Inventions Fair

On Friday January 24th, the inquiry, creativity and presentation skills of our Year 8s were tested as they participated in a day long end of unit celebration entitled the ‘Inventions Fair.’ In celebrating the spread of ideas and innovation around one of the largest and most historic trade networks in human history, the day marked the end of a holistic study of the Silk Route, from its geography, trade systems, arts and even belief systems.  

The day began with a keynote by Mr. Naheed Bardai encouraging the students to think deeper about what allows for innovation to take place.

Afterwards, student groups selected an invention from the Silk Route era that they would research over the course of the day. The added twist was that they should propose a change to the invention for today’s times and then pitch this to ‘investors’ at the Inventions Fair at the end of the day.

With only 3 hours to research and prepare it was truly remarkable what the Year 8s produced and how professionally they presented to their ‘investors’ who turned out to be none other than… the Year 2s! Studying currency and its evolution over time,

Ms. Leabres and Ms. Hope's Year 2s came in ready with clipboards and badges ready to invest their precious gold coins in the invention they were most impressed with. It’s surprising (and comforting) to see how cautious they were with their gold coins!  For about an hour the Upper Library had been transformed to a cross between a bustling caravanserai along the Silk Route and a modern day stock market - it truly is amazing to see cross Academy collaboration and what can be accomplished when students are challenged in new and exciting ways.

Submitted by the Humanities Department