18/11/2019 1 Comment Weekly update-18/11/19A goodbye....of some formGreetings scholars, With the Tournament of Champions over now, the 2018-2019 season has come to an end. Over the course of this season we as scholars have explored the margins on which our world lies, listened to a poor lip reading of some kpop song (not the most memorable part by far) and made memories with plenty of other scholars. That is in a nutshell, the best way to encapsulate the World Scholar's Cup experience. Scholars as is per tradition, websites like these usually enter a "hibernation period" of sorts between the seasons. Rest assured, the team behind avansalpacaresources will still be working to make sure this website emerges at the beginning of the next season as one that can further its role as a platform to assist all scholars in their WSC journey. Yet it is also time to say farewell to some things. I won't be around in the WSC physically, but I'll always be there (quite literally) in spirit. I'll let this video do the talking for me.
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4/11/2019 2 Comments Weekly Update - 04/11/19Toc! Tournament of champions, not time to cramGreetings scholars! With so many of you already boarding long-haul or even short-haul (the lucky ones!) flights to Boston, it's time to ramp up the studying to 12 in preparation for the Triple-Threat Day of the Tournament of Champions! So let's see what the Commune have cooked up this week for you and your teammates to study at the last...er sorry "penultimate" moments: First up we've got the Commune of Social Affairs beginning a new section called "Dispatches from the Commune", where every week they'll write up and send out new public tips and tricks regarding everything other than the academic parts of the WSC (finally!). This week they've got some tips for those of you heading to lovely Yale for the first time (and hopefully not the last!); go and give them a read! Now then, in either social-related news the Commune of Social Affairs has also been up to their old business in the meme-kitchen of WSC (I've no idea why this week's update is so filled with cooking-related cliches; maybe I'm just hungry). It's always nice to laugh a little before the onset of PCD (pre-challenge depression) comes in. Maybe that's another acronym to add to the WSC dictionary! Finally though most certainly not least is the main course you probably came to this website for in the first place (both right now and when you first opened it days, weeks, months, years ago?!) is the deluge of new study material for your team and yourself to get cracking on! The commune of Research and Resources have spent the past week crafting not 1, not 2 but 3 practice challenges for you lot to review in the lead up to the grand finale of this 2018-2019 season! Help yourself scholars to a grand buffet of practice questions, quizlets and Kahoots! Now then we've got some of the last debate and writing motions for this year's theme of a World on Margins (yes expect a long and slightly emotional sendoff from myself and perhaps the team in the coming weeks after the Tournament of Champions). They may appear slightly familiar because I've scrounged the leftovers of this section and have selected the very first motions I posted as part of the 2018-2019 season. Best of luck to all of you at ToC and hope you all make the best memories! Science: RESOLVED That home appliances are doing more harm than good to society
Social Studies: RESOLVED That people who oppress minorities should be penalised heavily History: RESOLVED That education should be standardised worldwide Art and Music: RESOLVED That all colonial art should be returned to it's country of origin Literature: RESOLVED That poems do little to impact the treatment of a group Special Area: RESOLVED That all secret services should be removed WEEKLY WRITING MOTIONS Science: RESOLVED Write a letter to a government about why they should control air-conditioning usage Social Studies: RESOLVED Campaign for the rights of elderly people in the workplace History: RESOLVED Propose a universal education system to the UN Art and Music: RESOLVED Should private galleries continue to be tourist attractions? Literature: RESOLVED National monuments should no longer be places of human activity Special Area: RESOLVED Which ancient structure is most mysterious? 28/10/2019 1 Comment Weekly Update - 28/10/19Welcome from the commune of passionate scholars!Greetings Scholars! After a fairly restful break working behind the scenes, there is quite a momentous announcement I have to make before we move on to the usual additions. Avansalpacaresources now has a team collaborating with one another to ensure it's continued growth and existence as a platform for any and all scholars to come into the community. Please welcome your new commissars and ministers from all over this amazing program! Click the button below to see their profiles and the positions they'll occupy for the foreseeable future. It goes without saying that I am very honoured and proud to be the General Secretary of this amazing Commune of Passionate Scholars United (yes I'm well aware of the communist overtones in all that). So the commune has already been hard at work with their first ever weekly assignments! Here they are and respective links for you lot to benefit from: 1. The Commissariat of Research and Resources has already compiled their first ever Practice Challenge, Kahoot and Quizlet for you ToC attendees to begin cra- I mean study from! 2. The Commissariat of Social Affairs has created plenty of new memes related to the WSC for you lot to enjoy whilst perusing the rest of this website! 5 will be posted every week and your own memes can also be featured if you wish! 3. The Commissariat of Guidance and Assistance has written a whole Scholar's ball guide for you guys to read up and brush up on before the grand crucible that is the Tournament of Champions! You might be meeting one of these guys soon if you schedule a practice debate as well! 4. The Commissariat of Public Relations in addition to the Design and Development Commissariat have yet to make any major changes to the site; but rest assured that won't be the case for next week's update!
