Creativity: Recycling posters

The current on-going Creativity project which I am working on involves creating posters that are related to recycling.

Being a member of the Recycling service group, I proposed an idea to Mr. Lockwood and the Recycling supervisors about me creating posters regarding recycling.
The type of posters that I am planning to make are the ones which encourage Recycling within the school and interesting ones which contain facts about Recycling and how it helps the environment as a whole. By doing this I will be engaged in issues of global importance due to Recycling becoming an important aspect of today's world and also how creating posters help spreads awareness amongst each other.

I initially planned this activity 2 weeks ago and it took me a while to come up with ideas as to what the posters would contain. I was hoping to be done with the posters by the beginning of this week however due to the workload that has been piled on us these past 2 weeks, I wasn't able to finish creating them, however, I do have a few pictures of the beginning stages of the posters.

The posters will be created using Photoshop CS6 and thus I was be able to improve my skills in that area further.

Below are a few screenshots of the draft backgrounds of a poster which I am working on at the moment:

This is one of my layouts which I am working on. Creating this background took a while due to the amount of layers being put above it. For example, to create the light green effect in the middle, the blending option of gradient overlay had to be put on the first layer, from then on I added different patterns while decreasing their opacity in order to not allow a single one dominate the whole poster but to rather let them all blend in together. And to add the shadow, I used a light brush with a low opacity on the corners of the poster. I then addethe OSC logo, giving it a white color overlay and added the recycling text in the middle. I felt that the font seemed to 'fit' the theme which was present in the poster. The size of this poster is A4. I feel that this background fits the nature of this poster due to it having a green paper look to it.

This is another background that I had created for the same layout. Even the background present in this poster seems to fit the theme of 'Recycling'. To create this background, I had to put a color overlay of black to the first layer to not make it appear 'too bring' and then adjusted the opacity of the grass until I got something which I was happy with. I then added the shadows to the corners with the help of a light brush.


These are not the final pieces of the posters, I still have to add more content to the layouts which are present above and these also are not all the posters that I will be creating, I'm hoping to be done with the posters by the end of this week and this post would be updated with the final results along with the pictures of the Recycling posters.

Service: Recycling

I have been involved in the Service of Recycling for about 4 months, lasting about 1 hour 15 minutes every week.

This was a different service which I had opted for since the previous one which I was involved in, Cleft Lip and Palate, is no longer function and I figured that by choosing this, I would be able to give back a little to the environment.

Prior to enrolling into this Service, my knowledge regarding the amount of waste that could be recycled in OSC was extremely limited; even though I had seen previous members from the Recycling group come by a couple of times, I assumed that there wasn't much waste that could be recycled in general.

However, after joining Recycling, that assumption was proven wrong on the very first day after entering the recycling room and seeing the amount of materials from the school itself that was going to be recycled.

I was able to increase my awareness about the issue of recycling by attending this service and seeing the vast amount of materials that could be recycled and those that cannot be recycled and have to be put into the trash.

During this course, I was able to go to different areas of the school such as the Primary section and gather items for recycling which ranges from things such as paper to cardboard boxes.

I was able to develop new skills since I know what items to recycle, what not to, and those that could be re-used. I've also learnt how much money is received for recycling paper and cardboard and the fact that recycling cardboard earns more than recycling paper.

Gathering recyclable items all over the school isn't a 1 man job, hence I worked collaboratively with other members who were present in the Recycling service to go around collecting items. Before going to gather them however, we planned and initiated activities such as where each group would go, etc.

(The room where we gather for our meeting and talking about where each group goes. Picture taken by me)

(Everyone getting together outside the recycling center to distribute items.)

Recycling is a matter of global importance, hence by contributing to this, I am getting myself involved in an issue which has global importance seeing as recycling is starting to become a vital component to help keep the amount of waste thrown around in-check.

I'm hoping to investigate the amount of waste recycled in Sri Lanka and try to compare it with what we're doing to help see the impact that we are making.

At the end of each recycling secession, we visit a small local recycling shop close to the school where we get paid for the amount of items that we recycle.

(A picture of the Recycling center which we go to)

Below is a group photo of our recycling group, although some may be missing that day due to not being present:

Action: Gym

For action, I have been visiting the Gym once every week on saturday. So far, I have gone to the gym 4 times in the past 4 weeks and have spent a total of 5 hours there.

I normally spend about 20-25 minutes on the treadmill which I found to be very helpful since it helps build my overall stamina while running. I started off slow but the amount I run every week is increasing. One the first week I ran a total of about 1.5km and on the second week, I ran about 2.3km with the speed being significantly faster than what it was on the first week. Since its only 2 weeks, its hard to say whether my stamina has improved greatly over this time since its too early, but I'm hoping that it would as I run greater distances in greater speeds.

After going on the treadmill, I normally move on to use the other equipment in the Gym such as bench press, dumb bells, etc.

Here are some pictures that I was able to take in the Gym:

(Back exercise in Week 2)

(Lifting weights on the 4th Week)

(4th Week)

The number of sets i've been doing is increasing and the weights are also rising. For example, I initially started off with doing 3 sets of eight on the first week, then on the second week it increased to 2 sets of 8 and 1 set of 10, then on the third and fourth week, we increased it to 3 sets of 10. By doing this, we planned and initiated activities.

I developed many new skills by going to the gym. For example, when I started out, the way I used the equipment was not right, and my supervisor was able to correct me and show me the correct way to operate the gym equipment.

