Last week, learners completed robotic prototypes for their proposed automation solutions. They then designed and carried out an experiment so that they could use their findings to improve their prototypes. The final output for this was a lab report detailing their experiment. 

 

 

Family Vacations

• Family vacations are great and help learners strengthen their family connections and decompress from academics.
• We are noticing that often some of these vacations are during school time.
• From a holistic perspective, we would like to advise against planning family vacations [classified as unexcused absences according to our Family Handbook] during the school program.
• Specialty Labs such as Math, Research, and AP classes are challenging to get caught up in, especially when multiple days are missed in a row.
• Learning Labs are even more difficult to catch up in because they are 9 week projects that are designed as a sequence of phases, each one building upon the previous phase.
• When a learner misses out on significant amounts of project time, especially with short notice, their learning progression becomes disrupted and sometimes even derailed. 
• This has a negative impact on learning and, therefore, grades.

If a family vacation is unavoidable, please make contact with your learner’s Advisor as soon as possible so that we can help the learner design a strategy to minimize the impact of the loss of class time.

Learning Lab: Rise of the Robots (with Matt & Michael)

• Last week, learners completed robotic prototypes for their proposed automation solutions. They then designed and carried out an experiment so that they could use their findings to improve their prototypes. The final output for this was a lab report detailing their experiment.

• This week, learners are doing research into the economic impacts of automation. Their final output will be an essay analyzing an article on a subject relevant to their projects.

Learning Lab: House Your Home (with Yi Lin & Joseph)

• Learners visited SHMA, a community of landscape architects, technicians, horticulturists, media makers, and researchers who design local and global range of architecture. 

• To contribute to the learners’ current developments of their housing advocacy project, they heard from design directors and a landscape architect to further extend their existing ideas. 

Learning Lab: Future Fashion (with Chrissy & Joe)

• Our learners have been delving deep into the current pulse of societal change, exploring themes ranging from freedom of speech to social media awareness and the importance of maintaining childhood innocence.
• Each learner has meticulously identified the core elements of their chosen cause and translated them into visually captivating designs.
• Recently, they completed their final design sketches, a significant milestone in their creative journey. Additionally, they embarked on a Beyond The Walls excursion to China World to handpick fabrics for their creations.
• With the groundwork laid, the focus now shifts to bringing their designs to life while ensuring their narratives shine through. We're immensely proud of their dedication and creativity, and we can't wait to see the remarkable stories they'll tell through their fashion endeavors.

Research Lab (with Yi Lin)

• The G11 learners have been crafting and polishing informative speeches to address the driving question: “How do authors use figurative language or rhetoric to advance their point of view or purpose?” 
• The learners not only continued to develop their writing, but also their public speaking skills and confidence through peer reviews and practices.
• This week, they presented to the Grade 9 audience on a diverse range of topics such as the concept of time, government, and procrastination.

Vertex (with Gideon & Thomas)

• We are thrilled to announce that our G12 learners have shown remarkable progress in their projects over the last two weeks.

• They have successfully established collaborations with designers, artists, foundations, and experts in various fields.

• They have also secured venues for their external presentations, including prestigious locations such as the Bangkok Arts & Culture Centre, Goethe-Institut Thailand, Art4C Gallery, Broccoli Revolution, and a couple of international schools in Bangkok.

• May promises to be an exciting month for our senior learners, and we look forward to sharing more updates soon!

Power Hour (with Coaches Joe & Thomas)

• Learners have been actively participating in swimming and/or land training over the past few weeks to improve overall fitness on Tuesdays.
• There have been improvements in some fitness levels over this period of time and an increase in coordination which has been beneficial to see.
• Swimming will wrap up in a couple of weeks but overall fitness training on Tuesdays will continue.
• On Friday’s Power Hour sessions, there has been an exciting handball style game that was designed, with learners competing over the past several weeks.
• Learners have been enthusiastic, showing team spirit as well as displaying a lot of teamwork passing the ball around to effectively score.
  

AP Computer Science (with Michael)

• We have begun the final unit in our AP Computer Science course and will soon be applying many of the skills we have developed this year by completing hands-on lab experience.
• The lab we will work through involves learning how pictures are represented in a computer and using our programming skills to alter those pictures by doing things such as mirroring and edge detection.

UniVERSOlly Well (with Greg)

• During the first week in March, we had a visit from three Canadian schools. They presented their universities to the G9-10 learners. Hearing about the differences among public universities in Canada was useful as the learners are starting to understand where they might fit best for their post-VERSO education.

• We also had a visit from Ohio Northern University and Les Roches and Glion, two hospitality/luxury brand business schools in Europe. Parents are always welcome to join the visits, which take place from 9:00 am on the 2nd floor, UL building. 
• This week began the four-year planning updates for our students, where we looked at our course history and decided what we would take in our next year.
• After the Songkran holiday, I will start family meetings with each family to come together to plan the best route through the VERSO curriculum up to graduation.  
  
  

By Jarret Voytilla