REAL-WORLDExploration

Tanglin is unique amongst international schools in Singapore because it offers a choice of A-levels or the International Baccalaureate (IB) in Sixth Form. Through these pathways, our senior students are given the opportunity to explore the real world through important elements of study such as CAS, Extended Essay, and Extended Project Qualification. Here are some of their projects:

CREATIVITY, ACTIVITY, SERVICE (CAS)

CAS is one of the three important elements that every student must complete as part of IB. The three strands are interwoven with activities associated with creativity (arts and creative thinking), activity (physical exertion) and service (unpaid and voluntary exchange).

Caring For Cambodia Schools Portrait Project

Tanglin has been working with Caring for Cambodia (CFC) for almost 20 years, and the Cambodia Portrait Project is one of the many projects that our teachers and students undertake to help spotlight the wonderful communities that exist in CFC schools. First the CFC students and teachers were asked if they would like their portrait created by a Tanglin student, then our students produce beautiful portraits in a variety of mediums. These will be sent to the recipients in a handmade envelope with a card from the respective artists.

SPECIAL OLYMPICS TRAINING - ISHAAN

As part of his CAS, Ishaan became a volunteer coach to Special Olympics athletes with special needs. He guided them during their weekly distance running and helped them to monitor and improve their running speeds. He explained, “As a coach, the most important role I played was to motivate the athletes and guide them towards becoming more independent and confident runners. I have been volunteering for approximately a year and a half now, and it has been a pleasure to work with and learn from neurodivergent people.”

EXTENDED ESSAY (EE)

The Extended Essay is an independent, self-directed research that requires a 4,000-word paper in IB.

EXTENDED PROJECT QUALIFICATION (EPQ)

The EPQ is an A-level qualification that requires you to write a 5000-word essay and presentation on any subject of your choice or create a product with an accompanying essay of about 1000 words.

HANDLER, THE ROBOTIC ARM, - OWEN

SUSTAINABLE ENERGY - SUZIE

For her EE, Suzie combined her love for Formula 1 (F1) with her interest in sustainable energy to compare potential sustainable fuels for use in F1. She said, “I found this topic important because vehicles worldwide contribute to a large amount of pollution, and developments in F1 for fuels can be passed down to commercial and passenger vehicles worldwide. Within my essay, I compared fuels produced by carbon capture methods and fuels derived from municipal waste.”

EFFECTS OF PH ON DENTAL EROSION - TARAN

As an aspiring medic, Taran have always had an affinity for human anatomy. After coming across dental erosion in an anatomy book, he knew that he wanted to explore this concept further for his EE. Taran explained, “I found this topic important because of its high prevalence especially in countries with regular consumption of high erosive potential beverages and the severity of its consequences. There needs to be a greater understanding of how to combat this growing problem. Within my essay, I compared the effect of pH of different beverages on dental erosion in sound and decayed teeth.”

For decades, robotics has been used within manufacturing lines to perform repetitive processes, but we are at the cusp of robots leaving the industrial setting and moving into the everyday world. As an experiment into human-robot interaction, Owen made Handler, a robotic arm that uses computer vision to mimic or respond to the movements of a human user and respond to visual commands such as shaking the user’s hands. Handler is controlled using eight servo motors, an Arduino, and a webcam. Owen used an iterative design method in Adobe Illustrator, 3D-modelled the arm using Fusion360, and wrote the program using C/C++ and Python.

2D PLATFORMING ACTION GAME - XAVIER

Xavier decided to create a 2D platforming action game. It was an entirely new challenge for him because he had to refine and acquire new skills during the process of programming, using Unity and creating music. Xavier plans to continue working on the project as he intends to release it in future. He said, “Its current state is better than I could have imagined. The style of the animations is as expressive as I wanted it to be, the mechanics in the game work exactly as expected and the music has exactly the right atmosphere.” ■

Want to read more about our student projects? Then drop by The Institute page at www.tts.edu.sg/the-institute on our website for the latest stories!