Finalists for The Shell Singapore Bright Ideas Challenge

Video for the Bright Ideas Challenge Feat_CVSS

Our students took part in the Bright Ideas Challenge which was a national competition organized by Science Centre Singapore in partnership with Shell Singapore and supported by MOE and one of our teams made it to the finals despite the school participating in the competition for the first time!  The team did a project to build an optimized design of the Eco-cooler and make it more scalable to cater to the users’ needs. The Eco-cooler uses zero-electricity to cool down hot wind by up to 11 °C based on the Venturi effect thus eliminating the heavy reliance on air-conditioning.  Despite being the youngest finalist team, the students presented their project confidently to a panel of judges from Shell and Science Centre Singapore and done the school proud by clinching a Merit Award with $300 worth of prizes.  The team also got to present their project and poster infographic at the ‘Make The Future’ (MTF) festival held at the Changi Exhibition Centre on 8th and 9th of March 2018, to the Guest-of-Honour, Mr S Iswaran, Minister of Trade and Industry and many visitors to the festival.

Presenting project idea to judges for the Bright Ideas Challenge The prototype – optimized design of the Eco-Cooler Our award winning team at their booth at the ‘Make The Future’ Festival and presenting their project idea to the Guest of Honour, Mr S Iswaran, Minister of Trade and Industry.

L to R: RAHANA BANU BINTE UTHUMAN ALIYAR (2E4), MEGHNNA SAJEEV (2E4), SHARMAYNE QAIRIAH BINTE MUHAMAD SHAHIFUL (2E4)

The competition aims to spark young people’s curiosity in science and engineering and to inspire the next generation of scientists, engineers and innovators. Students were challenged to come up with creative ideas of how cities of the future might be powered to be vibrant, healthy and clean places to live in.  In groups of 2 to 5, students had to conceptualize a solution that tackles an energy crisis in the year 2050. Out of over 60 project proposals that were submitted in October last year, 10 were shortlisted to develop their ideas further by building them into prototypes in the finals.

Since the start of the year, our award winning team had several rounds of ideating, prototyping and testing their project idea. In the months leading up to the final judging at the ‘Make The Future’ (MTF) festival, the team visited Shell Singapore, discussed their idea with a Shell mentor and have a hands-on session at the Digital Fabrication Space at the Singapore Science Centre to learn about computer-aided designing, 3D printing and other technologies.

Discussion with Mr Daryl Lim, Shell Engineer, and Ms Izzy Tham,. STEM Educator, at Shell Singapore Singapore Learning to use computer-aided design software with Ms Low Yuan Lim, STEM Inc Educator, at the Digital Fabrication Singapore Science Center Building the prototype at our Design & Technology Testing the prototype at our Physics Laboratory

Champions in Innovation, Design and Engineering (IDE) Robotics Competition 2018

Our North Stars took part in the IDE Robotics Competition on 15 March this year and competed against many other reputable schools, including School of Science & Technology, Chung Cheng High School and Anglo Chinese School.  Despite the stiff competition and the challenging tasks, our North Stars have done the school proud and emerged Champions this year!

The IDE Robotics competition is a national technology and engineering competition organised by Nullspace and Anglican High School. The competition aims to challenge students on problem solving across domains such as electronics, programming, and mechanical design, with the emphasis on innovativeness, design element and engineering skills. The competition also seeks to cultivate students’ interest in the area of engineering and provides an excellent opportunity for them to gain first-hand experience in robotics programming and interfacing.

In the competition, participants took part in a surprise mission using the LEGO® Mindstorms platform. The mission was only announced on the morning of the competition and participants had only 4 hours to prepare for the mission. It is indeed a challenging task for the participants to think on their feet to complete the mission with limited time.  Our North Stars worked hard to train for the competition and demonstrated critical and creative thinking in building and programming their robots. They have displayed strong resilience and good sportsmanship throughout the competition. Their good behaviour, attitude and values indeed exemplify our North Star spirit. Champions: Tay Bao Quan (2E5), Koh Qi Fang (2T1), Teressa Lavanya Aryanto (2E2) Our students in action during the competition

2018 North Zone Secondary Schools Chinese Speech Competition

Two of our North Stars have done us proud in the 2018 North Zone Secondary Schools Chinese Speech Competition organised by North 5 School Cluster on 22 Mar 2018. Despite the first time our school participated in this competition and facing stiff competitions from 30 students from about 10 participating schools, Tan Hong Ming (4E4) clinched the Third position, while Darren Yeo (4E5) won a Consolation Prize!

Participants were required to deliver a speech based on the theme “Life” （生活）.  Tan Hong Ming spoke on the topic “Which dialect are you from? I am a Hokkien” （你是什么人？我是福建人）. In his speech, he shared about the customs and traditions of the Hokkiens. He even surprised the judges and audience with tunes from famous Hokkien songs.  Darren Yeo spoke on the topic “How Technology Changes our Life” （科技改变生活）.  In his speech, he expounded on how technology had benefitted our daily lives and demonstrated it by concluding his speech with a selfie with the audience!

Our North Stars trained under Ms Koh Bee Choo, our Subject Head for CL and put in great effort in this competition. They overcame their nervousness on stage and were confident and expressive in delivering their speeches, winning praises from the judges.  Well done, North Stars!