KID’S CORNER
HEADLINES [click on headline to view story]:

ISE raises money for the Fountain of Life in Walk-A-Thon 2004

Dulwich Nursery and Infants School, Koh Samui enjoys successful inaugural term

Asian University holds annual physics workshop

Dawn of X-Ray Astronomy

Srimaharacha Municipality School sets up Recycle Bank to aid environment

Twelve communities compete in 4th annual Sriracha games

ISE raises money for the Fountain of Life in Walk-A-Thon 2004

International School Eastern Seaboard (ISE)’s annual walk-a-thon was held in December with much success. The entire student body raised a total of 96,000 baht, most of which will be donated to the Fountain of Life Center. The walk-a-thon itself was held on a cool Wednesday morning, with the middle and high school students walking along a track on the golf course.

They were joined by the elementary school students and staff for a few laps. Some students walked or ran about 18 kilometers! After the walk, students enjoyed a pizza party at school. The hoses and water slides were also taken out for some wet fun. There was much enthusiasm that day and everyone who took part looks forward to seeing the donation from their hard work go to a good cause.

Come on everyone, let’s go!

High school students have a good time on the water slides after their long walk.

Pizza party at school.

“If you get tired, let me know, Ok?”


Dulwich Nursery and Infants School, Koh Samui enjoys successful inaugural term

David Cook
Headmaster

Following a very successful inaugural term from September to December 2004, the Dulwich Nursery and Infants School (on Samui Island) opened its doors for the new term on Wednesday, January 5, 2005. Numbers have again risen and the school is now at full capacity for its premises in Bo Phut. There are plans in place to expand the premises and so provide places for children who are currently on the waiting list.

David Cook, headmaster of Dulwich International College, visited the school with Graham Able, master of Dulwich College, London, on Tuesday, January 11. They were joined by their wives Debbie and Mary respectively. Mr Cook was pleased to announce that the success of the school in the first term had enabled him to advance the arrival on Samui of Margaret Murray, who had provisionally been appointed head of the proposed new school, to be built on the site acquired by DIC in the south of the island, last October. Mrs Murray accompanied Mr Cook and Mr Able on their visit to the school. As with Mr Able this was the first time she had visited the island.

Mrs Murray has had a distinguished career in primary education, both in England and on the international circuit. She was head of two very successful primary schools in England before moving abroad and working as a head in the Middle East and Nigeria. She has also worked before in Thailand, having been the project manager and CIS consultant in the setting up of a leading international school in Bangkok. Accompanied by her husband, Peter, she will be house-hunting in Samui before starting work at the school.

In the evening of Tuesday, January 11, Mr and Mrs Cook hosted a party for all the staff and parents of Dulwich Nursery and Infants School at the Anantara Resort, with Mr and Mrs Kim Duffy. Mrs Duffy played the leading role in establishing the school last summer and paid tribute to the work of all the teaching staff in establishing the school in such a short time. Mr Able outlined the plans for the future of Dulwich education in Samui and thanked the parents for their support of a project which was only conceived six months ago. There was also widespread recognition and praise for the role undertaken by Dulwich International College in the recent tsunami disaster in southern Thailand.


Asian University holds annual physics workshop

Asian University held its annual physics workshop at the Chonburi campus last Friday, January 14. Over eighty participants came from schools and colleges all over Thailand.

Physics can be fun.

Two well-known physics teachers gave the main presentations: Associate Professor Anuntasin Tachagumpuch spoke about “Solutions to physics questions and sample physics university entrance examination papers.”

The second presenter, Ajarn Ram Tiwari, gave a talk on “Learning science with fun and happiness in line with knowledge, applicable to daily life and science activities.”

Delegates included physics teachers and students from various schools including: Satit Piboonbumpehn School, Burapha University, Princess Chulabhorn College, Assumption College (Sriracha), Prachinkanlayanee (Prachin Buri), Prince Royal College and Montfort College (both Chiang Mai), Kaennakorn Wittayalai (Khon Kaen), Phibul Wittayalai (Lopburi), Satit Kasetsart University, International Program (Bangkok), Satit Srinakharinwirot Prasarnmit (Bangkok) and the American School of Bangkok.

Together we can figure this out…

This year the participants were able to attend the Nobel lecture given by Professor Riccardo Giacconi before attending the workshop.

Every year Asian University holds seminars and workshops led by distinguished scholars in Mathematics, Physics, English, Guidance and Counselling, etc. These give participants the opportunity to listen to new ideas and to exchange views with their peers. Time is always allocated for discussions and other hands-on group activities.


Dawn of X-Ray Astronomy

Professor Riccardo Giacconi, who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics in 2002, came to Asian University last Friday and gave an inspiring talk on the Dawn of X-Ray Astronomy.

The MC for the event was third year BA student, Miss Nattamon. She introduced Professor Giacconi and then Dr. Viphandh Roengpithya, the president of Asian University. Dr Viphandh gave a brief history of the university and welcomed Professor Giacconi and representatives of the International Peace Foundation.

Miss Nattamon, emcee for the event.

Christian Grafschafter, of the International Peace Foundation, outlined the background to the organisation’s Bridges programme to promote international dialogue and peace. Bridges has enabled twenty-eight Nobel Laureates to visit Thailand and give presentations round the Kingdom. The floor was then opened to Professor Giacconi, who enthusiastically explained to the audience some of the projects that he has worked on.

He told us that the time interval between so-called pure research finding a practical application was getting shorter and shorter, consequently it was getting harder to differentiate between pure scientific research and applied research. The evolution of mankind, and indeed all life, has relied on light and warmth from the sun, our prime source of energy. Although telescopes have been in use for hundreds of years, they only give us information about the visible part of the energy. It has really only been possible to investigate what is happening beyond the earth’s atmosphere since after the end of World War II, when we began to be able to send rockets and satellites outside the earth’s atmosphere. Since then a series of ever more complex and sophisticated satellites have been launched to collect more and more information.

