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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.
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