Theodore Roosevelt once said, “The more you know about the past, the more prepared you are for the future.” The knowledge of the past, to a large extent, has constituted to the present achievements. In order to deepen your understanding of the old days, “Footsteps from the past” was chosen as the main theme of the Humanities Week this year.

Last week, there was a big crowd in the school hall at lunchtime. There were S1 and S3 students showcasing their projects about the roads in Hong Kong and their dream products in relation to Industrial Revolution respectively. There were also students from different forms of the school, who acted as audience, learned from the presentations and showed appreciation towards the presenting groups. The hustle and bustle of the showcase reminded me of the genuine sense of your ownership of learning. Well done, everyone!

While the students were sharing their projects with others, you were also given chances to try the traditional Chinese snacks, such as Ding Ding Candy and Dragon's Beard Candy. I am sure you know the origins and stories of the snacks now. Stay sweet at all times! 

Speaking of stories, it is our honour to have Ms, Fran Stallings, a world renowned professional storyteller, with us in the Humanities Week. Ms. Stallings told stories and brought messages of the past to the junior form students in our Humanities lessons. Ms. Stallings' session gave a different taste of the learning of Humanities to our students. The stories told are truly fascinating and thought-provoking.

Field trips were organised for S1 and S2 students to extend their learning beyond the classroom. For S2 students, a visit to the religious premises in Hong Kong was organised. They went to different churches and learned about the religious development in Hong Kong.  For S1 students, an electric tram journey was arranged for advancing their knowledge about the development of Hong Kong Island. The smiles on their faces are the symbols of what happy learning should be!

I hope you had fruitful and rewarding learning in the Humanities Week. While we are looking forward to a brighter future, we should always look back to the past. 

Mr. Bryan To Ka Ho

The following quote from Richard DeVos, the Co-founder of AmWay, tells what I learned from this year’s experience from Humanities Week.

“The only thing that stands between a man and what he wants from life is often merely the will to try it and the faith to believe that it is possible.”

Yes, success comes after attempts, perseverance and failures. Our group never thought we could complete the 2015 item with flying colours when Ms. Fung first gave us the guidelines of the project. But, we make it in the end! By the end of Hum week, we received 35 ‘Likes’ from both teachers and students.

The topic of Form 3 students’ project was “Changes and Continuities”. We had to choose a product that was invented in the past and research on its changes and continuities over time. We were also asked to design the future version of our chosen product based on the needs of people and condition of our environment. We chose telescope and gave our future product a cool name – Skyniscope. A name combining ‘sky’, ‘universe’ and ‘telescope’. Our design aimed at bringing you the amazing views of the universe and inspire user to jump out of the box.

Our design is connected to a satellite in the universe, which brings views of the universe to the users. The proudest functions we added in are ‘photo-taking’ and ‘3D printing’. The user can choose to have a photo or a tiny 3D model of the planets they directed at.

We came across a lot of difficulties, ups and downs during the discussion, research and preparation for the project. We had arguments and disputes because of the project. However, we solved the problems together and worked as a team to make our design come true. We did not focus on only making our model a creative one, but also apply scientific knowledge from our research and considerations of the need of modern world. We redid the models for 4 times until we were all happy with the design.

Many teachers  and also our principal Ms. Tam appreciate our effort and gave us a “like”. We were very happy and truly learned a lot from this group project, including how to work with others and the influence of the past. Most of all, I learned not to fear failures. If you believe you can succeed, you will succeed after overcoming the difficulties.

Finally, I would like to thank my group members who achieved this success with me and a big thank you to all the teachers who supported us.

Yumi So (3S)