Oh boy, what an interesting week. There were guts and intestines and a real heart in Acton today.
Yes, that’s an actual heart that has been plasticised. Some of the ES Eagles were really brave and were touching the organs and exploring them, some were a little apprehensive. But it looks like everyone enjoyed themselves. Special thanks to our heroes Prof Dr. Venkatesh – Associate Professor of Pathology and Dr. Thirupathirao – Lecturer of Anatomy from Perdana University for sharing about the beauty of our bodies with our Eagles.
There were more doctors in the house. Dr. Alvin Ng, a clinical psychologist and is currently an associate professor and head at the department of psychology, school of science and technology, Sunway University. He came for a hero’s sharing with the MS Eagles.
He spoke to our MS Eagles about his journey to becoming a psychologist and professor. Turns out, he initially wanted to be an ornithologist. He wanted to study birds! Life then brought him to psychology and that’s why he drew this:
Turns out that Dr. Alvin also loved drawing. Dr. Ewe then used this drawing and added the phrase above to start the next morning’s circle time. Guess what the answer to the puzzle is?
But that wasn’t all, Ms. Nur Arfah and Ms Darlina from Perdana University also came by to talk to, and help our MS Eagles to do progressive muscle relaxation and deep breathing exercises.
They also shared on how to identify and manage emotions. To do this, the MS Eagles wrote down their thoughts and feelings out on paper.
What did we learn from this exercise? It turns out that we have more happy thoughts and emotions than we do sad ones.
Then there was DNA! The ES Eagles were again at Science Bridge Academy and they were extracting DNA from their saliva. During the trip to science bridge there was a discussion on Rosalind Franklin, the guide asked:- “Does recognition from someone else help you to work harder or does it have no effect on your work-ethic?” some ES Eagles felt strongly that without recognition or a reward, they will not feel motivated. On the other hand, some others thought that even without recognition, one still has to work hard because it is to grow oneself. Question – how can parents and school nurture intrinsic motivation?
At Science Bridge, the ES Eagles had lots of fun gargling, spitting, adding in different liquids, seeing spider web like structure (DNA) form, and finally pipetting it into a little test tube to bring home. They said:
“This is so fun!!!”
“I musn’t drop this anywhere else or someone else will have my DNA.”
“I want to do this at home!”
“Is this the DNA that makes us different from each other?”
Then there was teeth. The ES Eagles were learning how to identify people by their teeth! They took samples from each other in order to uncover the secret biter!
Lots of examples of proactiveness this week. A couple of Eagles spent their core skills time working on the studio contract. They were challenging themselves! Then some Eagles took it for themselves to check on their friend’s core skills progress to make sure everyone was on track.
It wasn’t all peaches and rainbows though. There was a conflict between some ES Eagles and we had to have a conflict resolution session to understand from all parties what really happened. They discussed how they felt, what can be done and left the session feeling not upset with each other anymore. They concluded with how to prevent such problems again in the future.
Another highlight! One of our MS Eagle is participating in the 2018 Ice Hockey U20 Challenge Cup of Asia tournament that has been happening all of this week.
The Eagles, both the ES and MS are excited about next week’s exhibition, they can’t wait to show you what they’ve learned. See you next week!