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Neuroscience Olympiade

Congratulations to Ishikaa, Grade 10, for securing 4th position at the Neuroscience Olympiade Competition (national level) held on Saturday, 11th May 2019 in Frankfurt. Ishikaa qualified for South Germany after being positioned in the top ten at the regional round of the competition hosted at Heidelberg University. 

The student awarded first place at the national competition will be representing Germany at the International Neuroscience Competition to be held in Seoul, South Korea this summer. The first three participants were also awarded with a 2 week academic workshop at Munich Center for Neurosciences (MCN, Brain and Mind) Ludwig Maximilian University (LMU), Munich. 

Although finishing fourth, the invitation to participate in the workshop has been extended to Ishikaa. It will be a great opportunity for her to refresh her knowledge in neuroscience and get a hands-on training with brain models, including contributing to laboratory research. The workshop will be conducted by professors and post-doctoral staff from LMU. 

We wish Ishikaa all the best, as she continues her exploration of the brain!

 

text: CHA

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Exhibition Action: The Power of Dogs

By May (Grade 5)

Hello there! My Exhibition is about therapy dogs. I like dogs and I was very surprised to learn that dogs can really help people. There are a lot of benefits of Therapy dogs.

 

This is the cooperation therapy dog team I met while I was on my field trip.

The dogs below are also part of the therapy dog team

 

 I would like to show you the “Power of dogs.”

During my field trip to see how Therapy Dogs train, I had a chance to ask some questions about Therapy Dogs.

Here are some of the things I learned:

Characteristics of a Therapy Dog: Friendly, not too active, calm, quiet, follow

commands

A day in the life of a Therapy Dog: For the most part, the day of a therapy dog is like the day of any other dog: eating, sleeping, playing, walking and cuddling. Therapy dogs do not work the whole day, only 2 to 4 hours.

How to train a Therapy Dog: The dog needs obedience training (like every other dog). And he needs to make himself familiar with several special scenarios and things, such as: wheelchairs, various mobility aids, people who do not act like „normal” people because they have no or less control over their body, mental problems that lead to strange behaviour and people who show no reaction at all like coma patients, and so on.

Hygiene of a Therapy Dog:  brushed daily, all necessary vaccinations, wipe with wet tissue for dog’s body (so they don’t bring insects)

What a Therapy Dog does and its effects on people: make people feel happy, relaxed, and it is good break for the client (a pause). Therapy dogs can heal people but not all.

Patients get to feel and stroke the dogs, feed them, and sometimes go outside and play games (such as soccer).  They will sometimes jump up into bed with patients and sleep with them.

I will be doing a presentation for Exhibition. Please come to see me in our classroom to learn more!

On the Exhibition Evening, we plan to have a real therapy dog there to demonstrate what they do.

 

 

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Human Rights Project – Student Reflection

Human Rights Still On the Agenda

At the beginning of April, we received thanks from the Intercultural Centre for our work on the Human Rights’ Exhibition last month. As we approached the Spring Break, it seemed a good time to reflect on all the work that went into this event. Zara, Grade 7, was at the presentation evening and wrote the following reflection. In it she mentions that one is never too young to begin raising awareness and learn. As PYP took to the garden as part of environment week, it was great to see this in all aspects of our school life. Here is what Zara had to say:

“I went to the Interkulturelles Zentrum in Heidelberg with some other students and a few teachers for a ceremony about the Human Rights Project. The ceremony was very interesting as I met a few important people including Ismail Tipi and the Bürgermeister for the environment. We went up to the front and Frau Kress and Ishikaa spoke about what we did for the Human Rights exhibition. We received a check of 1000 Euro and a certificate for taking part in the Human Rights exhibition. We were one of the eight schools who took part in this exhibition, and there was even a primary school who took part. I enjoyed listening to all the different way the schools portrayed this vast topic. I mostly enjoyed the presentation done by the primary school as it was interesting, and it showed no matter how young you are it is never too early to begin raising awareness and learn.

Am Donnerstag, den 14. März, war ich mit einigen anderen Schülern, zwei Lehrerinnen und Mrs. Macdonald im Interkulturellen Zentrum in Heidelberg. Wir besuchten eine Veranstaltung anlässlich der Urkundenverleihung der Aktion: Schule für Menschenrechte. Die Zeremonie war sehr interessant, da ich ein paar wichtige Leute gesehen habe, darunter den hessischen Politiker Ismail Tipi und den Bürgermeister Herrn Wolfgang Erichson. Wir gingen nach vorne und Frau Kress und Ishikaa sprachen darüber, was wir für die Menschenrechtsausstellung gemacht hatten. Für die Teilnahme an der Menschenrechtsausstellung erhielten wir einen Check von 1.000 Euro und ein Zertifikat für die Teilnahme an der Ausstellung. Wir waren eine der acht Heidelberger Schulen, die an dieser Ausstellung teilgenommen haben und darunter gab es sogar eine Grundschule, die Kurpfalsschule Heidelberg. Ich habe es sehr genossen zu hören, wie die Schulen dieses große Thema dargestellt haben. Am meisten hat mir die Präsentation der Grundschule gefallen, weil sie interessant war. Sie zeigte auch, dass es egal ist, wie jung oder wie alt man ist: Man kann immer die Aufmerksamkeit auf wichtige Themen richten um mehr zu lernen.

text: HP & Zara 

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Welcome back!

Flowers, planted by the students outside their classrooms on the playground, were a welcoming sight during break time today. We hope all students, their families and staff have enjoyed a fantastic Spring Break. There are a number of events, curricular and extra curricular, to look forward to in the last two months of school this school year.

We wish everybody a good start into this week.

A special welcome to our students in Grade 12. We wish you the best of luck with your IB exams!

text & photos AS

 

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Social Media

I regularly speak with students about social media because it is the primary way that many of us connect with each other.  With all forms of communication, there are responsibilities that help people of all ages understand the necessary boundaries. Because social media communication is not face-to-face, a person may feel emboldened to write something that they normally would not say to someone’s face. The article (see link below) speaks about the ways one can deal with those who cross that boundary. I empower all our parents to discuss these options with their children in order to foster resilience and knowledge of the options that exist for those mistreated on Instagram and other social media platforms.

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/how-to-block-and-report-cyberbullies-on-instagram?utm_source=NEW+04.26.2019+DEFAULT&utm_medium=email

Lance Fortner, H.I.S. Whole School Counsellor