Overall, I feel that going to the Gym has helped me a lot since I was learning new techniques and developed my physically and mentally by not giving up and always doing that extra push-up.

Action: Badminton

I have been going for badminton practice every week for the past 3 weeks. My skills in badminton haven't been pretty mediocre, but I feel that after playing it every week, my skills have been improving.

I've developed new skills, for example; initially my skill in smashing wasn't that good, but on the 3rd week, i've been able to smash the shuttle more frequently.

My collaboration skills have been improving too, since I've been playing with partners quite a few times. By doing this we were able to decide about which position each one of us would play and also understanding who would hit the shuttle when it comes close to them.

I've often found that my aim when hitting the shuttle wasn't that good but through practice, I can say that it has improved.  The student leader, Laurens was able to show me the way to deflect smashes from other opponents which I feel has helped me a long way because I no longer stand there smiling when someone smashes the shuttle at me but I am able to serve it back.

Here's a picture of me along with Yoon Jae at the end of a match.

(Picture taken by Laurens with Yoon Jae's phone).

I hope to further develop my badminton skills throughout this year and next year in order for me to be able to try out for the SAISA Badminton team. 

CAS Goals: 2013

My goals for CAS are as follows:

Creativity - My goal for Creativity would be to take part in an After school activity, the one that I would be taking part in would be the after-school drawing club whose supervisor is Mr. MacTavish. My goal would be to improve my realistic drawing skills overtime and be able to track my progress throughout by undertaking new challenges since I haven't really had a chance to practice drawing realistic objects.

Action - For action, I will be taking part in the Badminton SAISA team; however that activity commences next semester. My skills in Badminton at the moment in mediocre, not too good but not too bad either. So i guess by trying out for the Badminton team, I would be able to develop on those skills which I previously wasn't that great at.

Another activity which I would be doing for Action is to go to the Gym every week. Up until now, i've rarely visited the Gym to workout, so i guess starting now would help my build my stamina like by running on a treadmill or increasing my strength. Since I stay in Taj Bentota for all my weekends, I would be able to use the Gym there and my Supervisor would be the person in-charge of the Gym there.

Service - For Service, I will be taking part in the Recycling group. This would allow me to help reduce the amount of waste in the school by recycling items which can't be used anymore. I haven't taken part in Recycling previously, i'm hoping that by doing this I would be able to build my collaboration skills with others in my group and in the community by interacting with them. By working in Recycling; I would be engaged in global issues since the growing waste is starting to become a concern and by recycling in the school I study at, I would be able to reduce the amount of waste in the area around me.

IB Orientation Reflection

In early September, our Diploma class went for an IB orientation trip to Kitugala in hopes to get familiar with each other due to new students coming into our grade and also to learn more about TOK.

In all honesty, the trip to Kitugala helped build my collaboration skills with people in my grade and I also communicated with people whom I normally don't talk to. By working together in a new environment (for most of us), we learnt to trust and reassure each other when the time called.

Our trip started with us taking a bus ride to Kitugala and then testing out our life-vests to get comfortable with it. This was a stress reliever for me since i'm not very skilled in water. By holding hands with the people next to us, you knew that they wouldn't let you drown, which luckily didn't happen throughout the trip.


Testing out our lifevests and plunging into the cold water for the first time.

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We started off by rafting in groups which required a great deal of team-work and communication such as when the person, Mahesh, controlling the raft shouted out commands and based on that we had to control the raft.
One thing that I discovered within myself was my desire to raft into streams with great currents rather than rafting into ones without much currents.



Our rafting group with Mahesh shouting out commands and us going into a great tide. 

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The next activity on the agenda was to go canyoning which involved jumping from heights into a pool of water. Initially, I found this both frightening and exciting but as I watched my friends jump, the frighting aspect of it decreased and with every jump that I took into the water, it became even more exciting.

The seconds before my first jump consisted of multiple nervous glancing in the water and thoughts about my life so far but after I turned back and saw my friends confidence in me and assertion, I decided to take my first jump and as my head popped out of the water; there was one thing on my mind: I need to do more. I undertook new challenges by taking that first jump into that cool water without having any idea where I would end up.



We then returned back to the camp where we played a great game of cards and enjoyed a chilled bottle of cocoa-cola.

The next day we went for a long (and tiring) hike to a cave where we discussed started questioning the time when people lived there which related back to Theory Of Knowledge. This got us thinking on how we were able to tell what was going on in the cave we visited by looking at the top of it the stone and seeing black marks which indicated that people used fire here.

Our next activity in the cave was to get into partners and while one would be blind-folded, the other would have a picture and would tell the details to it to the partner who's drawing that picture blind folded. For this activity to succeed, we have to work collaboratively with each other since we had to try our best to understand what the other was saying.

We then went for Abseiling which was a completely new challenge for me since it would be the first time that I walk down a waterfall. Initially it was a bit frightening but that feeling didn't last for long.

We had also planned a visit to the town where we would be interviewing people from there. The group I was in had to interview a headmaster of the school. The next day, we met with the headmaster for the interview. To make sure that the interview went smoothly, we had to collaborate amongst each other and give ourselves a task such as taking down notes, recording, asking questions, etc. Overall, it was a great visit since we got to understand more about the lifestyle of the town and how the people living together help each other out.


A group photo taken as we were about to leave the house where the interview had taken place.

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This whole trip was an amazing and memorable experience for me since I was able to undertake new challenges which I had never done before such as canyoning and i was also able to collaborate with many members of my class thus creating a strengthened sense of teamwork which we could take back to school.