NIS Dolphin Wave - Autumn 2017

DOLPHIN WAVE President:

Stella Hadiwidjaja Editor: Sarina Yamahata Designers: Joo Hee Lee, Jiwon Park, Stella Hadiwidjaja Writers: Seong Min Kim Rafael Avelar SarinaYamahata Joo Hee Lee Jiwon Park Sterling Cabin Chris Yamashita Stella Hadiwidjaja

THE FIRST EDITION AUTUMN 2017

THE FIRST EDITION Welcome to the new Dolphin Wave!

Stella Hadiwidjaja

The Advice Box Sarina Yamahata

I want to eat your pancreas Joo Hee Lee

Hester Chris Yamashita

Sports Results Sterling Cabin

Clubs of NIS Stella Hadiwidjaja

2017 High School Play Jiwon Park

Game Theory Rafael Avelar

AI Seong Min Kim

Welcome to the new Dolphin Wave!

Thanks for reading the very first edition of Dolphin Wave's Student Magazine. For a long time, Dolphin Wave has been a club for whoever wanted to write articles about whatever topic. It was free and chill; everyone simply wrote. However, there was one major problem - we wrote, but no one read.

Hence, this year we decided to change it up a bit. Instead of posting it on our facebook page and blog, we made a full-fledged, full-color magazine for the student body. The whole Dolphin Wave team is very proud of what we've created.

I hope that this magazine brings you insight on the NIS community and a good time.

By: Sarina Yamahata

October Advice Box

Q: “I always get 1 ~ 3 on my physics even though I try :( What should I do? How should I improve my grade?”

I don’t really have advice for you, but I chose to respond to this one because I wanted to let you know that you’re not alone -- I’m dying in physics too. In fact, I think I’m known in my class to be the person who doesn’t understand physics the most. It is better to be more positive about it, though, and keep paying attention in class. I know everyone tells you to speak up when you don’t understand it, but it’s true, so you should always ask questions if you don’t understand. If you don’t understand the basics, or you don’t even know where to start, which is how I feel often, I find it to be helpful if I’m just honest and say I don’t understand anything.

When I do, my teacher or peers help me with the basics. Sometimes I understand after it’s explained to me again, and sometimes I don’t, but going over the videos on Haiku helps too, and if that doesn’t work, just owning your grade works too. I got a 3 on my last physics test, and I’m relatively proud of it because I thought I deserved worse. I studied for that test, too so don’t worry, you’re not alone. Just make sure you keep paying attention and being engaged in class, speak up when you don’t understand, try to improve on your own time and if all else fails, own your grades!

Q: “I always get sleepy at one point of the day. As I come home, I take a nap. But my average nap time is about 3 hours. Although I set up an alarm, I never wake up. What should I do?”

Okay, so this is something I struggle with on a daily basis, and I’ve tried a countless number of different methods to ensure that I wake up. I’ve actually gotten better at it, but the following are some suggestions for you. I set my alarms 5 minutes apart, which actually works for me, but in addition to those alarms, I use another alarm clock app on my phone that supposedly tracks my sleep and wakes me up at the best possible time in the time range that I set. These two methods work for me, but in the past, I’ve also tried setting up alarm clocks via phone and then having an additional actual alarm clock by my side to wake me up as well. That didn’t really work for me, so I actually tried setting my alarm clock and then placing it as far away from my bed as possible in my room so that I would have to physically get up to hit the snooze button or turn it off, which during its process, would wake me up.

It turns out I was too lazy of a person to be able to do this so it was ineffective. I’ve also tried an app on my phone in the past, where there is no snooze button so you can’t snooze it even if you wanted to, but that just resulted in me turning it off, and not waking up at all because it wouldn’t ring again. There was also an app that would not let you turn the alarm clock off unless you answered a series of easy mathematical questions like 9 + 7 for example, and then it would turn off, but that turned out to be too obnoxious for me to handle.

Sometimes, it helps me if I turn the light on as soon as I wake up to keep myself up and not fall back asleep again, but I think these things all vary on the type of person you are so these methods might not work for you. It’s all just a suggestion so you may want to try some of it, but don’t worry if none of them work for you -- your mom, dad or anyone else at home will be there to wake you up when your alarm clock starts becoming unbearable for them!

By JooHee Lee, 10

OCTOBER MOVIE REVIEW

I Want To Eat Your Pancreas Does this sound like a horror movie?

Well, you'll change your mind after watching this movie,「君の膵臓を⾷べたい」, also known as, “I Want to Eat Your Pancreas” in English.

The film is based on the novel by Yoru Sumino and an anime adaptation is under production as well.

