Collection for Ecobricks! Eco Schools is collecting plastic to help construct our ecobricks. Instead of throwing away your old plastic, give it to us so we can recycle it into an ecobrick. There are collection bags in primary and MS campuses. We need: · plastic bags · plastic wrappers · plastic packaging · plastic straws · other small, pliable plastics All plastic should be clean and free of food residue. Many thanks to our school Journalists who did a great job filming and taking pictures during the Science Days. We continue working on Selective Unit 10: Interview. This time Mr. Black had an interview with Heloise and Samuel interviewed our graduate, Janine. QSI DUSHANBE CELEBRATESSCIENCE DAYS 2019QSI Dushanbe students from ages 4 through secondary celebrated our Third Annual Science Days on Thursday April 18 and Friday April 19 with plenty of fun activities and friendly competitions. On Thursday morning we kicked off our activities with some of the younger classes giving short Science Showcase presentations about something interesting that they did in their Science classes this year. Then everyone went off to their respective areas to work on solving their individual Science Day Challenges. On Friday we heard the Science Showcase presentations from the older classes and then we began our competitions to see which students in each class were the most successful with their Science Day Challenges. Ms Mavzuna’s 4 year old class did a great job building a tall tower out of nearly 200 paper cups. Ms Spear’s 5 year old class worked in groups at joining recycled plastic water bottles into the tallest tower. The winners of the highest tower went to the group of Faraj and Sophia, followed by the team of Annika, Aisha, Gauri and Sunatullo and then Owen, Aiman and Rahmonjon Ms Charlene’s 6 year old class built boats out of paper and aluminum foil to hold the most coins and weights. The boats of Shahrom, Eliska and of Muhammet tied for the strongest boats which were able to hold 100 coins plus 10 small weights. They were followed by the entries from Neven and Akram and those of Amalia and Bonu and Kamila and Sonia. Ms Do’s 7 year old class used their knowledge of folding paper into shapes to build paper airplanes that could fly the farthest and most accurately. Nayan created the paper airplane that flew both most accurately and the farthest distance, while Anush was runner up in the distance throw and Zhoe was runner up in the accuracy competition. Ms Johnson’s 8 year olds built towers out of drinking straws which were either the tallest or could hold the most weight. The winner of the tallest tower was the group of Nyima, Pourya and Vihaan followed by the group of Zoe and Shaivi and Majid and Faridun. The top tower for holding the most weight was created by Greta, with Majid and Faridun and Kate and Haydin as runners up. Ms Mackenzie’s 9 year old class worked on making a toy car travel the farthest with only the power of the air in a balloon. Tamiris and Markuss entered the most successful design to earn top honors. Ms Mackenzie’s 10 year old class worked on constructing a simple boat that could sail the farthest powered only by a propeller driven by a rubber band. The top finishers in this difficult challenge were Alapan and Brady. Mr Black’s 11 year old students created packages to protect an egg from breaking when dropped from different heights. The package of Samuel and Alex was the only one egg that survived being dropped from the highest height, while runners up honors went to Bryan and Gesu, Rukmina and Dilnoza, Salih and Mazen and Bijan, followed by Shukrona and Shoyon. Ms Horton and Mr Dekker worked with the 12 and 13 year old classes to construct and refine their mousetrap car designs to make them travel the most distance on the wooden runway. The car created by Valeria and Sandro outdistanced their competition to take top honors, followed by the cars of Faridun and Sumi and Anika who finished as runners up. The secondary one students built bridges out of balsawood strips that would hold the most weight. This challenge required many design adjustments before the final testing/competition. Kevin and Zhou constructed the strongest bridge, which was able to hold an amazing 13.5 kg of weight, followed by Karolina design which held 9 kg and the entry form of Nik and Sandipan which held up until 6 kg. The secondary two students tested their engineering skills by building a small house out of thin popsicle sticks which could hold the most weight placed on top of it. The winning house was built by Kurbon which was able to hold an incredible 28.5+ kg of weight, while the runners up for this competition were Zhang and Sam, whose house supported 21 kg. The Science Days Fun ended with a water balloon toss competition involving team of both students and teachers, with top honors going to Team Dekker.
On Monday, April 8, the 6 YO class received three special visitors: Michelle G director of World Associates, which runs a deaf education project in Khujand, Akai Sattor, whose organization directs a deaf education project in Dushanbe, and Apai Zebo, who teaches sign language to deaf students and their families in their own homes in the Dushanbe area. Michelle G. works with World Associates, a humanitarian, non-profit organization that is currently sponsoring a variety of projects in Tajikistan. They work with Akai Sattor and his group in a sign language project that employs deaf tutors to teach sign language to deaf children and their families so that the children can be better prepared for life, and specifically for education. They also run projects in Khujand and Dushanbe, including Community Development, an English Club, and the Sign Language Project with Akai Sattor. This summer WA is hoping to launch a swimming project in Khujand teaching kids how to swim and about water safety. Akai Sattor is the director of The Center for Sign Language Development and Education for Deaf People of Tajikistan. They employ deaf tutors to work with deaf children and their families to teach sign language and set a foundation for further education. Akai Sattor also works throughout the deaf community to encourage development in this area. One of the places he works with is a deaf school in the Dushanbe area. In this school, sign language is the language of instruction through which students and teachers communicate and learn. Akai Sattor also teaches sign language at Slovianski University. Apai Zebo was born and raised in Dushanbe’s deaf community and currently works with students and their families in the greater Dushanbe area. She is deaf and communicates in sign language. It was fun for us to watch Apai Zebo and Akai Sattor “talk” to each other in sign language and share their expertise with us. These groups are working together to see that more children and their families have access to sign language in Tajikistan. They told us about their programs and taught us some signs. We learned that deaf people do not talk with words, but they can use their hands to communicate messages with individual signs and movements. Apai Zebo taught us the signs for: mother, father, hello, you’re welcome, helicopter, plane, trolley bus, star, play ball, thank you, name, bus, car, and talk. She also gave us individual signs for our names. We are now looking forward to meeting students who are deaf, learning new signs, and practicing the ones we learned. Our students are grateful and impressed with the work of these organizations and we decided to donate the proceeds from the Hot Chocolate and Cookie Sale we had on February 14th to support tutors who go into homes and teach sign language to deaf children and their families. Thank you, Michelle G., Akai Sattor, and Apai Zebo for helping us become a part of the great work these organizations are doing in Tajikistan.
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