Trimester 1 Extracurricular Activities
Extracurricular activities at AIS offer opportunities for students to learn the values of teamwork, individual and group responsibility, competition, diversity, and a sense of culture and community. They provide a channel for reinforcing the lessons learned in the classroom, offering students the opportunity to apply academic skills in a real-world context, and are thus considered part of a well-rounded education.
Though ECAs are limited to Grade 7-12 students with at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at the moment, a plethora of options were available in Trimester 1.
Adventurers’ League
The purpose of the Adventurers’ League is to encourage students to learn how to worldbuild and roleplay through creative writing and improvised acting by playing Dungeons and Dragons. Members learned the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons, began creating their own campaigns, Dungeon Master-ing (hosting) the campaigns they created, and developed character backstories and profiles.
“Adventure's League allowed me to take a break from the stress of school and escape into a world of endless possibilities and expand my creativity through the game of Dungeons and Dragons. It allows me to be who I want to be and interact with new players with the same interests, developing my social skills and enhancing their communication with others. This club is really enjoyable due to these reasons while also improving a few crucial skills that will be useful throughout life.”
“I joined Adventurers’ League because it helped me find people who were interested in a hobby I had for a long time; worldbuilding and roleplaying. It helped me make new friends with people who I’d have never met before through our common interests, and also helped me to develop my storytelling skills further, farther than just a simple written post, by thinking of how to let people interact with my campaign.”
Human Rights Club
The Human Rights Club (HRC) focuses on donating to charity organizations and spreading growing issues. HRC members worked with Hospital Authority and Kids4Kids by fundraising through bake sales, invited NGOs to speak, and hosted simulatory events and clothes drives. In light of the changing times of progression and drawbacks, HRC decided to continue the annual current events article, which made its first appearance in 2018 newsletters. The current event poster is an assembled news article of all the significant events that have been occurring for the past two months. The news would be distributed through 3 locations: the weekly newsletter, the high school announcements and the middle school announcements. The topics range from LGBTQ rights to Anti-Asian Hate. The articles include facts and the students’ opinions of the content. The posters create connections to global events and cultures, bringing awareness to the multicultural population of our school.
“In this club we focus on justice by being open minded to people of all races, sexualities, genders, etc. I embrace differences and stand up against injustice.”
“This club helps me to develop the AIS Core Value of love because we have whole-hearted cooperation and collaboration as a team while making posters and writing proposals. I also brought kindness and school spirit by participating in various club activities too.”
“I developed my character as a global citizen by spreading public awareness about the medical crisis in Yemen caused by the ongoing civil war through the Current Events Infomercial Distribution.”
Eco-Green Club
The purpose of the Eco-Green club is to identify and encourage improvements to the sustainability and recycling opportunities on campus through the implementation of accessible means for recycling. Encourage students to participate in eco-friendly activities and raise awareness about current events. Organize community service events in and out of campus. Some activities include: 1) each member designed recycling boxes and posters that were placed around campus for students to be able to place recyclables in, 2) students collected recyclables on campus from different classrooms and the teacher’s lounge to bring them to a local recycling center, 3) students brainstormed future service and event opportunities like drives and changing the trash collection system on campus.
Future plans for the Eco-Green Club include school-wide recycling drives, and a collaboration with a local sustainability company to implement new recycling facilities on campus.
“I feel like I’m able to contribute to making a difference on our campus. Being actively involved in taking recyclables into a center from our school made me more aware of the issues we’re facing and how small changes we make can also cause an impact. Although AIS is a small school, I was shocked at how many recyclables were produced.”
“Actually seeing my boxes being placed around the classroom and used by my classmates felt really rewarding.”
Math Club
The purpose of the math club is to encourage logical and analytical thinking among students of AIS who are interested in mathematics. Students are able to discuss, debate, solve puzzles, and practice some challenging math problems without the restrictions of being graded. By doing so, they not only embrace AIS’s core values of knowledge, but they also enhance show love as they collaborate with each other and help each other out. Members engaged in interesting puzzles like Sprouts, a renowned puzzle invented by mathematicians John Horton Conway and Michael S. Paterson from Cambridge University, learned the basics of set theory which will give us the tool to experiment with proofs such as the irrationality of the square root of 2 and finding the way to always when the Sprouts game, and prepared for the American Math Competition.
“I enjoy the passion people share about math, which I personally love a lot.”
“I would recommend this club to others because people need to see that there is more to appreciate about math than there is to fear.”
Medical Club
The purpose of the Medical Club is to educate students in different aspects of biology and chemistry through hands-on experience with mini-labs and experiments. The club provides a space to learn and discuss medical news and research and to prepare for events like the Biology Olympiad. Some activities included a strawberry DNA extraction lab, milk-bending experiment involving food dye (to learn about the interaction between lipids and polarity), and a debate about medical ethics on subjects including Physician Assisted Suicide and STEM cell research. Future plans include inviting guest speakers from the STEM field to speak at future club meetings, DNA sequencing from an online database, and pig heart dissections.
“I really enjoyed the debate as I was able to learn about and even argue for opinions that I previously have never considered. Medical ethics turned out to have a lot more different sides to it than I thought. For example, although I agree with physician assisted suicide, I came to learn about how this topic relates to the rights and responsibilities of a doctor.”
“I didn’t realize that even in simple things around us like strawberries and milk, biology and chemistry are so observable and easily interacted with.”
“It’s been fun having a small experiment to look forward to every club meeting that ties back to a topic we’re discussing in the meeting because we can actually see it in action."
Model United Nations
In MUN, students research and discuss global issues from the perspectives of different countries in conferences where they propose and debate solutions to the problems. Through participation in the club, students gain a more thorough understanding of current and historical events, as well as improve their public speaking skills and form lasting connections with like-minded people from other schools all over the world. MUN opened this year with a conference simulation concerning the 2021 IPCC report on climate change. We have also played multiple improvisation and public speaking games that never fail to be entertaining.
"MUN has really helped me grow both as a public speaker and as a student. I really enjoyed working with people I didn’t know to draft and promote solutions to real-world problems while embodying a representative of my assigned country. MUN has helped me increase my confidence while public speaking and debating and has made me grow as an effective communicator and an empowered thinker."
"Model United Nations has been a stimulating experience, to say the least. Through the meetings I’ve attended, I have been given the opportunity to research more about current global issues to attend the conferences prepared. Which, of course, ties into our school’s ESLR — global citizen. Besides such, through the help and guidance from the chairmen, I have garnered quite a lot of new information and skills that I’ve never really approached before. Hence, I believe this is an example of two core values — knowledge and love. MUN has truly been an enthralling journey so far!"
