The Equilibrium was an inter school business and economics competition held at the Anglo Chinese School Independant. One of the many events that constituted the contest was Turn coat—a debate with a twist. We as participants were given an hour to prepare the topic we had chosen and then, as in a conventional debate, we had to defend and justify our views. However the judges had been vested with the power to ring a buzzer four times in the space of three minutes and every time they did so, we as speakers had to switch our view points, which was a rather challenging task. But with assiduity and the stalwart support of my teachers, I was able to emerge victorious with an armour of facts, figures and deft oratory as my weapons of choice. I am proud to say that we did our school proud and bagged the first prize. It was an experience that I will never forget, an experience that taught us the value of humility, team work and perseverance.

I The second category in which we took part was print advertisement We were given a commodity and we had to advertise it on a A3 size paper. Our commodity was shoe laces. We used coloured pencils, paints, charcoal and pastels to make three advertisements in a space of two hours. After brainstorming for a bit,we set to work.The two hours were a flurry of activities with four pairs of hands working busily on the chart papers.The first advertisement had a black coloured background with two hand prints in white tied with shoe laces. The second advertisement showed a pair of shoes with its laces encircling a globe depicting the global recognition.of the brand.. The most colourful was the third one which had a drawing of a shoe with a number of laces coming out of it,each with a different colour. All the advertisements were accompanied with slogans.We came away feeling very cheerful what with all the rainbow colours that we had used.

The third category that required a lot of histrionics was Dumb charades.We are all very familiar with the game but this one was off the beaten path.We had to enact business terms which was very challenging and a totally different ball game.On top of that we were doing it for the first time. Each team had four members and each member was supposed to pick a chit of paper and enact the words written in it. If the other members of the team guessed it right within thirty seconds, they earned themselves ten points, one minute fetched them five and two minutes,one point. The team with the highest score would be the winner.It was quite difficult since enacting business terms isn’t a piece of cake. The participants were jumping, dancing, falling, running and more just to get the members to guess right specially difficult terms like Veblen goods, performance shares, liability etc. We did not do too well but the effort was well worth it.

The final category was Window dressing. We had to decorate a wall of a particular size as a background and against it display a product, in our case an umbrella for selling. The time allotted to us was just two hours. We started off by brainstorming with our friends about the design of the background and unleashed our imagination by using a kaleidoscope of colours on chart papers to make it very striking and then heightening the effect by running a black border along the margins. This was the signature style of Piet Mondrian, a Dutch artist as pointed out by Meher Verghese, our Art Teacher. After that we stuck two silhouettes, one of a girl and the other a boy leaping up, both with umbrellas in their hands . We placed some boxes on the floor and then on them we positioned a papier mâché globe with a broad smile and an umbrella. We did our best and felt suitably rewarded when we heard that we had stood second!!

It was a very rewarding day as not only did we come first in the Turncoat category we bagged the overall second position!! There goes a saying that, some people dream of success... while others wake up and work hard to achieve it. And we at school work towards making all our dreams a reality.

Shradha Kochar Class XII A
Arshiya Verma Class XA
Rimjhim Relan Class XB
Shivalika Singh Class XA

We felt on top of a clean and green world.

Clean and Green Competition is held every year for schools by the National Environment Agency to inspire Singaporeans to care for and protect our environment by adopting an environmental friendly life style. After the initial screening, five schools with ten participants were shortlisted for the title of Mr. and Miss Teen with Shradha Kochar of Class XI and me from Class IX in the reckoning.

The selection criteria included securing the most number of votes whereby raising awareness and spreading the message of a clean and green environment. The school helped us to secure a sizeable vote bank and we also utilized our social network to garner as many votes as possible. We had to walk the ramp wearing a formal and then an informal dress prepared by us using recyclable materials. Our skills in innovation and imagination were put to the test as we worked with plastic, foil, jute etc.to make our dresses not only relevant to the theme but eye catching as well. We were trained to walk the ramp by professionals and the results were there for all to see. The ramp walk was followed by a question and answer session where each one of us was asked a question related to protecting the environment using the 3Rs (Reduce, Recycle and reuse).

We got the opportunity of interacting with participants of other schools and exchanged our views on how we can make a difference in protecting our environment using recyclable materials. The event also boosted our confidence, as it was our maiden ramp walk. We were given only two minutes to change our dress from informal to formal. It was quite challenging but we learned how to utilize our time in a crunch situation.

The judges evaluated our performance and crowned us the 1st runners up and awarded us trophies and cash prizes for our efforts.

Another segment of the Clean and Green Singapore Contest was an Environmental Fashion Show. The enlightening part of the show was the realization that using recyclable materials for clothes saves sixty percent energy than refreshed ones. The fashion show concluded a project that was started five months back during which we learnt how to design clothes starting from the drawing board. It was very satisfying to see designs on paper coming to life in the form of beautiful clothes. We won the Merit Prize on the basis of creativity, relevance to the theme and presentation.

The Kindergarteners had also participated in the Pre-school Dance Competition conducted by the Clean and Green Singapore Contest. Their enthralling performance in costumes made with recyclable materials. stole the hearts of the audience and they went on to win the second prize. The kindergarteners had also participated in the Pre School Art and Craft Contest. This competition encouraged the preschoolers to learn about the 3’R’s; Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. Besides using recyclable materials to create an artwork, the participants also had to describe what they learnt from the artwork. Four entries were shortlisted by the organizers from which Eugene Chauhan of class K2D bagged the Merit Prize.

Rana Fatima KG Teacher.
Suhas Chandrashekhar Class IX A
Akila Subramanian Class VIII A

UNSW

DPSIS gives an opportunity to its students to sit for New South Wales Examinations. First held in 1981 the competition takes place each year in schools throughout Australia, New Zealand, Singapore & the neighboring countries. The aims of the competition are to provide pupils with a stimulating challenge & additional feedback on their performance, giving them an international platform to assess their proficiency. Our students proved their potential by securing many High Distinctions, Distinctions and Credit awards. In Computer Skills test they excelled compared to the National Average score of Singapore and in other subjects they were at par with them.

UNSW Exam for the year 2009

Subjects	Levels	Exam Dates
Computer Skills	Class II - XI	21 April 09, Tuesday
Science	Class II - XI	12 May 09, Tuesday
Writing Skills	Class II - XI	1 July 09, Wednesday
English	Class II - XI	21 July09, Tuesday
Mathematics	Class II - XI	4 August 09, Tuesday