After a few weeks of exams, our high school students and teachers ended the semester on a positive note with Wells Without Walls (WWW), an initiative to empower students to take more control of their learning and explore new experiences, skills, and service learning opportunities. It is a week dedicated to learning in various shapes and forms, inside and outside the school walls. Students and teachers played a large role in organizing the event and tailoring it to the needs and vision of the high school student body. WWW aims to provide students with academic, CAS/co-curricular, experiential and service learning opportunities through student and teacher-led workshops, IB Core sessions, life skills and hands-on activities, action planning, sports, and service learning. Underlying these opportunities is the empowerment of our students and teachers as change-agents and leaders as they explore and showcase their various passions, skills, and talents, through collaboration and teamwork.

Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Theme

This semester, our Wells Without Walls week focused on 5 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Students and teachers showed their support for each goal by wearing the color of the respective goal each day, and the goals were a common thread interconnected with the various workshops and trips. Morning announcements were made by students to educate the school community about the significance of the goal and suggested daily actions we can all take to work towards these goals. The 5 goals represented were:

• Goal 6: Clean water & sanitation (blue)
• Goal 1: No Poverty (red)
• Goal 13: Climate action (green)
• Goal 7: Affordable & clean energy (yellow)
• Goal 11: Sustainable cities & communities (orange)

WWW Field Trip Fun

The students and teachers engaged in various activities and workshops within the school walls, and trips outside of school in local communities.The field trips our students went on this week included a visit to the Siriraj Medical Museum, Wells Bang Na farm, Bang Khuat farm, the HDF Mercy Centre, and the CHSAThai Dog Shelter.

A visit to Wells Bang Na farm

Siriraj Medical Museum

Mercy Centre Visit

CHSAThai Dog Shelter Visit

WWW Workshops

In school, both teachers and students shared their passions and had fun engaging in learning, teamwork, and bonding. Some of the workshops held included: movie Psychology analysis, how to crochet, improv, beginner yoga, Skype with the founder of Envirofit International, climate change info sessions, riddle challenge, hip hop workshop, ESLR/Learner Profile development, soap and shampoo making for Bilay House, mindfulness practice, composting, Intro to MUN, DIY plastic workshop, self-care to succeed in school and life, touch football, Grade 12 So You Think You Can Science projects, Bollywood dance, Christmas-themed origami workshop and a presentation about the truth behind food trends.

Beginner Yoga

Improv Workshop

Discussing climate change

Hip Hop Workshop

Making kaffir lime shampoo for Bilay House

DIY Plastics Workshop

‘The truth behind food trends’ presentation

Christmas Origami Workshop

Self-care to succeed in life and school

Touch football

On Wednesday, before the Christmas show, we also held a booth fair, where student service clubs and initiatives hosted booths to showcase their various initiatives and host activities and treats for the primary and middle school students.

Green Developers at the Christmas Show Fair

K9 Club at the Christmas Show Fair

World Scholar’s Club at the Christmas Booth Fair

World Scholar’s Club at the Christmas Booth Fair

Global Social Leaders at the Christmas Booth Fair

At the end of each day, the Student Council organized a bonding activity that high school students and teachers were encouraged to participate in, such as the General Knowledge Bowl, student vs. teacher debate, student vs. teacher sports, and an alumni and current students volleyball tournament.

General Knowledge Bowl

Student vs. Teachers Debate

Teachers vs. Students Sports Game

Alumni Volleyball Tournament

WWW Appreciation

A big thank you goes out to all of the students, teachers, parents, guests and community members who worked hard and contributed to making this last week of the 2018 school year a meaningful and engaging one!

#WISDGs #WellsWithoutWalls #ACT4SDGs

The post Wells Without Walls December 2018 first appeared on ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ | American International School - Wells.

The post Wells Without Walls December 2018 appeared first on ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ | American International School - Wells.

On November 3-4, 2018, international school students from all over Thailand participated in the first ever conference hosted at ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½, On Nut Campus.

Youths for SDGs is an academic event that focuses on the and strives to be a part of this universal call to action. The event objectives included raising awareness about the SDGs, creating a network of youths passionate about making change, and promoting creativity in finding solutions towards current local issues. With those objectives in mind, the event consists of three activities: the Breakout Session, the SDG Quest, and the Case Challenge. High school Youth Leaders led the discussions and activities in the Breakout Session and SDG Quest.

The Breakout Session is an interactive discussion where participants get to explore different themes centered around the SDGs. The SDG Quest is a game where randomly-grouped participants can collaborate in exploring fun activities and booths related to the SDGs. The Case Challenge presents a current real-life local issue to the teams to find creative and feasible solutions to.

High school students from international schools were given the opportunity to network and share ideas, as well as capitalize on their creativity and problem-solving skills. A total of approximately 150 students from 14 international schools around Thailand participated in this event. Schools came from outside of Bangkok to join in the event as well.

The event started off with the opening ceremony, where the conference director and initiator of Youths for SDGs, Prima Pupornchai (Wells’ Class of 2015 alumna) gave a welcoming speech. This was followed by a speech from our guest speaker Mr. Sorawit Paiboonrattanakorn, who gave an inspiring talk about establishing Saturday School, a social enterprise where volunteers teach children life skills on Saturdays.

Then the students headed to their respective discussion rooms for the Breakout Session, lead by youth leaders. There were six themes, which covered all of the Global Goals. The themes included:

• End poverty in all its forms and create decent jobs
• End hunger, achieve food security and promote sustainable agriculture
• Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
• Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
• Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and foster innovation
• Conserve and sustainably use resources for sustainable, development and promote climate action

In the SDG Quest, students were separated into random groups, with various schools mixed together. They were instructed to earn as many points as they could by participating in the activity booths and completing tasks related to SDGs within a limited time. This fun activity made the students interact and bond with students from other schools.

In the Case Challenge, the participants regrouped with their teams of three and received the case for this year’s challenge. The theme of this year’s case, Waste Management in Thailand, was revealed. The teams had two and a half hours of case cracking time to find a solution and make a presentation. The following day was the presentation day, which consisted of 3 rounds: the preliminary round, the semifinal round, and the final round.

The judges for the semifinal and final rounds were Ms. Chutima Pratheepkongjaroen, Social Impact Manager at Local Alike, Dr. Kallaya Suntornvongsagul, Environmental Researcher and Professor at Chulalongkorn University, and Ms. Qi Xue, UN Volunteer & SDG Research and Advocacy Officer at UNDP.

The winner was team Satit Kaset IP. Their idea was to create an application called MyWaste, which tackles food and plastic waste in Thailand by providing incentive to people to lower their consumption by earning points in the app. There was a 5000 baht seed capital for the winning team to to implement a small scale version of their solution.

The closing ceremony concluded the event with a and a closing speech from the conference director, Prima Pupornchai.

Overall, the event has inspired many students to learn more about the SDGs and to create change in the society. It was a very fun, productive, and memorable weekend.

Thank you to our partners, sponsors, school advisors, students and, guests for your wonderful support for this youth initiative. This event was truly an event for youths, by youths.

Written By: Prima Pupornchai, Class of 2015 Alumna

The post Youths for SDGs first appeared on ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ | American International School - Wells.

The post Youths for SDGs appeared first on ¿Û¿Û´«Ã½ | American International School - Wells.