It starts with a girl and a boy meeting by chance in a hospital, where they find out they are classmates at the same school. The girl actually has a severe disease in her pancreas and she only has few days left. Picking up her diary accidentally, the boy figures this out and asks her, “Are you really dying soon?” to which the girl replies, “Yes.” This is the beginning of their love story as they make some last memories together. The girl tells a story of how in some countries, people eat a particular part of

an animal when they have a problem in that part as it is believed to cure the disease. She proceeds to say, “I want to eat your pancreas,” to the boy and expresses her fear of death as well as her love towards him. The phrase, “I want to eat your pancreas,” serves as an expression of love between the two characters, making it the key phrase throughout the course of the movie.

This movie illustrates the love between a teenage girl and boy from an unusual perspective in an unusual situation. However, the film depicts very clearly that they cared for each other throughout the last moments they spent together. The movie was released in Japan on July 28. There are still some theaters that are showing it right now. If you feel like crying, try bringing your friends to the theater to watch this movie!

君の膵臓を⾷べたい

Teacher Spotlight

W

ith the start

of a new school year, attention to the many new teachers who have recently entered our NIS community. With that being said, I would like to put a

By Chris Yamashita, 11

students pay

HESTER

spotlight on Mr. Hester, who is starting his second year of teaching at NIS. Mr. Hester spent his youth in various states of the US, including Virginia, Texas, California, Washington, and Arizona. After graduating from UC Berkeley, he embarked on his teaching career, which led him to countries such as Argentina, India, Romania, and Indonesia. As many of you know, Mr. Hester currently teaches MYP design and previously taught mathematics and physics. Being his math student in grade 10 myself, his curriculum really significantly contributed to my mathematical knowledge to this day.

Mr. Hester giving a demonstration of robotics

“I WANT STUDENTS TO CREATE, TO MAKE THINGS” Dean Hester

One of the questions I asked Mr. Hester in the However, I felt that our activities did not really interview was “what is your passion?”. There were two change because we still followed the convention of answers to this. the class; writing documents and handing them in.

Even when Mr. Hester was our design teacher, I felt First, the less obvious answer was that he loves that the “academic” component remained the outdoor activities. This includes skiing, scuba diving, majority. For example, our grades were dependent hang gliding, rock climbing, rafting, and kayaking. on our documentation of the process, not the quality Almost what we did in the Hakuba retreat! He shared or creativity of the final product. an experience about when he visited a mountain called Pão de Açúcar in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He took the This way, design class gave some opportunity for long way and climbed the mountain, even though there creativity, yet at large it was still restricted to was a cable car. He also said, “I remember breaking academic requirements. In this sense, the NIS my collarbone kiteboarding”. It seemed like a lot of pain Robotics Team should be appreciated, as it allows and excitement to participate in these activities. students to practice their passion. The art and the music scene in NIS are going through similar The more obvious answer to the question was his LOVE situations. Students want to present their art/music, for robots! He is the founder of the NIS Robotics Team. but such demands cannot be completely met in class, While clubs often take time to get started, Mr. Hester so teachers are striving to provide such brought the team to an official tournament in the first opportunities, for instance through concerts. Mr. year that the club was founded. From the student’s Hester also defines opportunity as being the physical perspective, his commitment to the robotics scene in resources: “what a school needs are places where it NIS was evident. Before Mr. Hester came to NIS, the is appropriate for students to create, like the art previous “IT Lab” was a room full of desktops. When I room for art”. In the previous school he taught, came back from my summer break in 2016, things were International School of Bucharest, Romania, he really changing. 3D printers were brought in, Robotics donated resources like 3D printers. But he also stadiums were set up. By the end of the year, his office mentioned how expensive they are, and that an was full of robots! Have you also realized that the room innovation like that would take time. We also is now called the “Design Lab”? The room is no longer discussed how one’s effort would be passed down to just a place to use computers but is a site of creativity. the following generations as legacies. An example of this could be the physics classroom in NIS; through I asked him,“what are your goals in teaching in NIS, the efforts of teachers and the donations made by and how do you want to influence the NIS the students, the classroom allows various labs to be community?”. Mr. Hester’s reply was simple: “I want demonstrated. Similarly, Mr. Hester has been students to create, to make things”. He also added that bringing in various machinery to the design lab in “I think they spend too much writing”. NIS to support design and robotics activities.

However, Mr. Hester’s ambition does not seem to Back when I was in grade 6, the MYP equivalent of cease, and the design/robotics scene in NIS will design class was computer class. We learned about never be the same without him! how we should cope with the freedom and threat that the Internet brought. While these topics were important, NIS gradually adopted MYP. The computer class was abolished and was renamed design class.

