Cas

[simon-begas]

February 2018

This Easter edition of the school paper will be the last article of mine that will be published, as I will have to focus on my exams rather, than on my articles. However, because it my last time I wanted to challenge myself a little bit more, resulting in me writing two articles. One was about Cryptocurrency and how it functions, which was finished by working together with a friend. The other was talking about a more ethical issue, which was the way periods are treated in third world countries.

The article about Cryptocurrency was easy to write, as me and my friend were able to work collaboratively, meaning that one of us always had an idea of what to write. One difficulty we encountered was not to flood the reader with unnecessary information and actually keep the article concise. There was so much information and ideas that were extremely complex, which we either had to simplify or leave out. Nonetheless, having already a moderate amount of experience with writing those articles we could work out a fitting explanation of this current phenomenon.

The article about periods was more difficult. I had to make sure that I would treat such a topic respectfully and not say anything that could be offensive. But at the same time, I wanted to raise awareness of some of the issues girls, especially those living in third world countries, go through. My research showed me the staggering number of girls that are ashamed of their period ad just simply miss school, because they are simply embarrassed. It has opened my eyes about this topic. Nevertheless, I still had to produce a piece of writing that could retell those stories, but at the same time I had to not be too graphic, as smaller children might be reading this. Also, a lot of guys feel uncomfortable talking about those things, which was something I had to consider as well.

Overall writing newspaper articles allowed me personally to research the things I was interested in and share those with my fellow students. It has tagout me several things such as conducting research appropriately and it helped to improve my style of writing, which showed in my actual school work, enriching my experience as a student.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 2

LO: 4

LO: 5

LO: 6

LO: 7

[simon-begas]

January 2018

I was recently talking with my friend, which was when we discovered that I never learned how to play billiard or snooker. Therefore, my friend decided to teach me the rules and techniques to play both snooker and billiard.

For snooker it was quite difficult to keep in mind the different rules to do with colours. However, after playing a couple of games I had the hang out of it. I was also taught the different ways one can hold a pool cue. After deciding upon the most comfortable option we started playing. Surprisingly I seemed to be quite talented, as I was able to shoot accurately, which improved even more with practice. Nevertheless, I never thought that snooker took that much strategy. I learned that it was vital to think about which ball I wanted to hit, as I had to be careful to not help my opponent. Billiard was a lot easier to learn, as there were not that many rules anyway. In fact, after playing snooker I found billiard much easier. Although I lost every single time, it was a lot of fun. Personally, I prefer snooker just simply because of the amount of strategy is involved. To improve there is only one thing I can do, which is practice and I am looking forward to enhancing my skills in pool and snooker, even after IB.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 1

LO: 2

[simon-begas]

January 2018

My last CAS related drawing centres itself around superman, as also this was part of my childhood. My approach was very similar to my last drawing. However, this time I needed less inspiration, as I was well aware of what and how I wanted to draw it.  I was also able to add more details to the drawing. Personally, I think that starting drawing again was a very good idea. This is because it helped me to calm down from all of the school related stress.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

December 2017

Friends of mine decided to go on holiday during the winter break, however they did not want to take their dog. Therefore, I agreed to walk the dog every now and then, in order to take some work of their parents, as they were quite old already. It was a fun activity to do and didn’t waste a lot of time. The only thing I had to watch out for was to ensure that whilst letting the dog run free that it would not eat anything it was not supposed to and its safety. This service was quite interesting as I always enjoy he company of dogs and it allowed me to help somebody else whilst doing so.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 7

[simon-begas]

November 2017

For the CAS night me and some friends decided to talk about our group project. Therefore, we printed some pictures and information about the festival and what we have actually done.  Do this we had to spend some time together designing the board and setting everything up. However, this was easy, as we divided our workload, making the whole process much faster.

The CAS night allowed us to again raise awareness to parents and other students about the topic of injustice and what we might actually be able to do to help those people. It was also very interesting to engage in conversations about those topics with other people, as we could share our opinions.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 4

LO: 6

[simon-begas]

November 2017

I have been going to the Kindergarden for almost one year now on a regular basis (which did involve a substantial amount of planning). My friend and me have helped out with several different things, for this instance we in charge of the Christmas decoration for the children.

