Competitions Member Schools organise a range of competitions throughout the academic year, with the aim of bringing members of the FOBISIA ‘family’ together, ultimately to inspire and challenge students in a range of academic subject areas, including Maths, D&T, Social Science, English, and ICT.
Inaugural Online Social Science Essay Competition By Joe Greenwood, Principal, Shenzhen College of International Education
The inaugural Online Social Science Essay Competition was hosted by Shenzhen College of International Education, China, in November - December, 2017 This new competition was included in the calendar of FOBISIA Events for the first time in 2017. This competition is aimed at AS/AL/IBDP students studying Sociology, Psychology, Politics, History, Economics, Law, Philosophy and related subjects. The competition challenged students to write a short topical essay. Given the political events of 2017, there seemed to be an obvious choice for subject matter: ‘Donald Trump; Brexit; Front National; UKIP; Austrian Freedom Party; Kurdistan; Catalonia. How significant to global politics is the current rise in populism and nationalism? Is populism the inevitable outcome for democracies?’ There were 28 entries in total, from five schools in four countries. Most entries were from the host, Shenzhen College of International Education (SCIE), so the number of SCIE entries was whittled down before judging began. Three judges were invited from among Social Studies Teachers within FOBISIA Member Schools. Many thanks to Gemma Caines from The British School Kathmandu (TBS), Raymond Maher from North London Collegiate School Jeju (NLCS) and Richard Driscoll from SCIE for their judging efforts.
Judging was blind, with names redacted and results were based on the aggregate scores. Judges remarked that the overall standard was very high and that it was hard to choose between a number of excellent entries. Some tips for students from judges: • Avoid spending too many words on lengthy definitions • Make sure that your answer is relevant to the question being asked The winning students in order of place were: 1st: 2nd: 3rd: 4th: 4th:
Daniel: NLCS, Jeju, Republic of Korea Daniel: SCIE, Shenzhen, China Walter: SCIE, Shenzhen, China Anh: BVIS, Hanoi, Vietnam Candy: SCIE, Shenzhen, China
Highly Commended: • Cion: NLCS, Jeju, Republic of Korea • Peter: SCIE, Shenzhen, China • George: SCIE, Shenzhen, China • Hannah: Dulwich College Beijing, China • Nikita: SCIE, Shenzhen, China
27 THE FOBISIAN: February 2018, Term 2, Issue 26