S2M3ART DAY 2018 | iExplore Adventures
“The deafening siren suddenly howled and terrified a bunch of students who happened to be in the midst of chaos. Everything was shaking, as the ground beneath them heaved with each successive quake. The earthquake initiated the fueled raging fires, adding the shock to everyone which was now running here and there to escape from the path of flames. The help came a while after, when a group of firefighters arrived and rescued the distraught kids. They quickly put out the fire and saved everyone. In times of the terrible scene, they looked up to the sky and praised Allah, the God Almighty, as to Him we belong and to Him we return.”
The event above wasn’t real, it was a theatrical act to highlight the devastating natural disasters that occurred in Indonesia recently. On top of that, as a reminder to each of us how we really need to raise our awareness of environmental sustainable practices in order to cope with the constant risk that might happen in the future.
Besides, the stage act which gave space to Theatre Club members to perform, has succeeded admirably in pumping up the crowd and it was specially set to open our annual Science, Social, Math, Music, Market and Art Day (S2M3ART Day) 2018.
Every year, Lazuardi Global Compassionate School hosts the event to challenge the students from Kindergarten up to Junior High to exhibit their outstanding work in various fields, such as Science, Math, Social Studies, Music, Art and Market. This highly anticipated event has been a staple of our school schedule for over 10 years. Initially, it was only a science fair, till Lazuardi decided to merge different talents into one stop exhibition, fostering a diverse areas of intelligence and inclusive environment in school.
In line with this year theme, ‘iExplore Adventures’, we are trying to encourage students to explore the world and experience the adventures. In Science and Math Exhibition, the students share hands-on experiments, games, and demonstrations. The experiments are mostly created to spark curiosity among children and attempt to enhance the conceptual understanding throughout the process in such an engaging way. Meanwhile, Social studies favors a compassionate community outreach programs with Lazuardi Mengajar; teaching in neighbor schools, Lazuardi Membaca; setting up public library, Lazuardi Sehat; Health Counseling, and lastly Lazuardi Bermain; Inviting neighbor schools to come to visit our school and play with Kindergarten students.
Art section also brings its own perks in this grand exhibition of Smart Day. Displaying exceptional handwork of students, the art products which have been prepared under the guidance from the Art teachers, never cease to amaze us with the beauty, attractiveness, as well as the difficulty of the work itself. Whereas Music, which becomes the soul of the exhibition, often shines throughout the event starting with the epic opening act performance till the Talent Show which discovers students’ interests in Music. The Talent Show keeps the students buzzing all week – thinking up of what kind of show they will present on stage. For the audience, there is nothing more exciting than to see their friends perform front and centre. For the participants, it gives them a recognition for their ability and building confidence to perform publicly.
Another compelling section in Smartday is Entrepreneurship or we usually call it Market. Entrepreneurship benefits students to think outside the box, nurture the creativity to innovate and determine to stimulate the economy. As with other skills as well, from Math to Music, Market can be taught using a similar scaffolding set of materials. Students are given a period of time to plan their Market Day, submit a proposal, collaborate with experts outside school if necessary, and lay out their marketing strategy and finally launch their product and collect feedback. On the Market Day, which has always been the most crowded, the students are selling various kinds of products, such as traditional food, snack, beverages, even art handmade products.
The overall exhibition reflects the work of the students and teachers hand in hand to succeed education in an authentic way. In addition to creativity and self-expression, this entire process of learning, teaching students about problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and innovation. By showcasing their masterpiece and talents, we honor the students accomplishments and efforts, not based on standardized test of multiple choices or fill in the blanks which excessively used by most schools. On the contrary, we choose to power our students to always explore the adventures ahead of them and preparing them with real-world problems. Those things are intended to create a better human being who can make positive impact on others in the world and more importantly as their preparation for the hereafter, as a Muslim of Rahmatan Lil Alamiin.
