Week 4

Jermaine Wong, 16

St Paul's Convent School

Challenge: Find out more about astronomy Hello everybody, guess what? I'm in Hokkaido, Japan! The countryside is lovely and there's lots of lavender in the fields. The nights here are awesome, and much better than anything I have seen at CUHK. I don't have a star map of Hokkaido, but I just love the stars here. Last week, before I left for Japan, I continued to read the books that had been recommended to me. I also went out one night with my parents to Shek O. The sky wasn't too bad there, not very clear, but far better than I thought it could be in the city. I used some of the knowledge I have gained from the books I've been reading and from the camp to point out the northeast star. My dad had brought a compass and checked that I had found the right star. Fortunately, I was correct! Then I was chatting to my dad and I made another big discovery - when he was younger, my dad had really good grades in Physics. He told me many theories related to astronomy. I'd better go and start putting in some more hard work on astronomy.

Amy Yang Miu-yuk, 15

Hong Kong Chinese Women's Club College

Challenge: Lose weight The good news is that I lost one kilogram this week! I also learnt a lot during the week because I joined a programme organised by the Department of Health's Oral Health Education Unit. I went camping in the Breakthrough Youth Village and learnt leadership and communication skills as well as oral hygiene skills. I also made some new friends. During the camp, we had to play outdoors games and I sweated like a pig, which was great for helping me lose weight! While reading last week's Sunday Young Post, I learnt that I should be taking 10,000 steps per day in order to keep fit and stay healthy. This is 7,000 steps more than I had been doing so I will now start this harsh task. I am also going to start brushing my teeth after every meal. I hope it will make me feel less hungry!

Mandy Chu Ka-man, 16

SKH Bishop Mok Sau Tseng Secondary School

Challenge: Learn how to ballroom dance This week we learnt the waltz. First, we practised the basic steps. You can dance in time with the music easily by following the 'bom cha-cha, bom cha-cha' rhythm. We quickly moved on to a more advanced series of steps designed by our teachers, as most of us could do the basic steps well. These steps were much more difficult than the basic steps. As I danced the female part this time, I had to follow my partner's signals. There were many things we had to pay attention to and the most difficult was turning. Your bodies are very close throughout the dance, and sometimes you and your partner even touch each other. You often need to put your leg in between of your partner's legs in order to stay close to your partner when you turn. Therefore, you must move smoothly and carefully so that your partner can also move their body to fit your motion. The continuous turning confused me. I tried many times, but I couldn't remember all the steps. I was frustrated but I kept on practising because I wanted to learn the waltz. Finally I succeeded, although I didn't dance beautifully. I was encouraged and I won't give up.

Inga Choi Wing-ka, 16

CCC Ming Yin College

Challenge: Play a Grade Seven piece of music on my trumpet and all the minor scales Last week I spent lots of time on my music, but not just playing my trumpet. I spent around half of my practice time on the computer. You may wonder how playing on a computer can be related to playing a trumpet? I had been playing the song with my metronome as usual when I remembered that I had some computer software that could compose music. So I spent some time typing three files: one was the trumpet part, another was the piano part and the last was the trumpet and piano parts together. First, I played my trumpet accompanied by the first music file (trumpet part only). After a while, I tried playing the trumpet accompanied by the file with the piano music. The music became fuller at this time. This method helps me to save money and time because, if I wanted to play with real people accompanying me, I would need to pay them. Even if the accompaniment is one of my schoolmates, we still need to go somewhere else as I don't have a piano at home. The music room also needs to be rented. In my free time, I listened to the last file. It gave me the concept of the music but the sound was very strange. It did not sound natural or real, but it is OK for learning the rhythm. I am still confident of achieving my summer challenge.