April 18 to 22 saw the YCIS Beijing Primary School students and teachers buzzing with excitement as students celebrated all things scientific with Science Enrichment Week. The week had each class complete projects while exploring concepts related to this year’s Science Enrichment Week theme of motion, including gravity, kinetic force, and friction.

The purpose of Science Enrichment Week is to develop high-order thinking skills in our children where it relates their creativity in thinking about science. This gives students opportunities to explore their creativity and look for opportunities where they can develop their own topic-related theories and hypotheses. Under the theme of motion, Primary School students explored how things move and stop and the ruling physics based laws that govern them. This serves as a unique chance to develop their scientific learning and understanding in a more free thinking approach than a normal curriculum can offer.

Primary School sections engaged in a number of successful projects and competitions throughout the week. One highlight was most definitely the Year One balloon car derby, which pitted students against each other as they competed to see who could build the most aerodynamic car using a single balloon, a straw, and various household items. The Year Four, Five, and Six students stunned spectators with their intricate and elaborate Rube Goldberg Machines. A Rube Goldberg Machine is an invention that has been deliberately over-engineered to perform a simple task; in this case, the goal was to send a small metallic ball along a long path without human interference.

With primary students throughout the campus excited about learning and engaging with the laws of motion, Primary School students excited and engaged by interactive science lessons displays not just the effectiveness of Science Enrichment Week but also how deeply YCIS Beijing values the school motto of “Aligning with Science and Technology;” such activities exemplify how the school emphasises action over simple observation. The classrooms this past week were living examples of the embodiment of working in a proactive way with the curriculum. Science Enrichment Week and all Enrichment Weeks drive home the fact that everything we do at the school has a grounding in our school motto and directly benefits our learners.