STEAM Fest 2016

Our first ever STEAM Fest was a great success. 

The ABC and local community came together in a full scale celebration of STEAM. The projects were wonderful, and the energy crackled as the whole school, whole day event took centre stage across 3 different venues. The level of engagement and excitement was paramount, as student and staff presenters, and creative centre leaders from our school, as well as from around El Salvador, worked and interacted with students, staff, visitors and local dignitaries.

Here are some of the preliminary photos from the event. The organisers of the event issue a huge thank you to the hundreds of people that made it all possible! 
We now look forward to STEAM Fest 2017.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48254552@N04/albums/72157662253275704

WAAM-We Are All Makers

Next week promises to be spectacular. Not only will Brain Awareness Week and Science Week come together, but this year they do so along with our community of makers, which will trigger an explosion of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics initiatives. The event is STEAM Fest and it promises to captivate, compel and inspire the community through creativity and innovation.

This is the first ever STEAM Focused event to take place at the ABC, which brings together the whole school, schools from the community, as well as local educational and STEAM based organisations.

Over 240 ABC Staff and students are directly involved, as are several local schools, international organisations and businesses.

The Fest or Faire opens on March 16th at 8:00, with a keynote delivered by the British Ambassador on the topic of British Science Week. The Ambassador will then award the prizes for the winning Primary and Secondary Science Faire projects. The event will run all day and end at 2:00, with the final Keynote delivered by via video, by one of our very own STEAM pioneers, Exabrit Roberto Melendez.

During the day students, staff and visiting teams will run exhibits, creative centres and in some cases, competitions. A total of 57 exhibitions and creative centres and 34 Science Fair finalist projects,  will fill the Auditorium and PAC, and spill over into the Auditorium Mezzanine and Drama Studio.

Classes from every year group will visit STEAM Fest during the course of the day and be able to engage in creative, active experimentation and learning. STEAM Fest promises to stimulate all the senses and build cognitive and community connections for everyone who involved.

Parents are invited to drop in during the day and visit the various STEAM Fest venues, which will be open all day, but close briefly at Secondary lunch and break times. Parking for the event will be on the basketball courts, which can be accessed through the Administration parking lot. 

We do hope to see you there and  invite you watch our latest teaser , which will give you a good idea of the sorts of activities that are taking place, in preparation for STEAM Fest 2016.

Finally we would like to thank our wonderful STEAM Fest sponsors, who play an important role in  STEAM Fest 2016.

Book Week 2016

ABC Book Week 2016

The ABC annual Book Week event wound up today. Book Week is a whole school event, which takes place around World book Day, and is a  celebration of books, a love of reading and and a love of writing.

Many activities took place during the week, in different sections of the school.

Secondary school students arrived on Monday to encounter a large reading tree, which had sprouted at the centre of the LRC. This tree was quickly embellish by students who prepared and hung their very own book reviews on its branches. The annual Book Week Fair took place from Wednesday to Friday and hosted a variety of  local book shops and artisans. A good number of students and other members of the community seized the opportunity to visit the stalls in lessons and during break times.

The LRC Librarians organised several visits by acclaimed local authors, who lead workshops and talks for many of the students during their Spanish and French lessons. Amongst these authors were Carlos Colindres from the American Embassy and Susana Reyes, each of whom spoke to the 11th grade students. Ligia Salguero Mediateca from the Spanish Embassy, Isabel Barrientos from the Colegio Liceo Francés, Lucia la Guacalcía, and Josué Peña, all local authors, ran reading and writing workshops for the 6th grade students.

A book donation centre was placed at the front of the LRC for members of the community to deposit new and used books in. This will remain in place for the following week. The donations, which are destined for the Centro Escolar Católico Virgen de la Paz, Tamanique, La Libertad are greatly appreciated.

The week’s activities culminated in the annual Character Day, in which students demonstrated their love of books by dressing up for the day as their favourite book characters.  Alternatively, students had the option to show their support of school charities, by wearing charity focused  t-shirts.

This was a high energy Book Week, full of activity and special events, which focussed on the joy to be found in reading and writing. I would personally like to thank Hilda Gomez and Eugenia Rivas for their hard work in organising Book Week in the Secondary.

Jennifer Garcia

LRC Coordinator

Here are a few photos from the week. They entire collection can be accessed from the LRC Flickr Page.