Though 2017 will bring a significant amount of attention to China’s One Belt, One Road, we’re excited to see the completion of these China-based tech projects coming down the pipeline.

Bionic Fish Drone
Step away from everything you know about drones and start thinking about taking this tech underwater. That’s exactly what the makers of BIKI, the first bionic robot fish, did. Pictured above, this tech was developed by Dr. Xiong Minglei of Peking Univiersty, and the campaign has raised way more than the original set goal. There are still early bird deals available to get this tech in your hands or in your classroom for solving water-pollution problems and answering marine-life questions.

Augmented Reality Lens
We’re counting down the days until we’re living at home with augmented reality and where there is Hololens-type tech situated on every face. Maybe those days are far into the future, but this affordable mixed reality tech is chipping at the problem in a more cost-efficient way than it’s big-business competitors. Admittedly, it’s aesthetically rudimentary compared to the more famous versions.

Teeny, Tiny Phone
We’re not going to make any spy jokes while on this side of the border, but maybe preventing travel theft is a better application anyway. We do see that this will make preventing cell phones in class particularly impossible for those dinosaur schools that still refuse to apply tech to teaching.

Cellphone Camera Microscope
Make a STEAM teacher happy and get this in their professional-development gift-bag this year. At an inexpensive CA $78, we can’t see why a classroom set wouldn’t make it to the shopping cart either. The maker of this tech is also developing apps to make the microscope tech more user-friendly than just acting as a magnifying glass.

Building Blocks for STEM Classrooms
If you’re concerned about helping young students understand circuits without soldering and coding coming into play, DFRobot has thought up a simple solution by providing a kit for the classroom. The kit works with lights, tiny movable parts, and even LEGO.

Entrepreneurial Game
Before you swamp through an entrepreneurial project-based learning experience, let your students brainstorm with this really cool innovators game. The card game sets the scenario for lifelike examples of users, features, challenges, and boosters.

Flexible-bulb Lamp
Stepping away from hardcore tech and the classroom into creative life designs, we found Art Lamp. This cool purposeful décor lets you reshape the light wire to come up with any shape you desire. It’s meant to fit in with any environment, but especially to promote daily creativity.

Never Sleep-Through Alarm
Unless someone can sleep through an earthquake, this alarm clock will surely help even the grouchiest of teenagers wake up.

These projects are still ongoing or have been fully funded and are waiting release. Check out Kickstarter for other innovative projects in China that have been funded throughout the years.

Photos: Kickstarter.com

In November 2016, the International School of Beijing (ISB) held its first Innovation Expo that gave both old and young innovators a chance to exhibit their creations. In this edition of Blank Canvas, we showcase three projects from the expo as they share what the students are passionate about.

 

Project 1

The Rover Project by Grade 10 Bookyu P. and Subin U.

We began this project for the objective of winning the competitions that the robotics club holds every couple of weeks. The challenge, this time, was to design and create a robot that could complete an obstacle course in the least amount of time. We also had to do this within certain restrictions; we could only use 2NXT motors and Lego pieces.  We decided to work on a 4-wheel design and give maximum power to the back wheels to push our robot forward. We won the competition.

For the expo, we began to create an improved version that was faster and efficient. We successfully installed a redundancy that allowed the wheel to run even if a gear popped off, and we greatly increased the speed by introducing another motor to the front wheels. But not everything went smoothly, and we had many challenges on improving our older design.

Though I think we are both satisfied with the result, we are not done yet. We want to add a couple more commands to the programming that allows it to go backward, and think of ways to make the finished car lighter. We are both extremely passionate about science and robotics, and we hope to continue doing this for a long time!

Today marks the beginning of a three day fundraising campaign for  WeChat’s "Day of Giving" culminating on Wednesday September 9, 2015. Beijing-based Roundabout is trying to raise RMB 1 million through public donations with the yuan-for-yuan match as pledged by WeChat bringing their total target to RMB 2 million. This will fund Roundabout’s numerous projects, facilitating medical procedures and treatment for sick children. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to donate.

Note: You need WeChat wallet to donate. Here’s how to set it up.

Step by Step
 

1. Search for Roundabout’s official account: roundabout666, add the account then look at the bottom of the screen to see this:

2. Click to find the fundraising projects.

3. Click on the last project on the list

4. Click on the button the left to go to the donation page. 

5. Donate one of the pre-selected amounts (RMB 20, 50, 100, 500) or write the desired amount in the space below. Then click on the orange button to go to the confirmation page. 

6. Click on the green button to confirm your payment.

7. If you wish to see share your donation certificate to inspire others to donate, then click on the pop up window’s orange text.

8. The donation certificate doesn’t show how much you donated just that you donated.

Photo: Courtesy of Roundabout

Set a reminder on your smartphone: from September 7-9, Tencent – WeChat’s parent company – is set to give away RMB 100 million to charity. For three days they will match, yuan for yuan, every donation made to participating charities on their WeChat fundraising platform. Beijing-based Roundabout is taking part to raise funds for their numerous projects which help children get necessary medical assistance.

Tencent has earmarked September 9 as a new day of giving in China and hopes to inspire it’s users to donate to charitable causes, not just on that date, but throughout the year. beijingkids spoke to Becky Wang, director of Roundabout, who hopes to raise RMB 1 million from donations with RMB 1 million matched by Tencent.