Stay tuned scholars! This new team at the helm is ready to serve the community for the seasons ahead and the new scholars to arrive. 14/10/2019 0 Comments Weekly update - 14/10/19Scholars, Comrades, Compatriots! This is a recruitment campaignAs the title above indicates fellow reader, this weekly update marks a momentous changing point in the way this website will be run for the 2020 season and other years of the WSC.
As many of you have already surmised, I am getting quite buried with schoolwork (the IB appears to have no remorse for it's students, surprise surprise). As such, my ability to create even weekly updates or quizzes (even debate/writing motions) has been hampered significantly in the past couple of weeks. I'd like to thank all of you scholars for supporting me through these times and allowing me to miss a few weekly update contents here and there. This cannot be allowed to persist however. Ever since it's inception in February of last year, Avansalpacaresources was meant to be a shared platform where scholars of this amazing program could come together and learn as a community beyond the actual rounds. I was honoured to have shouldered its development and growth as my responsibility and burden to scholars all over the world. Now however, it is time I pass that mantle down to the next generation of scholars who are far less occupied with school than I am. This call goes out to any scholars willing to contribute to the future of this website. Fill out the survey linked below (but read the information about the roles first) and hopefully next weekly update I'll be introducing the new team the rest of you can look upon for help of any kind! 30/9/2019 3 Comments Weekly update - 30/09/19A Spot of news here but not much elseAdmittedly a fairly drab title but I'm sadly finding that I honestly am running out of time to tend to this website. Perhaps in the next couple of weeks or so I shall ponder that matter and announce my decision regarding avansalpacaresources for 2020 (or just wait until the next year and see if the IB doesn't kill me) Anyways, scholars this week we welcome a new scholarly contribution! Lately the last few of them have been resource-oriented, so it's always nice to have a welcome break in the form of a new scholarly meme! Please go have a look at Tuấn Thành Nguyễn's (I do apologise for any mistakes in the accents), from Hanoi-Amsterdam school for the gifted meme. Oddly enough this scholar didn't actually go to the global round in the Hague, nor were they in the program a couple years ago when I was at the global round in Hanoi. Now then, onto that spot of bad news I've been hinting about ominously at the beginning of this post.
It is entirely possible that the Youtube channel for this account (Avanexplains) will not be active for quite some time actually until I somehow find a respite from the burden of schoolwork. I do apologise for slacking in my responsibilities scholars but (believe it or not) there are some things in life slightly more pressing than WSC. Thus you lot will have to find your video resources elsewhere (I highly recommend Joaquin Revello's channel, which has also just recently released a podcast series on Spotify!). Nothing else other than that really. Now then, I haven't got the time to make the debate or writing motions so please find one from the "archives" of this website. Thanks for understanding scholars. 23/9/2019 4 Comments Weekly update - 23/09/19New Contributions and a new editScholars! The Durban round is just getting started and (if activity on Facebook is anything to go by), quite a number of you are already making travel arrangements and financial efforts to attend the amazing Tournament of Champions in November! Rest assured in the weeks leading up to the greatest academic-related event this world has ever known, this website will likely be filled with review materials for you lot to benefit from. Speaking of those review materials, this week we've been given the opportunity to access yet another scholar's notes. This time Victor Kasila from Light Academy Nairobi in Kenya has submitted an entire packet's worth of information regarding Neglected Histories. I'm quite certain you'll find something in there to learn that you can't find in my notes, so go give Victor's notes a little gander! Now in addition to the usual weekly practice challenge, I'd like to point out a seemingly minor change made to one specific area. In the "history resources", a horrible error regarding the internet service capabilities of Kenyan children has been fixed. Many thanks to Pearl from Kenya who texted me in order to address this issue. Scholars if any such errors in other resource area have been made, please