Thursday, August 30, 2012

Leaving on a Jet Plane

We headed off from Cologne on the train to Frankfurt on the ICE Train and travelled at speed up to around 260km - only a 51 minute journey. Connor and Scott made so video so maybe they can post them in a comment.

Checking we are on the right train at Koln

Yes! On the A380 with the individual TV screens


From Frankfurt we flew to Singapore with Lufthansa on an A380 - we loved it, especially the individual screens. The boys had a lot of sleep and managed to catch up a bit which was great.

From Singapore we then flew to Auckland before heading home to our home towns.


Monday, August 27, 2012

and then there were 4!

Sidney and Brent left Cologne this morning to meet up with friends and family in Europe. The rest of use went into town to go for a final shop - not that we have any rooms in our bags....

Morning tea time

Lego Shop (zoom in to see the mini figurines)

Last romantic shot by the love locks ;)

Results are in - 4th Placing out of 32 Countries

The 9th bi-annual International Geography Olympiad (iGeo) has been held over the past week in Cologne, Germany with 32 countries competing in the event. Hosted by the University of Cologne, the students from around the world compete in three sections for the competition:
  • Written exam
  • Multi-media multi choice test
  • Fieldwork exercise  - mapping and decision making task

The New Zealand Team consisted of students who had been top performing students in the New Zealand Board of Geography Teachers annual Maatangi Whenua Year 11 Geography Quiz who had gone through a selection camp to be chosen. The New Zealand Team gained the best results that they have ever had with all students gaining a medal for the first time. The team was overall ranked 4th place behind Singapore, Romania and Poland.  “A tremendous effort for a hard working team who scored consistently well across the events” said Anna Wilson, Team Leader from Wellington East Girls’ College.

12th Place and Silver Medal: Scott Cameron- Hamilton Boys’ High School
22nd Place and Silver Medal: Brent Coleman - Hamilton Boys’ High School
53rd Place and Bronze Medal: Sidney Wong - Hutt Valley High School
59th Place and Bronze Medal: Connor Clemett - Riccarton High School

“We were kept guessing right to the end” said Connor Clemett  as the final results were not revealed till the last night of the iGeo. Top performing student Scott Cameron was “stoked” with this 12th placing, only two places off a gold medal. He found the competition to be  “a good opportunity to meet like minded people from right around the world” and hopes to keep in touch and meet up with fellow competitors once he has finished studying his Engineering degree.

A non competition part of the iGeo was the poster competition where students created a poster on water issues in their own country. A student vote saw a three way tie for 1st place with New Zealand sharing top honours with Tunisia and Indonesia. They were awarded the Dr Prill prize. Dr Prill was a Teacher of Geography at Cologne Grammar School who was devoted to Geography as a subject. When he passed away in 1991 he donated most of his fortune to the local football team and he left a small amount to support an award for young students in the Cologne area. To mark the significance of the iGeo a special award was given by the Geographical Society of Cologne to the winners of the poster presentation. 

Nick Page, Team Leader from Otumoetai College, Tauranga “felt the boys were duly rewarded for all their hard efforts in what has been an incredibly grueling competition”. The team wishes to not only acknowledge the support of Science Olympiad New Zealand, The Royal Society, The New Zealand Board of Geography Teachers and New Zealand Geographic Society but also the teachers, schools, families and local sponsors who have all helped the students in their preparations to get to Germany.





NZ Team - Sidney, Scott, Brent and Connor




Scott  - 12th place receiving his special prize

Friday, August 24, 2012

Fieldwork Time

The students have been off on field work exercises with the German Lecturers and the volunteers from Koln University the last two mornings. Yesterday I took the tram to the University and stopped off and looked at some places along the way. Here are some pictures from my journey 
Cute jerseys in the second hand shop








Babe the pig who was in an display about pig farming to sausage making in a town square

Poster competition

The boys did super well with presenting their poster yesterday on Water - here is a photo of Scott in action!


Then they worked on their presentations for the multicultural evening which is on tomorrow.


Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Time for some testing...... and some marking!

Well today we started with the biggest test of all.... The 2.5 hour written test.  This year it had 6 questions on a variety of topics:

  • Urbanisation and Megacities
  • Impacts of Coastal Development
  • Climate and Climate Change
  • Natural Hazards in the Pacific Islands - written by Nick :)
  • Rivers
  • Agriculture
So while the boys went to the test - Nick and I spent the morning in a markers meeting going through how we were to mark our sections and then waiting for the kinder (children) to finish.

After the test we had lunch in the Mensa (Uni Cafeteria) which was a fun experience - you get a choice of 4 meals and line up to choose which one - a really good variety.

So then Nick and I were locked into the markers room from 1pm (still here now at 8pm) and the kids have been in a workshop for fieldwork and then off to their cultural presentation workshops.

I'm done - Nick is almost done with his marking and I am pretty sure we will both be happy to see the end of the red pens for a while.

The boys will be finished at 10pm so we will wait around till then

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

iGeo Officially Opened

NZ Team on one of the 7 bridges over the Rhine River

Some of the love locks on the bridge 

Riverside housing on our walk to the .....

Chocolate Museum! 

Official Opening at the University 

Monday, August 20, 2012

Koln... Getting to know the city

After a big sleep we spent our first day going on the Hop On Hop Off bus tour of the city of Cologne/Koln. It was a great way to see many of the big landmarks and orientate ourselves with the Dom - The 3rd Largest Cathedral in the World. 




The local train station

Where are we going?

Team NZ at The Dom

Double Decker Bus Tour Etiquette 

In the afternoon we spent some time at the Hostel having a rest, going online and getting to know the other early birds who had arrived. We went for dinner with Team Australia last night at a Cuban restaurant (really Mexican).

Hong Kong Stopover

34,000 feet above sea level and over the Himalayas and into the heart of the great Eurasian continent, we are finally on our way to the International Geographic Olympiad in Cologne. It is amazing to think just over 48 hours ago I was in Lower Hutt and in the past two days I have managed to cross from one hemisphere to another and to skip a season straight into the fiery depths of summer.

We arrived in Hong Kong early yesterday morning – or what seemed like a lifetime ago as what we've experienced could not be confined to day or night. What really shocked me when we arrived in Hong Kong was the contrast between the synthetic cool temperature of the 1 out of 500 shopping malls and the raw humid heat in the streets of Hong Kong. We went Yum Cha, prayed for good luck at the traditional Wong Tai Sin Temple, watched the Symphony of Lights in Hong Kong Harbour and rode the star ferry and topped the day off with a visit to the Peak.

But what was most impressive was the amount of shopping we managed to do in less than 24 hours. Honestly, our day consisted of going in and out of shops, in and out of the heat, hunting for a bargain beyond the typical tourist traps usually suggested by travel guides. Thanks to my Aunt Irene I was able to buy inexpensive shoes and clothes and the treasure of my shopping excursion – a $130 suit found in the industrial areas of Kwun Tong. What was most exciting was when haggled and got abused in the street markets of Mong Kok by over enthusiastic vendors. This was a truly unforgettable experience.

However, this has only been a pit stop. We are less than five hours away from our anticipated destination – Cologne! My only worry now is the weight of my luggage and I'm sure I speak not only for myself (Although mine is the heaviest, for now).

Sidney

Oh Yeah we made it to Germany.....

Just a quick post from me, Anna - Team Leader, to say that we have all made it safe and sound to Cologne after a whirl wind trip of Hong Kong (more about that later) and two very long plane rides. Everyone is in a good condition and we had an amazing sleep last night followed by a Hop on Hop Off tour of Cologne today. More to come....