2007 Taiwan International Science Fair

Tso Shuk Han and Yau Lai Yin of 6C won the second award in the 2007 Taiwan International Science Fair. Last month, they visited Taipei to take part in the competition with their product as the demonstrators of this competition. 'It gave us an opportunity to learn more and broaden our horizons.' said Tso. The topic of this competition is "Listen to Your Heart" and their awarded product is a heart monitor. It is a modified microphone which converts the heart beat, so people can use it to check whether their heart beat "sounds" healthy or not. Yau pointed out that people are quite unhealthy nowadays, especially their hearts. There are very few heart monitor devices which are sold at reasonable prices for the general public. Thus, 'We think there is a need to provide a device that the public can use by themselves to check the health condition of the heart. Also, since our product is very cheap, most people can afford it and use it to check their heart frequently and regularly.' added Yau. They lived in a host family in Tapei during their stay. Both of them said that they learned a lot. Yau was pleased with her unforgettable shopping experience and her visit to the zoo. She also described her visit to Taipei 101 and Hualien with delight. 'We also met some candidates from the other countries. We made friends with them and learned from each other. During this international exhibition, we visited the booths of the candidates from Taiwan and overseas so we could visit their booths to see their products. We learned a lot of things in the process,' explained Yau. Although things seemed to work out very smoothly, they still came across some difficulties during the process. The main problem was that they missed many lessons at school during their trip to Taiwan. Therefore, it was really difficult for them to catch up after having been away for so long. They had to ask their classmates for help. Moreover, they had many things to work on in a very short period of time so they had to co-operate well with each other to make the most of it. You may ask, how can they be so successful? Both of them suggested that time management is very important. Time management does not only play an important role in our daily life, but it is also extremely essential in achieving success in this competition. In the past few months, they were busy in many different aspects, especially in their studies and in the competition. If they hadn't managed the time well, everything would probably have become a mess. Therefore, good time management is significant in our daily life. When asked if there was anything they would like to improve if they were given a second chance to go to the International Science Fair again, Yau said with a smile that she would learn to take care of herself. On the second last day of the trip, she got a fever and lost the chance to visit Hualien. 'It was the most regretful thing during the whole trip,' Yau added, 'therefore; I would pay more attention to my health next time.' Students, grab the chances besides you! You'll never know what you have been missing out on if you never try! By 4A Lee Hiu Lam, 4A Kwong Hiu Tung and 4B Yuen Mei Ha