Mr. Hester hang gliding as a member of the UC Berkeley hang gliding club(1985)

FIRST SEASON

By Sterling Cabin, 11

SPORTS RESULTS

Varsity Boys Volleyball Practice Game at Canadian Academy The NIS varsity team had a great start to the season winning every single game in this first game. To prepare for the mid-season and final tournament. The team is working hard. Let's wish the team good luck.

Tennis at Canadian Academy

Top row: Joohee(10) Kylian(7) Koki(11) (Captain) Alec(9) Bottom row: Caroline(11) Issei(11) Kenshin(11) Dominic(11)

Varsity Boys Volleyball Midseason Tournament at Fukuoka

Congratulations to the NIS Varsity Boys Volleyball team who won the first place trophy!

From the left Back row: Ryusuke(11), Ammon, Bailey(12), Sterling(11), Ray(10), Ryoma(9), Shuji(11), Samhadhi(11) Front row: Chris(12), Michael(11) (Captain)

JV Girls Volleyball At Marist VARSITY

HOW DO YOU SPELL IB? TWO LETTERS, EZ G12 MATH HL CLASS (IN A MOMENT OF DELIRIOUSNESS)

A motivational quote to get you through the day

By Stella Hadiwidjaja, 12

THE CLUBS OF NIS

The NIS community is home to a diverse and vibrant array of student-led clubs. We asked a few questions to the presidents of some of the biggest clubs that call NIS home.

Student Council What does your club do?

The High School Student Council serves to lead and represent the student body to encourage an enjoyable school life for each student. The council organizes events and activities such as spirit week, Halloween and prom. Our main purpose is to unify the community as one through inspiring, passionate and visionary leadership.

In one sentence, tell us why people should join your club.

If you are passionate about making school life enjoyable for everyone and have leadership qualities, this club will allow you to showcase those skills and make high school life fun.

When do you meet and how can one join the club?

Our meetings are 3:30- 4:30 every Friday after school. Class rep elections are at the beginning of the year for each homeroom, whereas there is an executives election in late February.

Home Builders

What does your club do?

NIS Home Builders is a club that promotes character through an understanding of different lifestyles and to make lives better. In order to do so, we have a trip every year that allows students an opportunity to help build a house for a less fortunate family in a developing country. In the course of the 8 days, the students assist in constructing something that this family is lacking.

In one sentence, tell us why people should join your club.

You should join NIS Home Builders because it allows you to see the world more open-mindedly as well as make a positive difference for someone else less fortunate than you.

Mr. Hester When do you meet and how can hang gliding, as Mr. Hester one join the club? a member of

hang gliding, as

We meet every Wednesday during Break Time (10:30the UC Berkeley member of 10:40). You can join this club is byaemailing hang gliding 18jenniferw@nagoyais.info with a sentence on why you the UC Berkeley would make a good member. club(1985)

hang gliding club(1985)

JSDA

Robotics

What does your club do?

What does your club do?

NIS JSDA helps Japan Service Dog Association to promote service dogs within and outside the school.

We also help out at their events and use our multilingualism to promote service dogs to a wider community.

The NIS Robotics Club is a relatively new club, hence support is appreciated. Recently we have developed branches which come in the form of Middle School and High School robotics. Our goal as a team is to develop the member’s knowledge on robotics. We use said knowledge on championships that take place in Asia.

In one sentence, tell us why people should join your club.

People should join NIS JSDA because we are directly teamed with a non-profit organization and the things we do actually help people outside of our small NIS community. Also, dogs!!!

When do you meet and how can one join the club?

We meet every Week 1 Wednesday during lunch, and anyone can join by simply contacting me (Shizuko, 12)!

In one sentence, tell us why people should join your club.

People should join our club if they have an interest in robotics and technology, or if they have a need for a teamwork based creative outlet.

When do you meet and how can one join the club?

Our club meets on Mondays and Thursdays. You can join by emailing me, 19taisukes@nagoyais.info, or by contacting one of the supervisors, Mr. Mr. Hester Hester or Mr. Baker.

hang gliding, as Mr. Hester a member of hang gliding, as the UCa Berkeley member of hang gliding the UC Berkeley club(1985) hang gliding

GIN

PLAN

What does your club do?

What does your club do?

Global Issues Network is a club that tries to help with global issues on a local scale. Through activities and being an example, we hope to inspire others to do the same and be aware of global issues.

PLAN NIS is a club that supports PLAN International's goals of child welfare by raising money through tutoring. Members of this club are assigned an elementary school student who they will tutor for a year. Every year, PLAN NIS donates the funds collected from tutoring to other organizations that support similar goals to those of PLAN International's.