Whilst making the decoration we had to watch out and ensure that no equipment would me lying around, as some children might want to play with it, which could result in injuries. The decoration themselves took much longer than expected and at first it was hard to draw the right shapes. However, after a while and working collaboratively with the teachers we became quicker and managed to put everything up quite quickly.

Overall this was very interesting experience throughout my IB career, as I learned several different things. Not only did I become more patient, but I also realised what kind of responsibility teachers have and for the tremendous number of things they have to watch out for. Also, it showed me how impressionable young children can be and the importance of being a role model, to those younger than us. For me it was one of the most interesting of experiences I had throughout CAS, as I actually could see to what extent my actions impacted the school community.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO:  3

LO: 4

LO: 5

LO: 7

[simon-begas]

September 2017

To continue our group project, we decided to make a PowerPoint presentation about injustice and then present it to our fellow student. To do so we had to do more research on the topic. Our knowledge about topics, such as political injustice or refugees was enhanced significantly.

It was a scary experience to talk in front of that many people, but as we were in a group it made talking I front of an audience much easier. This presentation allowed us to share our experiences with our fellow students and were also able to raise awareness for political injustice and refugees. I was glad to see that most people listened with great interest and it showed me that people are indeed interested in those topics, although they are not always pleasant to talk about.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 4

LO: 6

[simon-begas]

August 2017

I have continued going to the gym for the last couple of months, slowly but surely increasing my overall strength. After a while I had all the basic movements down, resulting in me increasing the weights for every exercise. I only increased the weights very slowly, as I do not want risk injury. Also, it has been very difficult sometimes, to go the gym, considering the school work I have to handle at the same time.

Through this experience I realised the strengths of my own body and how they those limits can always be broken with a little push. But I also learned that this requires a good diet and that I should never try to overwork my muscles.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

July 2017

Another drawing I attempted was a sketch of Batman. I have been reading comics, since I was nine years old. This time I have done proper research, before even commencing my drawing. I have looked at several other drawings and pictures and used those as inspiration, to a proper sketch. Also, I have first done some rough sketches. This allowed me to then suggest improvements and properly plan the sketch before starting.

I can overall see the improvements I have made. Nevertheless, I do not like the amount of detail on that picture. Thus, for my next picture I will have to put ore detail into the actual sketch, which will improve its look.

Learning objectives achieved:

LO: 1

LO: 2

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

July 2017

Overall, my picture taking skills have vastly improved. I was able to meet up with one of my friends, who is working as a professional photographer. He gave me some advice to do with the angle and timing, which come into play when taking a picture.

Going though this experience and finding different locations to take pictures, was very interesting indeed. I still haven’t bought a camera, which will probably be something as soon as I earn money. The problem is that taking pictures with my phone could only produce middle-class quality pictures, as the resolution is just not as good. However, I have learned the patience to wait before capturing a moment.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 1

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

July 2017

Throughout the IB I continued playing chess with friends. I also continued teaching chess to other people. One of those people was my mother. I was surprised to that she never played it before, but after talking to her she agreed to learn chess. Being honest, it was more difficult to teach my mother than the other students, as she was more suborn than I anticipated. Also, I didn’t really have any other friend around, which would have made this service more fun. But thankfully I learned a lot of patience whilst teaching other friends, making this experience not as difficult.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 1

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

July 2017

For the group project me and some friends have decided to come together and assist the organisation Amnesty International. What we did was to go to a music festival and meet associates from Amnesty International. The overall theme was refugees and political prisoners.  There were several things we could do, such as collecting signatures for a petition to release political prisoner. But we could also help people to paint their own bags, which could then take for money.

The first difficulty was to ensure that we would have enough people from our actual group. Therefore, we had to organise a way for everybody to come. We then decided to split up the group, as some could collect signatures, whilst the others would help out with the painting. We came up with a rotor, meaning that everybody would have every experience and stop those activities from becoming boring. It was also a good idea to be divided into teams of two as you could always help each other out. I would say that personally this whole experience was very fascinating and fun, as we meet people from all over the world and attempted to raise awareness for global issues, that are affecting every single one of us.

