Publisher’s Notes (me):  

• I am keeping the Mandarin translation included in this post in case there are any Chinese followers.  Plus, it reminds everyone that we are currently living and working in China!
• For you We Chat users this story was orignally published on We Chat.  Check out this link to see the original posting.  https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/SUX70gZfFKJYQj5VBi2NAw

枫叶高中 | 我们的创客日 Our Maker Day

上周五，深圳枫叶国际书院BC高中课程进行了本月目标学习主题之一的创客日学习。我们的主题通过创造性思维核心能力来构思创意，它是当学生遇到一个问题时，如何使用现有的简单材料构建或“制定”解决问题的方法。学生们面临的挑战是使用创造性思维来解决每个问题，而看到他们构思出很多新的创意来解决这些问题是很一间很神奇的事。

This past Friday, the BC High School program at Maple Leaf International Academy – Shenzhen had our first Maker Day as a part of our Targeted Learning theme for this month. Our theme is Generating Ideas from the Creative Thinking core competency in BC curriculum and a Maker day is simply a day when students are presented with a problem and using simple materials have to build or “make” a solution to the problem. Students were challenged with generating creative ideas to solve each problem and it was fascinating to see how many new ideas they came up with to solve these problems.

首先，在“斜塔”项目中，学生必须使用牙签和橡皮泥建造尽可能高的自立塔。要通过测评，塔必须能够在无外力支撑的情况下自行站立30秒。这项活动的获胜者是徐王燏，王亦如，皮锦润和高骏驰，他们建立了一个“单极自立”塔，显然超出了其他条目。

First, in “Leaning Tower”students had to build the tallest free-standing tower using toothpicks and plasticine. To pass the judging the tower had to stand on its’ own for 30 seconds. The winners of this activity were the group were Tiffany, Erru, Sherlock and Kyle who build a “Monopole Self Supporting” tower which clearly outdistanced the other entries.

第二项活动是“弹珠滚落”，学生必须用纸板和卡纸制作一系列斜坡，让弹珠在这些斜坡上滚动 15秒然后掉进纸杯中。获奖作品由高骏驰，慈佳殷，谢晨泽和特邀嘉宾Kiyla制作，他们的弹珠滚动时间是16秒（有2次帮助）并且中途没有从斜坡上滑落。

The second activity was the“Marble Drop”where students had to construct series of cardboard and paper ramps which would drop a marble into a paper cup in exactly 15 seconds. The winning entry was by the group featuring Kyle, Yannie, Steven and special guest Kiyla who came in at 16 seconds (with 2 helps) and without the marble dropping out of the ramp.

最后一项名为“匹诺曹”项目是由王安涵，唐建，蔡基业和郑雯文组成的团体获胜，他们的设计非常有创意，其设计出的鼻子长达510厘米！

The final activity called Pinnochio was won by a group featuring Ann, Kryon, Jack, and Jenny with a very creatively designed nose made of straws stretching 510 cm!

在所有这些活动中，我们鼓励学生使用他们自己的创意来解决问题，但同样重要的是帮助他人改进他们的想法。在团队工作中，学生（以及许多成年人）并不能时时鼓励他人更好地改进自己的想法。他们通常要么完全拒绝，要么在没有集思广益的情况下就同意。能够构建自己的想法然后帮助他人改进想法是生活中的一项重要技能，也是BC课程中创造性思维能力的重要组成部分。

In all of these activities, students were encouraged to use their own creative ideas to solve the problems, but of equal importance was helping others to make their ideas better. When working in groups, students (as well as many adults) aren’t always able to encourage others to make their ideas better. They usually either reject them completely, or agree without adding ideas to make the better. Being able to generate your own ideas and then help others make their ideas better is an important skill for life and an important part of the creative thinking competency in the BC curriculum.

同时，我们也很高兴能看到学生们在合作中一起玩乐，并能通过制作一个实体作品来展示他们的聪明才智和动手能力。

It was also great to see students having fun working together demonstrating their abilities with their hands and producing a physical product to show how smart they are.

A special thanks to Darren Spyksma from the Society of Christian Schools of BC for providing the ideas for providing these Maker Activities during his presentation to Maple Leaf administrators in April 2018.