In one sentence, tell us why people should join your club.

In one sentence, tell us why people Join GIN if you want to help make a difference and should join your club. be a part of inspiring change.

It's chill, fun, and gives plenty of opportunities for students to get to know young kids!

When do you meet and how can one join the club?

GIN Club meets during lunch in Mr. Davidson's room on Tuesday week 1 and Friday week 2

When do you meet and how can one join the club?

We meet on week 1 Tuesdays at lunchtime. Meetings start from 1PM. People who are interested in the club can join by talking/emailing me (18yokoy@nagoyais.info) or any of the other executive members.

Mr. Hester hang gliding, as Mr. Hester a member of hang gliding, as the UCa Berkeley member of hang gliding the UC Berkeley club(1985)

By. Jiwon Park, 10

2017 High School Play Interview with Ms. Rach

I

t has been one month since summer break has ended, and the new school year has started. There are new exciting upcoming school events, and one of them is, of course, the high school play, which is being organized by the new drama teacher, Ms. Rach.

On Tuesday, September 12th, the high school play audition was held in the drama room, where Ms. Rach commented that all the students had so much talent, and she enjoyed watching all of their auditions.

This year’s high school play is going to be a little different from previous years since there would be a performance of two different plays, ‘Lunch in Venice’ and ‘Fossils,’ and they would be performed at different times of the year. In addition to these two plays, they would be performing several devised drama pieces. Ms. Rach has explained that the reason why she decided to have two different plays is because, she wanted to give the opportunity to perform to as many students as possible, as well as how different plays attract different audiences, and her goal was to attract as many spectators as possible.

She however, mentioned two particular students, who were very nervous as it was their first time auditioning, who gave one of the best performances. Ms. Rach has referred to that as one of the most special moments to experience as a teacher.

At first glance, it is not at all obvious what the best path to take would be -- to confess or remain silent. By incorporating concepts from game theory, we can hopefully clear things up. Since each individual The cast for all plays has been decided and the paper with all the names for each role were up outside of the drama room last Friday on the 15th. These students would be practicing every week on Tuesday from 3:30 to 4:30 in the drama room, as well as one or two weekends before the actual show.

‘Lunch in Venice’ would be performed in November with several devised drama pieces. This play deals with a group of teenagers going on a school trip to Venice to have a look at artworks. This piece explores teenage issues, such as ideas about life, existence, politics, and love. There is, however, a clever twist in the end so make sure to look forward to that! The targeted audience for this play is from Grade 8 to above, but of course, all who want to come and watch are welcome!

On the same day, some devised drama pieces that are created by the students would be performed.

Ms. Rach has expressed how excited she is for the high school play, and that she really wants to build the drama and theater department at NIS. She is also on the lookout for some backstage helpers to assist in controlling the lights and preparing props, so if anyone is interested, please reach out to Ms. Rach!

‘Fossils’ is a comedy drama piece examining typical conflicts between teenagers and their parents that is set to be be performed next year in February. The interesting part of this play is that all parents would be double casted, which is done to represent how all parents are quite similar. The targeted audience for this play is from Grade 4 to above, but again, all are welcome!

This year’s high school play plans to build an ensemble, which is when a group of people all collaborate and perform together, creating a sense of wholeness. The specific date of the play will be announced soon. Since everyone involved is putting in a lot of effort to give the best performance they can, hopefully, the NIS community will keep an eye out for it!

By Rafael Avelar, 11

Game Theory

The Mathematics of Decision-Making

H

umans are elastic beings. Everyone has opinions, biases, and intentions acting upon every single decision we perform. This makes the task of dissecting and analyzing even simple, everyday social interactions infinitely hard. The field of game theory aims to do exactly that -- to create a mathematical model of such interactions, through which it is possible to determine the most efficient manners to get the most out of a situation. By definition, a game is any type of human interaction whose result is determined by the strategies of the individuals involved, serving as the object of the study of game theory.

The analysis of human interaction has always intrigued the human brain and has been studied since antiquity. Despite this, formal game-theoretic analysis began to develop only in the 19th century and has been continuously evolving ever since, now becoming an essential part of economics, political science, and psychology. One of the most iconic experiments used to illustrate the power of game theory is the prisoner’s dilemma, proposed in 1950. A pair of criminals are arrested having attempted to rob a bank, but the police don’t have enough evidence to press charges for the robbery right away. The criminals are instead sent to separate rooms and receive the following proposal: They are each given the choice to either remain silent or to confess to their crime. If both remain silent, they would be arrested for only one year for the possession of firearms, since there is no evidence supporting the robbery itself. If only one confesses and the other remains silent, the one who spilled the beans would be granted immunity from prosecution, whereas the other will receive a twenty-year prison sentence. If both testify, each will receive a five-year sentence.