At first it was quite difficult to approach and talk to people, as I was quite shy. However, after a while it became easier to talk to people and I actually became more confident and more persuasive. It also leads to me having several discussions with some people about political prisoners in turkey and I had to carefully think of my arguments.

Due to me becoming more interested in Art, I was very excited about the painting the bags, as my prior knowledge about art helped immensely. Nonetheless, I was not used to using brushes, which was an interesting challenge.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 2

LO: 3

LO: 5

LO: 6

[simon-begas]

April 2017

The next picture I decided to draw was a character from an anime, which I used to watch every time as a child when I came home from school.

It took me quite a while for drawing those pictures and I had some difficulty with muscles and the hair. The hair itself just took me several attempts, but after a while I could overcome this problem. Furthermore, I feel like that the muscles do not look realistic enough, which is why I should probably look up some new techniques on how to draw muscles properly. I also experimented to use colours, which I normally don’t. However, for one of the pictures the colour tone was not the one I expected, resulting in me rethinking my colour choices. So, to improve I should probably put more research into my pictures before just start drawing.

Learning Objectives achieved:

 LO: 1

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

March 2017

As I am a German that takes German literature at higher level I would say that I am relatively good at the German language. Therefore, I was approached by my friend to help her with to study a bit for her German exams.

It was a quite intriguing experience, because I had was not always able to the use the vocabulary I wanted. This was, because I had to adapt to my language to the level, as she is a non-native. It was difficult to explain certain concepts, as they had to be explained several times. At first this became frustrating, but it eventually improved, and she picked up on the concepts and rules more quickly. I myself feel like this experience allowed me to gain a more profound understanding of the German language.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 2

[simon-begas]

March 2017

I continued writing for the school newspaper and decided as last time to carry on writing about future inventions, which are said to be released within the next couple of years. I was very happy to continue my research. However, this time I had to deepen my research even more to find interesting inventions that I have not talked about prior. It also meant I had to double check those inventions and ensure that they would actually be real ideas that are being developed and not false advertisement.

Personally, I believe that my research skills have developed even further, as I was comparing several articles with each other to check their validity. It also helped me to improve my German writing techniques. To further improve I should probably have to talk about another topic, other than future inventions, inn order to not limit my vocabulary to just one topic. It would also be beneficial if I would write an article in English, to improve my English skills as well.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 1

LO: 3

LO: 4

[simon-begas]

February 2017

For Valentine’s day me and my friends decided to compete in a baking competition, which was held in the boarding house. We decided to attempt a black forest gateau cake, in the shape of a heart. We split our group up into two smaller groups who would get the ingredients and who would plan the recipe. This kind of collaboration allowed us to get all the speed up the whole process significantly.

 After that was done we started following the recipe, making sure that everybody does something. It was a quite interesting experience, as I have never baked anything before in my life. But it was not as difficult as expected, except for cracking the eggs. In fact, baking reminded me of a scientific experiment, as it is about measurements and timing, which made the rest of the procedure easy. After completing the cake, we decided to decorate the cake to make it more festive and creative. We were quite proud of our results and it even tasted quite good. However, personally baking is not something I particularly enjoyed, as it was very time consuming and it would have not been interested in it, if it would not have been for my friends.

Learning Objectives achieved

LO: 1

LO: 2

LO: 5

[simon-begas]

February 2017

My friend and I have continued going to the nursery the last couple of months and always helped out where we could. We normally organised to go down to the nursery about once very two weeks, with the days always varying, depending on the school work we had to do. Our tasked varied from teaching the children how to use a computer to learn how to draw.

I am glad that I had a friend helping me with the children, as otherwise it would have been too exhausting, and I could not have done my task properly. It also takes a lot of patience to teach those children, as I had to explain things several times and ensure that I would not lose their attention. Obviously, we also had to ensure the children’s safety making sure they would always be supervised. This kind of responsibility is quite scary if you think about. This goes not only for nursery teachers, but also for teachers in general, which resulted in me having even more respect for teachers and what they do. Furthermore, it was very exciting for me every time a child did something right, because it showed me that my methods of teaching them were actually working.

Learning Objectives achieved:

LO: 3

LO: 4

LO: 5

LO: 7