Here’s how to take part on September 9
Note: You need WeChat wallet to donate. Find out how to set it up here.

Step by Step
 

1. Search for Roundabout’s official account: roundabout666, add the account then look at the bottom of the screen to see this:

2. Click to find the fundraising projects.

3. Click on the last project on the list

4. Click on the button the left to go to the donation page. 

5. Donate one of the pre-selected amounts (RMB 20, 50, 100, 500) or write the desired amount in the space below. Then click on the orange button to go to the confirmation page. 

6. Click on the green button to confirm your payment.

7. If you wish to see share your donation certificate to inspire others to donate, then click on the pop up window’s orange text.

8. The donation certificate doesn’t show how much you donated just that you donated.

Roundabout Vegetarian Fund
The idea behind Roundabout’s Vegetarian Fund is to "cut-back and donate." Members of the public are asked to cut-back on meat, eat a vegetarian meal, and donate the approximately RMB 20 saved to the Roundabout fund via WeChat.

Whether you manage to go meatless or not, please donate to Roundabout from September 7-9. The money raised goes towards helping to treat sick children; for example previous recipients of funding have had heart surgery, bone-marrow matching, respite care, specialist medical care for premature babies, and more.

Since November 2014, Roundabout is eligible to receive public funding in China under the China Charities Aid Foundation for Children (CCAFC), but all funds raised under CCAFC and intended for Roundabout will go directly to the charity.

Photos: Courtesy of Roundabout

Are you an entrepreneur looking for a new way to challenge yourself? Then the 48-Hour Start-Up may just be for you. The event encourages individuals or teams from various backgrounds to work together on a project, create a business plan, and create a mature offer in 48 hours. Following the bid, selected projects will have the chance to present their start-up ideas in front of a panel of investors. Think Dragons’ Den but a lot more French (the project is organized by the French Junior Chamber International and Niwotata Future Hub).

This year’s session will run June 12-14 and revolves around the theme of female leadership, with various successful female leaders giving speeches throughout the weekend. To find out more, check out the organizers’ website.

To sign up, fill out this form before June 9. Registration is RMB 400 for non-members and RMB 300 for students enrolled in China or French Junior Chamber International members.

The registration fee includes: two-day mentoring sessions, speeches by high-profile experts, a presentation of selected projects to a panel of investors, networking, and CV dissemination, awards, as well as food and beverage provided over the entire weekend, and a cocktail party on Sunday evening. 

This post first appeared on thebeijinger.com on June 2, 2015. 

As this year’s Roots & Shoots International School Summit draws closer, the summit offers a great opportunity for students to engage with their mentor, Dr. Jane Goodall in person.

The blogs from the last couple of weeks focused on the projects of the Beijing City International School and the International School of Beijing Roots & Shoots groups.

This week’s blog spotlights Yew Chung International School (YCIS) Roots &Shoots Group and the host school, Western Academy of Beijing (WAB) Roots & Shoots Group.

YCIS R&S Group has a lot of students with creative and unique ideas. To help spread awareness about the No Shark Fin Campaign they held a Green Couture fashion show for high school students. At the show, they used sustainable materials to design their own clothes and students proudly displayed them. There was also dancing, musical performances and guest speakers from the Roots & Shoots Beijing Office. In the end of the day they raised RMB 2, 000 then donating it to Roots & Shoots where it will be directly used to help support environmental education throughout China.

The students also organized many other activities to help the environment and animals. For example, they started a recycling initiative where they put different bins into the class rooms to make their schoolmates separate their trash. They have also been holding vegan bake sales, raising awareness about the impact of meat consumption on the environment and public health.

The R&S Group of WAB is excited to be hosting the summit, as they are also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the 1st R&S group in China, beginning at WAB in 1994. Their group, divided into three separate groups by school level, High School,  Middle School and Elementary School were involved in this year’s spreading of environmental awareness. Their main project was the CleanUp Duck Lake campaign. The WAB campus lake, once, was very polluted by waste water from the local community. Their campaign raised community awareness of the efforts to keep the Duck Lake environment clean by methods such as scientifically testing the water quality, investigating the origin of the sewage and seeking strategies to prevent more local sewage lines into the lake.

Projects that were also designed to keep the environment clean were the Greenhouse and Recycling project. Both were led by Elementary School students who were very dedicated in helping the environment.
The R&S Middle School Group focused more on animal related problems. One project that is annually organized is the Wildlife Calendar. Students take pictures of different wild animals, pets or landscapes.  Afterwards, these photos will be united into one calendar, selling them to raise money for different charities.

Another project is the Bird and Plants of Duck Lake campaign. WAB R&S conducted professional research about the different species living in the Duck Lake environment, publishing the results on a board which will inform the community about the birds and plants and showing the value of the lake.

In about three weeks the event will be held at WAB. The Roots & Shoots office is very excited to see the different projects and to  get to know all Roots & Shoots friends!

Roots & Shoots is an international hands-on environmental and humanitarian education program that is about making positive change happen – for the environment, for animals and for our communities. Started in 1991 by Dr. Jane Goodall and a group of Tanzanian students who wanted to make a difference in their community, R&S is now a growing global program based on the principle that everyone has the ability to bring about change. For more information, visit our website www.genyuya.org.cn/en/

Photos: Courtesy of WAB and YCIS R&S groups