All IIL teams qualified at the World Scholar’s Cup !

On Sunday 29th may 2016, twelve students from IIL participated in the Swiss Regional Round of the World Scholar’s Cup at GEMS World Academy in Etoy.

• Darius, Alexander, Orlando and Judy from Year 7
• Aleezay, Jacobo, Cara, Emilia, Tamer, Ramil, Elizabeth and Darcey from Year 8

In teams of three, they spent the whole day competing against teams from other Swiss schools. One of the schools – The American School of Casablanca – even travelled from Morocco to take part in the competition. They spent several weeks preparing for this during their lunch breaks, studying various subjects ranging from Science, Literature, Social Studies or History, all on the theme “An Imperfect World”.

In the morning they had to write an essay arguing for or against a statement, choosing from 6 questions such as “Broken things can be beautiful” or “Dismaland would be a good place for a family vacation”. This was followed by a tricky multiple choice quizz called the Scholar’s Challenge.

After lunch, they had to debate three times on motions across subjects in the Arts, Science, Literature or History. They had 15 minutes to prepare arguments for or against motions such as “Would Geneva survive a zombie attack?” or “Should stupidity be treated as a disease?”. And they ended the day with a really exciting, strategic and fun quizz called the Scholar’s Bowl.

Finally, at the end of the day, 6 of the best debaters of the day were selected for the Debate Showcase, to discuss one last question: “Is Switzerland becoming more imperfect?” One of our IIL Year 7 students – Alexander – was part of the winning team and made us all very proud.

It was exhausting but fun and hugely challenging. And the results were EXCEPTIONAL since all 4 IIL teams qualified for the Global Round in Bangkok or the Mini-Global Round in Prague.

In the students’ own words:

“It was my best and funnest competition” – Tamer, Year 8

“A unique experience that lets the loser have the same glory as the winner” – Ramil, Year 8

“That night, I felt as if I had achieved something” – Alexander, Year 7

Thank you to all the students and their parents for their hard work and dedication and well done for their outstanding performance!

Contact

m.batchelor[at]iil.ch