Dana Melvin (elementary school teacher) writes on the the grade 5 classes’ month-long design fair which took place from April 17 to May 12. Continue reading
Tag: Design Thinking
The 39th Annual Kyogen Performance
Machi Nakamura (middle school Japanese teacher) and students reflect on the March 15 Kyogen performance. The annual kyogen performance at ASIJ celebrated its 39th show this year. Continue reading
VEX Robotics: Starstruck at ASIJ
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For those of you who don’t read binary: 30 teams of robots joined us this year for ASIJ’s biggest ever VEX Competition. Continue reading
Students Collaborate in the New Design Fabrication Labs
In 2012, faculty and staff began integrating elements of Design Thinking into their curriculum, supporting the vision of our strategic objectives. The Design Thinking methodology is an approach to problem solving that is human-centered, using empathy to understand problems and create possible solutions. Continue reading
VEX Robotics Returns with Fierce Competition
Projectiles whizzed through the air as robots took aim at this year’s VEX Robotics Tournament. Held at The ASIJ Theater on November 13-14, the event saw 24 teams from around the world battle it out. Played in alliance with another team on a square field, the object of the game was to score the maximum amount of points by firing balls into the goal, with an additional 50 points available to any robot that could finish by picking up its teammate. Competition was fierce, especially during Saturday’s elimination rounds.
Many teams returned to take part again this year. Schools represented included Tianjing International School, Thai Chinese International School (Bangkok), Chadwick International (Incheon), Kinnick High School, KAIS International School, Foshan Nanhai Yanbu Middle School and Christian Academy Japan. Imran Shaikh and Richard Hall from Tathva International School brought their students to observe the competition and also participated as judges. Lisa de Pierres and Tony Fox from AOBA and Sean Headrick from Tianjin International School also assisted with judging and refereeing. Miller J Roberts III, Vice President of the REC Foundation, which runs VEX Robotics World Championship, also stopped by the tournament to observe. Roberts is responsible for the REC Foundation’s day-to-day administrative operations.
ASIJ’s Ninjabotics teams faced stiff competition from the visiting robots and the tournament champion was an alliance of the three teams from Foshan Nanhai Yanbu Middle School. Foshan also won the Programming Skills and Robot Skills Awards based on their consistent high scoring over the two days. Team 82M from Tianjin International School won the excellence award. ASIJ’s 901A team took the Amaze Award, 901B the Build Award, 901Y the Design Award, 901M the Judges Award and 901A the Sportsmanship Award. Chadwick International School from South Korea won the Create Award and Christian Academy in Japan received the Innovate Award for their robot design.
The competition was streamed live on ASIJ TV, allowing supporters overseas to follow their team’s progress. Four students provided multi-camera coverage of all the action throughout the day under the direction of Tai Dirkse. The event is also archived, so if you want to see our robots in action, head to http://tv.asij.ac.jp/.
Thank you to all of the National Honor Society students who supported the event. They worked hard resetting the two competition fields between each match, a task made trickier this year with the need to balance balls in a pyramid. Thanks also to Karyn Watt (HS Science Teacher) and Kevin Randell (HS Science Teacher) for supporting our robotics teams and organizing the event, high school teacher David Neale for emceeing and the many other faculty and staff who helped with judging, refereeing, transportation, hospitality and event production. (Matt Wilce, Director of Communications)
