School Blog

It was nice to read in the newspaper about some of our students who have stepped up in the community to help out. You can read about it here.

https://www.svt.se/nyheter/lokalt/varmland/unga-ska-ge-guldkant-i-aldreo...

Pictured above (L-R) Josef Kulberg, Beatrice Abelsson, Kasper Walan and Elin Edebali, finalists from IES Karlstad

Students from two Internationella Engelska Skolan schools have earned themselves a place in the final of a prestigious science, mathematics and technology contest.

When the national finals of Teknikåttan are held, later this month, both IES Gävle and IES Karlstad will be among the 13 schools hoping to win first place, having triumphed at their regional finals.

Eighth grade classes throughout Sweden had the chance to enter Teknikåtten during the qualification round.  Those who reached the regional finals at universities throughout Sweden then competed in construction, coding with chess pieces and cards, and a quiz, all for the chance of winning a place in the national final at the University of Lund on Thursday, 23 May.

Beatrice Abelsson from class 8C at IES Karlstad was one of the students who lifted the regional prize following the competition at the University of Karlstad.  She said: “The challenge I took part in was placing chess pieces on a board and conveying where they would stand by using playing cards. We wanted as many points as we could get, so we only used one suit, hearts. It was hard finding combinations and solutions of how we would place every piece.

“When we first started it was pretty hard but were kept going and trying, at the end when we were going to do it the final time we were confident that we could get the bonus points by doing it with just one suit.

“I think we are all pretty nervous about the national final, but we are working hard and we think we can do it. I know there is a team from IES Gävle in the final too, so I hope that either we win, or they win.”

Her classmate Oscar Petersson (pictured, right, with Hannah Stagen-Enwall and Marcus Bülund) was involved in construction challenges.

He said:  “We had to make the tallest possible tower with paper in a short amount of time.  Then, for the second challenge, we had to build a timer. We were supposed to flip a can of soda over after five minutes, we used water as the motor of the machine to measure how much time passed.

“During the test run we hit five minutes exactly, but in the end we were 40 seconds out, but we are still not sure why.

“I don’t know the other classes that are participating in the national final, but I hope we will place in the top three.”

Meanwhile class 8A from IES Gävle won their regional final at Högskolan Dalarna, also earning themselves a place in the national final.

Yanina Rydbäck and Ladouce Bigina were part of the winning team and are now preparing to make their way down to Lund for the final.

Yanina (pictured, left, with Cormac Brown, centre and Natan Stenlund, right) said: “I am very excited, kind of nervous, but it is a happy kind of nervous. I am interested in subjects around technology and science, I wanted to try hard and see how we would do, and it went well so far.”

Yanina took part in the quiz section of the competition.  She said: “There were a lot of questions about space or diseases and the questions that are hot in science right now.  I found the timeline for homosapiens hardest, we had to put historical things in the right order.  We got five out of six.”

Ladouce added: “I wanted to take part in the contest because it sounded like a fun thing to do, and it was a once in a lifetime thing.

“I was really shocked when we won, because I didn’t think that we would come so far.  Now I think we have a good chance of winning the national final because if we managed to win the first competition, nothing can stop us now.”

In year 7 art, the students have been studying Karlstad artist Karolina Nolin. Students have started with a mood board, using photos to develop their sketch. They have used her monotype process to transfer their design. Students have started with underpainting, and will then add colour. 

The results are tallied up from the Rynkeby Run 2019:
Year 4 ran 2,270 laps around the school yard for a total of 61.8 miles. Year 5 ran 2,430 laps for a total of 72.9 miles. 
Combined that's 4,700 laps for a total of 141 miles!!

All money raised goes to the Childen's cancer fund.