ISB is a school that not only provides high quality education, but also holds meaningful events such as GCW and IFF. College & Attributes day is one of them. While juniors and seniors were having their college day, freshmen and sophomores were participating in the attributes day.

The activities for freshmen and sophomores were composed of a wellness session and a workshop session. In the wellness session, most students did something related to being healthy by playing sports such as cricket, soccer and swimming or had a relaxing time with books, tea, and card games. Other options were courses to learn the ways to be healthy. “Bean Bags And Brain Teasers” was the most popular activity that filled up the fastest in the wellness session. Narai Risser (10) who participated in “Bean Bags And Brain Teasers” says that he enjoyed this activity very much.

Here is one sample brain teaser that puzzled the students.

Q: What number does my finger show in the picture below?

Answer: Two

Some of you might have looked at my fist and got confused, but if you take a close look at my left hand, two fingers are sticking out. You should try this on your friends and trick them!

After the wellness session, the attributes workshops were held. Students had the option to choose two 70-minute courses, or one 140-minute course which included playing guitar, optical illusions, thai language and culture, casual cooking, etc. While the power napping had a high popularity among the 10th grade boys,  Ultimate frisbee was to fastest to be filled up among the 23 workshops. Although some people did not get to play ultimate frisbee during the workshop due to its high popularity, they were still able to play during the house activities.

According to the survey and our interview, it became clear that most students felt satisfaction through the attributes day. In fact, in the questionnaire 75% of the respondents graded 4 or 5 out of scores 1~5. The large number of comments were positive ones. In the questionnaire, students expressed the pleasure of the event by using the words ”informative” “organized” and “fun”. Abijit Jayachandran (10) says “This day was a good opportunity for me to relax and forget about about class assignments.” Like him, all the students out of 20 that I interviewed answered they were happy to be free from class.

Although most comments were positive, there were a few critical ones. One questionnaire respondent answered that the activities did not capture his attention because the event felt awkward for him. W.F (10) says that the activities were boring. He did not like running outdoors in the hot climate. Another major criticism from the participants was about the time and frequency. Many students said that they “wanted more time” for the activity or “once a year is not enough” which means that the activity was exciting for them. For activities to add next year, students suggested drawing & painting workshops, and more variety of sports such as basketball and rock climbing.

Overall, it seems that ninth and tenth grade students were enjoying the activities in the college & attributes day, and the majority of students are willing to have the similar event again. There were many suggestions made by participants to improve the college & attributes day, so the programs will be even more enjoyable next time.