Yeah! Science Expo is over! Oh, I didn't just write that, did I? Looking back, I really think the students learned a lot about experimentation and the Scientific Method, by participating in the Science Expo. Each student had to write a formal Science lab report, create a try-fold board and be able to make a short oral presentation to a judge about their project. They did a great job and the evening and morning sessions went well. Here are pictures of the gym, some of the tri-fold boards and experiment results.
This past Monday and Tuesday was CAJ's winter break! I was able to take another trip up to Takayama. It was fairly cool temperatures, between -3ºC at night and about 10ºC during the day. I was very thankful for electric blankets and wood stoves. It is a beautiful place to be, very calm and it allowed me to relax, read a book, watch some hockey, and rejuvenate.
On the way up, we made a stop to see the Oyaji Buddhist Temple. It is a sacred place where you can find a large image of the goddess Kannon. It was founded in 810. There was a tour bus stopped when we walked into the temple area. We are not allowed to video or take pictures in the temple, but as we were standing outside you could hear the chanting inside.
Isn't it interesting how the temple is built into the rock? Many of the Buddha images were carved into the stone. There was a huge image of the goddess Kannon. Check out the following pictures.
Rock where the temple was built into.
A shrine in the crevice
One of the buddha images. Putting a bib on an image is common.
More images
Images carved into the rock
Goddess Kannon
Looking down
We also went to Matsushima. Matsushima is known for its beauty. There are a number of islands and the views are very pretty. There are shrines and temples on some of the islands, however because of the tsunami on March 11, 2011, some of the bridges were washed away.
View of one of the bridges to the island.
I did take more pictures, but there would be too many to put up on the blog, so feel free to go to www.flickr.com/photos/wlangelaar to view the other pictures.
Ok, to some degree, if you know me at all, Brain Bowl would not be some place you'd anticipate that I would be at, never mind being a coach for the Christian Academy in Japan Middle School team! Yup, that was me! Good thing I didn't need to participate in the activities, but help out by collecting papers, tallying, and just being around to help manage the students. Each school was allowed to bring up to ten students, although two out of the ten would be considered as substitutes but they were able to participate in the first and third round of activities. The actual Brain Bowl event was at the K. International School Tokyo (KIST) near downtown Tokyo. The schools that sent teams were English speaking schools. Each of the students were put into teams of four students, each student from a different school. To start off, the teams were to create a banner with their team name and make name tags. After about 30 minutes, the first round began. Each team was given and paper where they could write the answers. Questions were read to the group and they wrote down the answers. The questions varied from geography, to Japanese culture, to English, to Science, to Math. Round two was a buzzer round. Two teams went up on stage and questions were read and they buzzed for answers. Each pair of teams were given up to ten questions. Next was lunch and then was round three. This round consisted of a variety of questions such as logo identification, country identification, mazes and sudoku style activities. All in all, the day was quite fun, but I'm sure if I was a participant, my brain would be VERY tired! Here are some pictures I took throughout the day.
This week has been quite calm compared to the previous weeks. There was no major event, really, except this past Wednesday morning, the weather services were predicting a snow fall. Here, weather predictions are more often incorrect than they are correct. The issue is the temperature. The temperature tends to be right around the freezing mark, so when we have precipitation, will it be snow or will it be rain? Of course, there can be the situation where there is snow but it does not accumulate for various reasons. So, deciding whether to open on time, delay opening, or close school can be a hit and miss decision.
This Wednesday, since we already begin school an hour later regularly on Wednesdays, the call was to start at the regular time. It was a very wise decision because there are almost no accumulation on campus. Some of it may be due to the spreading of salt, but snow did not accumulate much elsewhere either.
This is the umbrella hold by one of CAJ's outside doors. It's full of umbrellas should it rain or snow.
Last Sunday afternoon, Hana and I went for a walk. We walked down some streets I have not walked with her. Look at what we found!
It's a dispensary for goodies!
It looks like there were jams and possible pickled vegetables.
One thing I have noticed the last couple of weeks is the amount of homes being built or rebuilt. The other day I walked home and took this picture of a house that is being demolished and I will assume a new house will be built in its place.
See the backhoe in there tearing down the inside?
It is common to put up a "cover" of sorts when building is going on. I have found they are either blue of green (as it is in the above picture). The other day while bicycling home, there was one street, only a block away from the house pictured above, that had three houses in a row where construction was happening. The winter sport season is beginning to wind down. The different Varsity teams will be going to the Far East Tournaments in a little over a week. This week I was able to take in a part of the JV boys basketball vs. Yokota and the Varsity boys basketball game vs. Yokota. Basketball is not as big a sport as it is where I lived in Maryland, so some of the skill level is different, but it was still entertaining to watch.
CAJ is white and Yokota is yellow.
The next couple of weeks will be quite busy. Monday, February 11 is Student Led Conferences day. Students and parents come to school and the student shares with his/her parent(s) about the things he/she has learned so far this year, as well as his/her report card, evaluations, and goals. On Wednesday, February 13 the Brain Bowl team goes to K. International School Tokyo (KIST) for the competition. I will be going with the Christian Academy in Japan's (CAJ) Brain Bowl participants. We do have winter break coming up soon, on Monday and Tuesday, February 18 and 19. I am looking forward to going back up to the Sendai region with the VanderHaak's to stay at the cabin in Takayama. On Thursday and Friday, February 21 and 22 is the CAJ's Middle School Science Expo. Students have been working on completing their experiments and their Science Lab reports. CAJ has a Science Expo every three years, so this is all the Middle Schoolers' first Science Expo. The Science Middle School department rotates projects with next year being the spaghetti bridge project and the following year is the egg drop. We pray that the next couple of weeks will go smoothly and that students will really be able to learn with these experiences.