Professor Riccardo Giacconi

The temperature of stars dictates the wavelength of their emissions: X-rays are emitted by the hottest stars, whereas relatively cool stars, such as our sun, emit mostly in the visible and infra red range. The universe started with a big bang or super nova explosion, and we (people, animals and everything else on the earth) are made from the elements produced from the life-cycle of stars, including the deaths of stars.

Professor Giacconi explained that he had worked for government and private industry, but preferred the later, in particular working in smaller organisations, or heading up larger ones. Working in teams he felt that it was important for everyone to feel as if they had an important part to play. He explained how the need to measure x-rays more accurately led to the development of better and more accurate equipment. Also the new equipment had to be suitable to include in a rocket sent outside the earth’s atmosphere.

Prof. Riccardo and Dr Viphandh share a few words before the lecture

Stars are rarely found alone; they are generally clustered in groups or galaxies, and the galaxies themselves are also usually found in groups. Between the stars is found gas at low densities but at extremely high temperatures (over a million degrees Celsius). In totality, this gas has a very large mass and emits x-rays. In fact the mass of this gas far exceeds the mass of the stars in the galaxies.

Professor Giacconi stressed that a lot of basic research, in contrast to popular perception, is actually done by industry. Of course industry hopes to be able to benefit from the research, but isn’t always able to do so.

Professor Giacconi also talked about the cost of the research, which seems to get ever higher. These days the only way that the necessary money can be found is for international collaborations to share the cost and the results of research. The Hubble telescope has been used to obtain visible light images for comparison with the x-ray images from other satellites. Progress has been relatively fast since the first Discovery rocket was launched around 1960.

Several members of the audience were ready with questions and Professor Giacconi answered them all with his enthusiastic, and in some cases, frank replies.

Dr Viphandh thanked Professor Giacconi and gave him a gift to remember his visit to Asian University.

The third Nobel Laureate to visit Asian University will be Douglass North, who is coming on Friday March 4 to talk on “Beliefs, Institutions and the Control of Violence”. Professor North was awarded his Nobel Prize for Economics in1993. Anyone interested in attending, or obtaining further information should contact the university at uni_info @asianust.ac.th


Srimaharacha Municipality School sets up Recycle Bank to aid environment

Suchada Tupchai

Sriracha District Mayor Chatchai Tinkrajarn recently presided over the opening of the Recycle Bank community project. The project was initiated by the Srimaharacha Municipality School to do something positive with the increasing amount of refuse being produced, which is affecting the environment and public health in Sriracha.

A teacher figures out how much money is being generated into the Recycle Bank project account.

Due to the expanding population of the community and the boom of industry, the increasing amount of garbage has polluted water resources. The project aims to find ways to solve these problems by urging cooperation from residents and the business community.

Students weigh their recycled materials to sell.

Commenting on the project, Arun Thongpan, director of the Srimaharacha Municipality School said, “In 2004, we had 45 tons of refuse per day in the Sriracha Municipality community. One individual can produce one kilogram of garbage everyday, which is a burden for garbage collectors and the environment. The increasing refuse must be brought to the attention of the community.

Deputy mayor of Sriracha Municipality, Chalao Charoensuk (right) views items students created out of recycled material.

“For these reasons the Srimaharacha Municipality School set up the Recycle Bank for the community to make the public aware of the problem and motivate them to reduce the amount of garbage they generate. We are targeting our youth as a group that can be educated to manage garbage efficiently and are counting on their ability to come up with innovative ideas which address this problem, as well as set good examples for the general public. Further benefits of the Recycle Bank will provide the school with needed funds to support education and other activities,” Arun said.

To start with, the school will collect recyclable garbage each Monday at the school, which they can sell for money. Items which can be recycled include pieces of metal, plastic bags, paper boxes, newspapers, bottle glass, glass and canisters. The prices are different for each material: 8 baht per kilogram of dark colored plastic bottles; 35 baht per kilogram of beer and soft drink cans; 1 baht per kilogram of paper or newspapers.

Participation in this project has already been extraordinary. Vast numbers of students and their parents have brought recyclable refuse to the school to sell, resulting in a visible cleanup in the community.

Vice-mayor of the Muang Sriracha Municipality, Chalao Charoensuk said, “The garbage problem is important and we need an urgent solution because it directly concerns the populace and the environment. To reduce the remaining garbage we should correctly manage garbage that can be recycled and garbage that cannot. This is done by controlling decomposing fertilizers, destroying toxic refuse safely, and recycling reusable garbage by bringing it to sell at the Recycle Bank of the Srimaharacha Municipality School, which will protect the environment and revive natural resources.”


Twelve communities compete in 4th annual Sriracha games

Suchada Tupchai

Residents from 12 communities flocked to the Sriracha Education sports hall to take part in the 4th annual Sriracha Community Games. The event focuses on creating solidarity among communities and providing an outlet for further exercise.

Chatchai Tinkrajarn, Sriracha municipal mayor opens the day’s proceedings.

Chatchai Tinkrajarn, Sriracha municipal mayor opened the day’s proceedings held in the spirit of good fun. “The municipality supports this event and I feel happy that so many people are participating in this fun event. I hope you abide with the game guidelines and show consideration and encouragement to your fellow athletes,” said Chatchai.

A total of 18 sports in 35 categories filled the day’s event, complete with a cheerleading competition and a march pass. The colorful day went off very well with everyone joining the spirit of sports and fun.

The colorful cheerleading squads back their community teams.

Fun indoor sports were the aim of the event.