Furthermore, the partners have no way of knowing for certain what the other plans to do.

Furthermore, the partners have no way of knowing for certain what the other plans to do.

At first glance, it is not at all obvious what the best path to take would be -- to confess or remain silent. By incorporating concepts from game theory, we can hopefully clear things up. Since each individual wants the best for himself, they are considered opponents in this situation. Initially, it might appear that the option in which both prisoners remain silent and are charged with a one-year prison sentence, which is minuscule compared to five or twenty years, would make it seem less risky and thereby the better option. The problem with that, however, is that it has an unstable nature, and is not in a state of what game-theorists call Nash Equilibrium.

Nash Equilibrium is an optimal solution to noncooperative games, in which neither person will deliberately change their strategy after considering his opponent’s one. For example, considering the above situation, if one of the criminals suspected the other would remain silent, he would obviously switch his strategy and confess, which would grant him immunity, and in turn, sentence his partner to ten years in a cell. This state is unstable because it allows one participant to change his strategy to assume a dominant position.

If we consider a scenario in which both plan to testify and receive four years of prison time, neither of them would willingly switch their strategy and not confess since four years is better than ten. Consequently, this is a state of Nash Equilibrium, since neither of them will deliberately change their strategy, causing them to be in this state as it is the optimal solution for the conflict.

If both people confess, one cannot assume a position of dominance over the other, meaning both will spend four years in prison.

Nash Equilibrium can also be described intuitively with daily life situations. Consider for instance, two cars approaching each other on perpendicular streets. A traffic light stands on the crossing, and shines red for one car, and green for the other. This is a clear example of Nash Equilibrium, since neither driver will disregard the traffic light by changing their strategy, even if the risk of facing consequences for breaking the rules were minimal. For example, the car which should stop, would not instead choose to go because that would result in a car crash. At the same time, the car that should go will not deliberately stop, as it would generate confusion and chaos. Therefore, this game is in Nash Equilibrium.

This concept was introduced in the 1950s, by mathematician, John Nash. He proved every finite game has a point of Nash Equilibrium, which was a breakthrough mainly for the area of economics. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for his contributions in 1994.

It allowed economists to model aspects such as advisement and competition by considering them as noncooperative games.

So what does game theory do?

Game theory tells us to painstakingly consider every detail of a situation and each possible outcome, so we are ultimately able to make the best out of our decisions.

AI: The future of humanity is here S

imilar to a simple computer simulation, a group of robots tries to pass the obstacle set without getting trapped. Some robots try to pass the obstacle using the right-hand side, just as the other half tries to pass using the left-hand side. Eventually, after thousands of trials, the obstacles are cleared with managed precision. The biggest technological development to date, Artificial Intelligence is a very popular subject that is widely discussed in technology and business circles. With the advancement in technology, we are already in the future, connected to AI in one way or another (Siri, Netflix or Alexa). However, for an AI to advance in its category, one performs thousands of simulations, training to control the software, and altering its instructions little by little with each attempt.

This approach to development is known as reinforcement learning, which is largely how AlphaGo, a computer developed by a subsidiary of Alphabet called DeepMind, mastered the impossibly complex Korean chess-like board game, Go, and beat one of the best human players in the world in a high profile match last year. The software was programmed to behave based on information collected through multiple simulations, and during the practice, when a winning move was carried out, it learned to adapt and favor the behavior that led up to it.

By Seongmin Kim, 11

Like the alpha software, self-driving cars show remarkably humanlike behavior. Today’s driverless vehicles often falter in complex situations that involve interacting with human drivers, such as traffic circles or four-way stops. However, the software governing a car’s behavior wasn’t programmed in the conventional sense at all. They learned how to merge into lanes safely through thousands of trial runs.

Today, reinforcement learning is being applied to a growing number of areas, ranging from education to transportation, and even unsolved scientific discoveries. The major benefit of the software is the “good sequences of decisions", whose progress would be much slower if programmers had to encode all the decisions and make assumptions of all estimated actions. However, there are many challenges to overcome as well. The approach of reinforcement learning uses huge amounts of data, and simulations are run relentlessly at least a million times.

Indeed there are controversies if the approach should be taken into the scientific world, as it seems to have produced effective results thus far. Perhaps later this year, on a highway near you, reinforcement learning will begin its most dramatic and important tests to date.