other to finish their food.
  • They must get approval from studio maintenance checker. Else no free time the next day.
  • Eagle buddies check water bottles by the end of the day. It must be finished else no free time the next day.
  • If Eagles lie, they get on Strike 1 immediately.
  • If parents find Eagles lying (e.g. their food is not finished), please write to us. Also, set consequences with your own eagles. It needs to be enforced from home too.

During the next few days, the Eagles enforced these rules. They locked up the dining area so that every Eagle checked for lunch before leaving the canteen. Draconian? This is a choice made by them and held up by them, albeit started by a low weekly rating. No missed lunches.

You leave these doors only if you finished your lunch. This is a deceiving smile—the Eagles were very strict and stern on this!

And then, no Ice-Skating

If you think lunch checks are strict. It gets more serious.

On Wednesday, the Eagles did not do studio maintenance. Few Eagles stayed back to clean-up the studio. The consequence, one which is painful—no ice skating on Thursday.

The subsequent discussions led to having notebooks with a to-do list.

“This really helps me remember what I need to do.”
“So satisfying to tick the checkboxes!”

Middle School (MS): Push-up Consequence

The MS Eagles had their own hiccups on Monday morning too.

Two Eagles were third-time late. The agreement previously: all the Eagles do push-ups beside the latecomers. But how do you administer good quality push-ups? It’s so easy to cheat push-ups with the power of the Internet. Here’s some from YouTube.

No problem. Let’s do it on top of three platforms. There’s no way to cheat.

5 clean push-ups together.

The question: Will there be more late Eagles? If it doesn’t work, the Eagles will explore new solutions.

Such is a life of a learner-driven community—problems and solutions are always discussed. The Guides role is to ensure the Game is played intensely, and that the hardest thing in governance—accountability is upheld. Given last week’s election, the council had few proposals and announced them in their manifesto.

A Manifesto?

With last week’s election, the MS Eagles continued to be inspired by the change in the country since GE14.

Serious discussions.

Here’s a snippet of the MS council’s manifesto:

  • better accountability systems
  • better PE
  • cheaper EB store and more variety
  • Freedom Levels to include food upstairs
  • More organized PE, Not skip PE
  • Town Hall process refinement
  • McDonald’s, KFC, and A&W every Friday

There were questions from the voting Eagles. How to manage disagreements? Like when a member of your coalition did not get voted in, will you work with the elected council member?

You can bet that the highlight is more fun PE, which resulted in a Jump Street Thursday.

IOWA Tests

There was one different thing this week: The IOWA Test.

Each year, most Acton Academy campuses take a standardized test to gauge Eagle’s progress. There’s no preparation, and usually, it’s done a surprise. We had this surprise on Tuesday.

It was a new experience for some Eagles as they had to go through a series of test on English and Math. Their behavior also changed somewhat, by being more submissive, mirroring the No-U-Turn-Syndrome.

Exam environment. Sharp pencils. Shhh
Yes. Serious Exams, with a strict invigilators.

It was mixed feelings. Some Eagles felt it was too easy, while some find it hard with the American bias of Imperial units and other conventions.

More importantly, the Eagles discussed the purpose of the test.

“This is challenging! But it’s a good experience.”
“It is to see where we are and how to improve, not to compare.”

The test also triggered some old emotions. Some eagles who had previous schooling experience: “I must do better than you. “How many marks did I get?”

It’s our first time. So, a fresh experience. Acton Austin has shown that Eagles progress 2 to 3 grades above their age, and soon, test out high school by Launchpad. It comes with a caveat. Progress is slower in the early years of Elementary School. But when Eagles forge strong learning habits, learning happens quickly.

We will see if these results are similar in ActonKL too.

Curious Life at Acton

With the heavy IOWA test day, let’s cheer up with a few curious photos at ActonKL.

Vegan Bowl Trivia

We had the third test of Vegan bowl. This time, EAT21 added some famous vegan celebrities. Besides having a yummy and uber-healthy meal, they learned facts about people. Vegan people with a successful life 😛

Lewis Hamilton… a vegan? Really?
A culture of reading
It’s really zen here.
Jump Street Thursday
Haidan & Gaia… this is jump street… not pose street! >_<
Trivia Friday

There’s a recent resurfacing of the MH370 case. So Dr. Ewe gave this question to the Eagles.

A scaling problem or a creative problem?
You know Dr. Ewe’s cheeky smile is behind this question.

OK, let’s get back to serious stuff. This Sprint is about Marine Science.

Marine Science: Full Steam Ahead!

The Eagles dug deep into their Marine Science Quest. They completed their coral designs and entered the world of deep sea creatures. There was a sense of awe as they researched to the adaptations of these unique animals. Imagine having dinosaurs, except that they are right in our seas!

“Such big teeth!”
“I never knew these mysterious fish existed!”

The curiosity led to building deep sea models using art & craft material. A few Eagles also did light experiments with eye goggles.

Corals and fish.
Research discussions, and also imagining seeing things from a fish perspective.
Testing goggles.“Ohhh is this what the creatures see underwater??” “So cool!”
Creating deep sea monster models. Here’s the base before being wrapped in paper-maiche.

Meanwhile, the MS Eagles have completed the Blue Planet II series. The last episodes were dramatic!

MS Eagles emotionally cheering and egg-on for Sally Lightfoot crabs as they jump rock to rock escaping the jaws of eels and octopuses! Here’s a clip!
Puffins flying 3-hours round trip to feed their pufflings, only to have it snatched by faster and more agile birds, drew lots of cries of encouragement from the MS.

The next stage of their Marine Science Quest is finalizing their research topics. They debated and critiqued their research topics with an outline of questions. It’s wide-ranging and exciting!

Looks fun. It’s a lot of hard work ahead.

Sharing by Dr. Jillian and Dr. Affendi

We were blessed to have two astute UM Marine Science researchers, Dr. Jillian and Dr. Affendi in ActonKL. They shared their experiences on corals, seagrass, and sea creatures. The sea has many, many bizarre things. The Eagles paid attention and engaged enthusiastically for more than an hour. A special thanks to Dr. Jillian and Dr. Affendi for their passion and dedication to the Marine environment.

Here’s the triggerfish. They are aggressive, especially if you come to their cone-shaped territory, it’s “oh dear god”.

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Dr. Jillian shared about life in the seagrass. Here’s a huge sea cucumber. Later, she asked: Which has more fish? Seagrass or corals? The Eagles had an “aha moment” when they learned that seagrass is a home for most baby fishes while the corals are home for adult fishes.
Eagles excited with samples from the sea! Here, Dr. Affendi explained: Each coral reef is genetically identical. This entire artifact is of the same genetic make-up.
The final message to the Eagles. The oceans give life to Earth, so take care of it.

Did I say that the Eagles paid attention for more than an hour? One hour for a bunch of Elementary School Eagles is a new record. It was a clear example of commitment to excellence and promises made. Dr. Jillian and Dr. Affendi contributed too, with their passionate engagement. The best thing: the focus and intentionality sustained throughout the day. Despite no ice skating, Eagles had a great day!

“This is the best day ever at Acton!!”
“I love it when we keep our promises.”

It was what they would refer to as “an intentional day”.

So, life in ActonKL studios ebb and flow. It is colorful; it can be random. An Eagle has to stretch and twist to learn. Like this:

This game!

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