The National Science Challenge 2011 (24 May 2011)

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This year, five students from Secondary Three were selected to represent HCIS in the annual National Science Challenge organized by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) and the Science Centre Singapore.

They are, Tsang Fan Lok (3E), Wananong Lapwattanamongkol (3T), Lester Wong (3E), Gu Yining (3E) and myself.  Participating schools competed through the pre-qualifying rounds to get into the top 12 teams for the televised round. The pre-qualifying rounds consisted of a written test and the audition round.  The written test comprised 60 MCQs and was held on 15 May 2011 at the Biopolis. The test was gruelling and Lester, in his excitement, forgot his calculator. The audition round was held on 24 May 2011 at the Science Centre. A question was posed to each of the teams with props provided.  We were required to come up with a script to communicate a particular science concept. The topic of our project was the law of conservation of energy. Our team came out with the idea of using a car as a real life example and explained the concept in the form of a scenario. We also built the "Newton's Cradle" using the limited props given such as ice cream sticks, chop sticks, marbles, strings and tape.

On the day of the audition round, the moment we stepped into the filming site, bright lights shone on us and the camera followed us everywhere. The only word that could be used to describe our feeling was "nerve wrecking".  The comments given by the judges were rather good - they liked our posters because the pictures were very big and the text concise.  They also thought building a Newton's cradle was very creative and we shared with them the countless trial and errors that we had encountered.

Unfortunately our team did not make it to the final round but we are very proud to say that we had given our all in the competition and thus we are very satisfied with the outcome regardless of what it was.

To me, participating in the National Science Challenge was a great experience. It allowed me to realize the importance of teamwork while preparing for the project. Everyone had their own ideas about how and what to present to the judges.  Trying to bring as many of the ideas together was a great challenge because we had to bring our point of view across in a way that convinced the others.  It was amazing to see that all the team members who were strangers to one another before were, during the discussion, engaging one another freely with their ideas and sharings. No one held back.  Everyone was overflowing with ideas.  I really hope that our school will have a chance to enter the finals next year and most importantly, the team will have as much fun and learning as we have had this time.

By Chen I Chun (Secondary 3Excellence)