The results of our first activity.

What is the Science Ambassadors Programme About??

Hangzhou Foreign Languages School Science Ambassadors is a programme that aims to promote science and spread the passion towards science. Organising a range of activities including video making, book sharing, research projects, etc., group members not only gain better manipulation on scientific knowledge and skill sets, but also develop crucial lifelong abilities such as leadership, coordination, and planning skills. Furthermore, assistance is expected to be delivered through the programme to any learners with troubles in science subjects.?

How does Science Ambassadors Group 2’s Project Work?

Our project mainly consists of two parts – filming an education video and designing exam-style exercise questions. Guidelines have been written to standardise the video-making process and to improve both productivity and quality.

In every round of the video-making process, the group is divided into departments that are parallel to each other. Head of departments are required to produce a planning sheet to decide which syllabus points are to be covered, and which points require more emphasis, before working on the video. To maximise the quality of the videos produced, self-evaluation and cross-evaluation checklists are completed so that any errors can be spotted and corrected.

Exam-style exercises are also produced to help our viewers check their understanding. We had closely examined the past examination papers to get a sense of the style of the questions. Mark schemes, but not just answers, are also produced. Similarly, self-evaluation and cross-evaluation are completed with corresponding checklists before publication to maximise quality.

?Why do we run this project?

As we all know, the rapid development of short videos and network broadcasts has played a positive role in knowledge dissemination. Realising this, our project tries to create and publish a series of educational videos that are based on IGCSE and A Level. Through providing a detailed walkthrough of relevant syllabus points and carefully designed exercises, we aim to provide a good resource for self-learners and reviewers. We also expect our video can intrigue audiences to explore more about physics. Exam-style exercises are also provided to consolidate understanding. The project not only benefits the audiences but also the group members, for they enhanced our academic perspectives by reviewing all of the concepts in the form of talking them out to others and designing questions.? “We hope our effort could really pay off and make a difference to the other student’s grades internationally” said Steve, one of the heads of the department in the project.

What Have We Prepared for This Project??

To bring the most out of the programme, we have used a list of things. Syllabuses produced by Cambridge International were extraordinary resources to structure or videos, while coursebooks and other information online help to deepen our understanding so that we are ready to teach. Existing videos online gave us a good idea of the language. Guidelines and checklists have also been prepared to standardise the video-making process and the final video.?

What do Our Group Members Think??

Nemo Shu:

Taking the lead of this project was an astonishing experience. What it brings is not only an improvement in physics understanding, but also a development in lifelong skills.

From previous experiences such as making summary videos on AS Level topics and teaching A Level Computer Science on my own Developers' club, I personally found that the key to success in A Level science subjects is to teach the subject you are currently working on, as the exams stresses on defining terms, explaining phenomenon, and showing the process of calculations, which is sort of like the process of teaching. That was my original motivation of carrying out the project.

Making a video was definitely not an easy process. As we were starting the project, a lack of a guideline had been troublesome. Initial trials of the video script were too formal, and the end-of-topic review questions had not been in a good exam style.? How to effectively inform those group members on their fields of improvement was a challenging problem as well. At the end I chose to produce an example myself and used that as a specification. I also wrote a detailed guideline to prevent similar problems in future videos.

Apart from that, being unable to use past paper questions and mark schemes due to copyright restrictions was a worrying fact, but we were able to overcome this by making our own exam-style questions after closely examining on the format of real question papers and mark schemes.

I have enjoyed working on the project a lot and I am proud of the video productions we have made so far. I want to thank Ms Anita for organising this extraordinary project, and my group members for their dedication and support.

Wendy Gu:

Participating in this project was an awe-inspiring experience, one that not only enhanced my understanding of physics, but also helped me to develop essential skills that will be useful throughout my life.

Our project began during the winter vacation, and we held several meetings to discuss our progress. Although I didn't have a strong background in A-level science like some of my teammates, I was inspired by the science ambassador head of the department to take on the role of scriptwriter and voiceover during the video production process. Through this experience, I learned a great deal about the subject matter and was able to contribute to the overall success of the project.

Since creating a video is a challenging endeavour, our team encountered some obstacles along the way. Initially, there was a lack of clear guidelines. And personally, I am not experienced in the field of writing the script. Through Nemo's valuable advice and feedback, I was able to improve my script-writing skills. Meanwhile, I struggled to strike the right tone in our script. However, through trial and error, I was able to overcome these challenges and we, as a whole, produce high-quality videos that we are all proud of.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this project and am grateful for the opportunity to showcase my writing abilities and hone my teamwork skills. I would like to express my gratitude to Ms Anita, our project leader and my fellow group members for their commitment and backing throughout this process. Looking ahead, I am excited to continue utilizing my newfound skills and knowledge to create more engaging and informative videos that will benefit future students, and I am eager to work alongside my dedicated team to produce even greater results in the future.

Owen Du:

First of all, I am honoured to join this activity. apparently, this activity is an improvement of the physical theories we have learned. In fact, it is also a good practice for my leadership and organization abilities.

I would like to say that recording video is not an easy thing, as it requires a lot of time to make the PowerPoint and then check whether there are any academic errors and grammatical errors, and also, I need to write a manuscript to improve the fluency of the lecture I had. The manuscript alone has been revised for many times, and the video recording also has to be repeated, thus it is a very tedious process. In this process, as a leader, I also need to mobilize members to complete some auxiliary?? assignments and give full play to organizational task

After reading the video, the task was not finished yet, and the group also had to write a title of the end of topic. Considering the possibility of infringement, the group also had to create the original title based on the content of the examination syllabus. At the same time, in order to highlight the professionalism, the team members also had to learn the format of the standard examination paper, which was also a difficult task.

Finally, I would like to say that although the task is tedious and painful, I am very willing to spend time on it. It tells me the meaning of doing a job well, and also improves my understanding of physics knowledge.

Credits for this Video?

Video Electricity (1)

?Nemo Shu, Wendy Gu, Sherry Lu, Elizabeth Li, Barron Hu, Ivy Xu

End-of-topic Exercise

Nemo Shu, Barron Hu

Publishing

Keynes Wu, Sherry Lu, Nemo Shu

Special thanks to our instructor, Ms Anita Ching