feel free to contact me in any method and I will endeavour to fix it in time for the next weekly update. Now then, onto those weekly debate and writing motions. Weekly Debate MotionsScience: RESOLVED That batteries should be banned from powering any appliance Social Studies: RESOLVED That businesses should be required to have a diverse representation of employees History: RESOLVED That former colonial powers should be required to assist their colonies in poverty Art and Music: RESOLVED That political demonstrators should not be persecuted for their opinions Literature: RESOLVED That national monuments should not exist at all Special Area: RESOLVED That we should spend more money on solving mysteries than space travel Weekly Writing MotionsScience: RESOLVED Write a letter to a government about why they should control air-conditioning usage
Social Studies: RESOLVED Campaign for the rights of elderly people in the workplace History: RESOLVED Propose a universal education system to the UN Art and Music: RESOLVED Should private galleries continue to be tourist attractions? Literature: RESOLVED National monuments should no longer be places of human activity Special Area: RESOLVED Which ancient structure is most mysterious? 16/9/2019 4 Comments Weekly update - 16/09/19Not much new to see scholars, just the usualAs the title above suggests, this weekly update is fairly bog standard in terms of announcements and actual additions to the website. There's a new weekly practice challenge, kahoot and quizlet for those of you already engaged in Tournament of Champions preparations (or even Durban!). There is however, a new meme from Ms. Anushka Yadav of Lusaka International Community School in Zambia! It's great to see as the creator that people from all over the world are truly willing to contribute to this platform I've created. Go view that (relatable) meme submission and perhaps get a few ideas for submitting your (appropriate) meme for next week's update. Also, I am slightly disappointed in the lack of actual scholars or even coaches signing up for those tutor sessions I announced a couple weeks back! These are great opportunities for your entire delegation to gain new insight into the events, procedures and resources of the World Scholar's Cup in preparation for the next round or even next season. I'll leave the information page with the signup form below and hopefully by next week I can announce an actual tutor session that happened. Now then, onto the debate and writing motions which were absent from last week's update. I am recycling old motions here to save time (apologies scholars, IB is draining my time for WSC slowly but surely). Debate MotionsScience: RESOLVED That home appliances are doing more harm than good to society Social Studies: RESOLVED That people who oppress minorities should be penalised heavily History: RESOLVED That education should be standardised worldwide Art and Music: RESOLVED That all colonial art should be returned to it's country of origin Literature: RESOLVED That poems do little to impact the treatment of a group Special Area: RESOLVED That all secret services should be removed Writing MotionsScience: RESOLVED Write a letter to a government about why they should control air-conditioning usage
Social Studies: RESOLVED Campaign for the rights of elderly people in the workplace History: RESOLVED Propose a universal education system to the UN Art and Music: RESOLVED Should private galleries continue to be tourist attractions? Literature: RESOLVED National monuments should no longer be places of human activity Special Area: RESOLVED Which ancient structure is most mysterious? 9/9/2019 0 Comments Weekly Update - 09/09/19What a Great date for a weekly updateGreetings Scholars! With Manila globals just about to close out (best of luck to all of you participating right now!), there remains only one lone global round left before the best of the best converge on Yale University for the Tournament of Champions! In order to make sure our scholar comrades attending the Durban round are not disadvantaged in any way while preparing for their moment(s) of glory, a new weekly kahoot, quizlet and practice challenge are already online at the "quizzes" page for you lot to practice on. And unfortunately that's pretty much it for this week scholars. Not much has been happening in terms of tutoring session with entire classes (still an option by the way), or practice debates (still an option by the way) or even scholarly contributions (again, still an option by the way). So hopefully this'll be the shortest weekly update I ever have to write because plenty of scholars will (fingers crossed) be scheduling things with me for the weeks ahead!
