The Mini Renaissance Fair at ILBC in Taunggyi was a splendid event. I refer to ILBC’s annual Arts and Science Fair as a Renaissance experience due the visually exciting and intellectually provocative spectrum of displays that were nestled into the ILBC multi-purpose area this last Sunday morning, February 5, 2017.
As in the original Renaissance of the 15th and 16th centuries where there was a flowering of art and mind, the ILBC fair was a flowering of the students and teachers creativity and scientific discovery. Nine fields of learning were addressed and gloriously put on view: 1. Science, 2. Math, 3. Geography, 4. Myanmar culture, 5. English, 6. History, 7. Art, 8. Music and 9. I.T. (information technology). For at ILBC the school curriculum actually covers all those divergent areas of expertise. The school guides in developing the entire child: academically, socially, artistically, physically and musically.
All grade levels contributed booths and participatory demonstrations to this multi-media fair: from the Kindergarten class’ flowering plants science project to Secondary 4’s professionally printed banner film critiques with the added visual spice of “selfies”. Both the teachers and students donated their time and talent to make this fair
a top-notch affair. They literally put in dozens of extra hours designing and fabricating the many dioramas and scaled down models. The craftsmanship and attention to accuracy and detail instilled a poignancy and elegance to the over 40 displays which thoroughly impressed this veteran educator.
Due to space limitations I will briefly give some thumb-nail critiques to handful of the presentations. There was just so much high quality work in this mini renaissance fair that I can’t cover all the impressive work in this blog. I apologize for leaving many worthy projects out.
The colorful Myanmar cultural exhibit by the Myanmar teachers Swe Swe Myat, Su Latt Naing and Ei Shwe Zin plus the students was nothing less than dazzling. Even though I’ve lived in Myanmar for 4 years I learned much more after perusing that mixed media, multi-faceted display.
The Geography department (Teachers Sandar and L Nang San) and their students put together a number of informative and exciting dioramas based on both natural phenomena like volcanoes to the evolution of civilizations from the first Cro-Magnon villages to urban metropolises. A series of bravo models gave tangible evidence to academic knowledge.
The Science presentations were quite appealing in their use of games to enliven an at times dull subject and the many participatory demonstrations certainly were a hit with the many visitors. The Science game utilizing magnets was simultaneously fun and instructive.
The English department headed by Deputy Head of School, Teacher Chan, hooked several laptops to a large centralized screen to play vocabulary games like “Kahoot”. An entertaining way to enhance and expand word usage. It made high tech learning cool.
Of special note were the homemade music devices fabricated by the Music Department teachers Bar Hso Gay Htoo and Khun Yo Say. One was a primitive guitar and others were some seminal horns created with real cow horns. An enticing introduction into the roots of musical instruments.
All in all the ILBC Taunggyi branch put together a successful Arts and Science Fair. As was found in the Renaissance, at ILBC the whole child is developed: the mind, the body, the soul and the artistic aspects of each student are priorities.
Credit to Andrew
