Storyboarding Conceptualization Workshop

One of the new thrusts of DNI Club is to train the budding artists among the club members to take up comic or drawing design competitions. In order to sharpen our saw, DNI Club organized a Storyboarding Conceptualization Workshop for some of our members, which was conducted by verteran comic artist, Mr. Jerry Hinds. Mr. Hinds is the chairman of the Association of Comic Artists (Singapore), and he has a few publications under his name.

The kids learned about the basics of storyboarding from Mr. Hinds, and engaged in some hands-on drawing of comics. They were allowed to show forth their creativity, and the students really enjoyed the session!

Landslide Competition 2010

It was the inaugural Landslide Competition, that Singapore Polytechnic organized in conjunction with the National Earthquake Challenge. In this competition, students are required to design and simulate a landslide environment which can withstand vibration from a vibrating platform. They are also allowed to put more weights on top of the landslide to earn more points, or they could also choose to put satay sticks in the slope to reinforce the slope, but thus penalizing themselves.

On the day of the competition, the 3 teams that DNI sent in were all very focused and teamwork was very evident. They professionally designed their slopes, and cautiously put on the weights and the satay sticks. We did not get a chance to view the other teams do their testing, so we were not able to compare our results with theirs. The waiting for the results in the next few weeks were torturous, to be brief, as we speculate on how our rivals could overcome the faults we committed.

In the end, when the results were announced, 2 our teams did us proud again by obtaining 1st and 2nd places! Both the students and the teachers were shouting for joy, as we couldn't believe our ears! We received the prizes from Singapore Polytechnic on the prize presentation day with pride, as our own designs won the competition!

National Earthquake Challenge 2010

Rumble and tumble!! That is what usually occurs in earthquake-prone countries when the deadly catastrophe strikes. In Singapore, we are blessed in that we almost never experience earthquakes, and even if we do, it is of a small scale. However, it is always good for Singapore students to know more about earthquakes, so that students would get a feel of how people adapt to the disaster.

To this end, Singapore Polytechnic has been organizing the National Earthquake Challenge, and this year, Henderson Secondary School sent in 8 teams to participate. The teams comprise students not only from DNI but also non-DNI students. The teams worked their hearts out during the 2 months that we had before the competition starts, designing structures after structures that could withstand vigorous vibrations. It was a joy and thrill watching the kids work, as they shuttle between the glue gun, the drill, the workshop etc. There was healthy and stimulating discussion all the time, as teams worked together to come up with innovative and strong designs.

On the days of the competition, we brought all our structures down to Singapore Polytechnic and tested them on a large platform that can stimulate 2-dimensional vibrations. Even after many rounds of grueling testings, we had to wait for all the other schools to finish their testings before we could know the results.

On the day that we got to know of the results, we were elated! All our teams obtained some prize! We have 6 teams in the top 10 places, which includes the 1st runner-up. This means that we are sponsored for our trip to Taiwan in September for the IDEERS competition, a national version of the earthquake competition.

Well done folks! We're proud of DNI!