Breaking Barriers
Date: December 10, 2023
By: Lean, Shu Yi
Organized by ASDAN, the World Scholars’ Cup (WSC) is an interdisciplinary academic challenge around global themes that is deeply explored in six academic fields, including Science and Technology, Social Studies, History, Art and Music, Literature and Media, and Special Area, through unique learning methods such as inquiry-based learning and competitions in academic feasts.
From the knowledge reserve, debate practice, writing improvement, and teamwork in preparation for the event to honing mentality and adaptability during the competition, it is a rapid incentive for the students to improve their abilities. The training brought by the whole event will benefit students for a lifetime.
The WSC Fuzhou Regional Round was initially planned to be held from December 9–11 at Sedbergh School. However, due to the pandemic, the competition shifted online, and the 3-day event was reduced to 1 day on (in) December 10, 2022. Despite this, it successfully brought together 152 scholars from schools in Fuzhou, Xiamen, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Hefei, and other places to compete online.
Four teams with a total of 10 primary and middle school students, under the guidance of Teacher Mitchel from Manila Xiamen International School (MXIS), participated in the Junior Division. They were:
Team 820 – Jin Rui Li, Shu Yi Lean, Junyao Lin
Team 821 – Zhe Yan, Sareh Zhou, Jia Yi Lean
Team 822 – Wesley Wei, Boting Chen
Team 823 – Mihiro Doi, Tsun Hei Chueng
In December 10, 2022, the WSC started with an online opening ceremony in the morning via the Zoom platform. Afterwards, all the scholars competed in Team Debate. Each team had three rounds of debate. After the debate title was given, there were 15 minutes to discuss and prepare for it. Each debater had 4 minutes to speak, and finally, each team had 90 seconds to give feedback on the other party’s performance.
The competition continued with Collaborative Writing after lunch. Collaborative Writing lasted for about one four and forty-five minutes. It was divided into three stages: team discussion, independent writing, and exchange review. Each participant was asked to choose one topic from six for writing, where the chosen topics should be non-duplicated with other participants on the same team.
At the next session, the Scholar’s Challenge, students will need to compete independently by answering 90 questions from six academic fields in 60 minutes. The last session was the Team Bowl wherein team members worked together, had intense discussions, and pressed the clicker to answer within 15 seconds (Answer what kind of questions?). Afterwards, the WSC Fuzhou Regional Round came to a successful end with an online farewell in the evening.
All the MXIS scholars were qualified for the next WSC Global Round and won various medals and trophies. Since they were participating in the competition for the first time, everyone had a wonderful and unforgettable time and experience at WSC. Congratulations to our Egret Scholars!
MXIS Social Media Crew 