The World Scholars Cup

It is not very often that you can say “hey, I went to a really wacky and fun academic competition last weekend”, right?  Well that is exactly what 33 students from FIS did in March when they entered the Hong Kong round of the World Scholars Cup (see www.scholarscup.org )
We started our learning journey in January, meeting every week to ask questions on the theme of an imperfect world.  We looked at areas such as crime & justice, disease & public health, cheating and what happens when states falter.  

We asked such questions as:  Are democracies better states than non-states?

• ​Does terrorism cause states to fail? Or: do failed states spawn terrorism? 
• Should we strive for a world without disease?  
• Why is mad cow disease both a medical and political issue? 

The largest rookie team at the round by far, FIS students proved to be quick learners.  They competed in teams of 3 and on an individual level in four areas: 
1. Debating: i.e Resolve – Hong Kong would survive a Zombie Apocolypse
2. Scholars Challenge – 150 multiple choice questions on the 5 areas of study  
3. Essay writing – write a persuasive essay 
4. Scholars Bowl – a fun team game on clickers in a multiple choice format with different points for each question (see example opposite) 
As you can see everyone did well with medals coming for everyone from the various sections of the challenges. 
Here are all the students that took part and their best results: 
Senior Section (250 students) 
Debasmita Bhattacharya   6th overall, 1st place special challenge area, 3rd place team bowl 
Charlotte Williams : 1st place challenge History, 3rd place team bowl 
David Vacek : 3rd place team bowl, 7th place team debate 
Clement Francony  10th place team debate, 5 Honor medals inc. individual writing 
Luca Lit & Charlotte Rushton  :Both 10th place team debate 
Nazir Ashraf, Bertram Lau & Zara Denham  Matthew Scholar, Hadrian Wong & Josef Guillon 
Honor Medal Team Bowl 
Chloe Cheung 
Winner of the Di Vinci award 
Sho Gierszten 
6th place Di Vinci award 
Christy Chu 
Honor medal in the Di Vinci award 

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Junior section   ( 200 students) 

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So let’s do even better in 2017 FIS!  As you can see, everyone gets one of these creatures too: 
That’s right – an ALPACA!!!! 
So look for the sign-up sheet when we get back after Christmas 2016 and join in the fun. 
Need an extra incentive?  If you qualify for the World Finals we will try to organize for teams from FIS to attend…….Bangkok this year……where will it be in June 2017?????? 
So as Jerry says……….. PWAAAAAH!  Mr. Williams  

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