The Istra Trip

Almost the whole of year 12 was required to spend 5 days outside Moscow in an environment more suitable for carrying out the practical work necessary for the group 4 of the IB course. The trip also provided the students with wonderful opportunities to achieve various CAS objectives.

  

The activities directly involving CAS started on the very first day, when everyone was required to create a map of the area where we were to live and work. The task was to be approached in groups and with the use of GPS navigators. As we were to find out, it also involved quite a lot of movement around the place, although not as much as during the preliminary task of looking for flags left for us to find around the area to get their coordinates. I was working with Ilona and Yoon Joo we won the little game.

Further challenges were different from everyone else's to the group of Physics students to which I belonged - we only had four people - Boris, Alex, Yoon Joo and myself. I had time to observe other groups working and I came to the conclusion that Physics tasks were indeed of the greatest interest to me. One of the interesting experiments was setting a fire without using the traditional tools for it, such as the matches or lighters. We had a few ideas of how to approach it, but lack of sunny weather and the wind killed most of the options immediately, which was a great disappointment. 

Other experiments involved measuring the distribution of temperature in soil, measuring spring characteristics of natural fibers, using pendulums to obtain values for gravitation of Earth, measuring the diffraction of water in the Istra Reservoir, investigating aspects of bouncing balls, constructing sundials and a classroom-based activity on Kepler's 3rd Law. Most of these involved high levels of cooperation and some - of physical exertion.

The trip was a highly interesting experience and it allowed to achieve the following CAS objectives

• developed new skills
• worked collaboratively with others
• undertaken nex challenges
• planned and indicated activities
• inreased my awareness of my own strength and the areas of growth