2/9/2019 0 Comments Weekly Update - 02/09/19yet another globals, yet another cram weekGreetings Scholars! Unlike last week, there's not much new to announce this week. Seeing as Manila globals is just around the corner (best of luck to all those going by the way!), it's probably best that we keep this week's update short and simple. In terms of news: recently I had an amazing practice debate with Naho of American School Foundation of New Mexico along with her teammates Tsunekatsu and Mizuki of Ichikawa Gakuen school (quite an impressive 14 hour time gap all in all that we managed to overcome). Furthermore, the first of the "tutor sessions" occurred last Saturday with Bernice Guo from the Phillipines at the helm of her school delegation. Many interesting questions were asked and answered along with a follow up tutor session with the whole delegation scheduled! If your school wishes to have the benefit of such a service, talk to your teacher and ask them to fill out the form at the page below! Then of course we've got our usual weekly practice challenge, quizlet and kahoot online at the "quizzes" page. Handy when globals are in sight and you've studied hardly anything yet (I'm looking at you Manila scholars). But that's it for this weekly update, see you all in the next one! Debate MotionsScience: RESOLVED That enabling technologies should be made free for those who require them Social Studies: RESOLVED That governments must contain some marginalised groups within them History: RESOLVED That private charities should be banned from ever existing Art and Music: RESOLVED That copyrights in musical work should be banned Literature: RESOLVED That humans as a species should never have existed in the first place Special Area: RESOLVED That governments should never be allowed to keep secrets from their citizens Writing motionsScience: RESOLVED Should batteries be considered more harmful than beneficial to our society?
Social Studies: RESOLVED Is racism something that must be punished? History: RESOLVED Should domestic servants receive pay from their employers' own income? Art and Music: RESOLVED Are borders really important in the modern world? Literature: RESOLVED Should books that depict marginalised groups be included in literary canons? Special Area: RESOLVED Should governments begin funding mystery-solving expeditions? 25/8/2019 0 Comments Weekly update - 26/08/19A New Service, New Links, New QuizzesGreetings scholars and coaches! If your mouse just happened to hover over the navigation bar at the top of the website, chances are you snuck a peek at a brand new service on avansalpacaresources making it's debut today. More on that later however (coaches and delegation trainers, you may want to stick around for that). Firstly, there are now some new links on the "external sites" page to existing websites and the "mothership" of all WSC social media pages: the Facebook group. Many thanks to Nicholas for helping out with these links! Now then, onto the usual things first before we delve into the new feature. This week I've finally been able to make all 3 key studying resources for you lot! A new weekly challenge, quizlet and Kahoot join the (fairly extensive) list of revision materials for those of you honing your knowledge for Manila, Durban or the legendary Tournament of Champions. All of them can be found via external links (as usual) on the quizzes page (which itself is linked at the button below). Finally, there are some unfortunate announcements that we should probably take note of. The first and most pressing of these is that the practice debate service has all but dried up due to lack of communication on my part. I do apologise for not responding to scholars when they fill out the form, but this is mainly because I rely on email notification (which sometimes get lost in the mess of other WSC-related transmissions) to tell me when someone has filled out the form. In order to ensure that no rumours are spread about this service dying, let me make it clear that practice debates are still a possibility for you and your team. Below is the form incase any of you are already interested. In The second announcements concerns those scholarly contributions (specifically the study guides) which (and I'm very pleased about this!) many of you have submitted for approval and posting. However, there are still some key guidelines that must be respected, in order to maximise the chances of your contribution being posted: - Any study guides must either be in a word document or a Google drive document (sorry scholars, onenote or photographed notes aren't accepted). - Study guides MUST contain material that is YOUR OWN work. I've already seen a study guide where a scholar simply copy-pasted entire articles from multiple websites. This also means you cannot simply submit notes that are just copy-pasted versions of my own or anyone else's. If I can find your study guide either on this website, any other WSC site or on the greater web, then it will not be approved regardless of how detailed or seemingly helpful the guide is. Now, then onto that new feature I've been hinting at for quite some time now. Over the course of the summer coach Joel Pineda and Gabriella Sally had the great idea of scheduling a Skype call with me to coach their scholars on areas of the WSC. So I then took their idea and turned it into my own initiative. As of this week, "Tutoring Sessions with Avansalpacaresources" are now an official program of this website! Tutoring session are basically going to be tailored personally for classes of scholars (keyword: classes) and they're basically video calls with me where scholars can ask questions or learn a specific thing (or two, or more!) from me. Coaches or delegation leaders can fill out the form linked at the page below and get a dedicated tutoring session with me at a time which suits both parties! Hopefully I'll be getting many responses on this form to chat with all of you in a formal setting so I can better communicate my experience with the WSC to all of you! (Plus it's free unlike many other tutoring services so added bonus!). That's all for this weekly update! Make sure to tell your coaches if they can slot in a tutor session into school or WSC study time!
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