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BEO Post 6

Dear all,

 

We are one week closer to the BEO! Next week is going to be our last post so I encourage you to go through all the events and ask any last minute questions that require clarification.

 

PRESENTATION EVENTS

 

Question: We have a question regarding the academic presentation slides, specially for the Investigation Challenge.  Since we are talking about news articles, every now and then, in the presentation, we intend to bring a screenshot of the article we are talking about. It’s not a text the student will be reading, it is just to the audience and the judge will know what they are talking about. I just wanted to make sure no points will be deducted.

Answer: Yes, screenshots of the articles are permissible as long as the students do not intend to read any of the text.

 

Question: Also, for Country Spotlight, we were wondering if we could have some sound effects in the presentation.

Answer: Yes, that is fine, as long as they are not too disruptive for the judges and audience.

 

Question: We have a specific question regarding BEO INVESTIGATION.

Does the news that the students are going to present have to be originally written in English or can it be written in Spanish and translated into English?

Answer: The original language of the article does not matter but the summary of it presented must be in English.

 

 

DEBATE

 

Question: Regarding the opening statement of the debate, what should it include (this regarding Stage 3)?

Answer: It should include the key issue / issues that the team want to put forward for the debate as informed by the opening presentations.

Question: Also for Stage 6, how much time will they have to prepare their closing statement?

Answer: They will have the 5 minutes of the last “confer” stage to prepare the closing statement.

 

Question: Should a group move forward to the semi-finals, will both the stance and role for the debate change? Or how does it work?

Answer: The debate is repeated in the Grad Final, not the semi-final, and yes, those teams that qualify will be assigned a new role and a new stance in the morning of the Grand Final and they will have approximately 2.5 hours to prepare. That is also why have been encouraging you to look at all roles from the beginning.

 

Question: The banning of devices for personal use, does that mean using instagram during class time or using it during recess? Does the ban count even if the student use of cell phones also for academic purposes in the class?

Answer: “For personal use” means for whatever use students want to use their devices for UNLESS it is used for academic use as directed by a teacher.

 

Question: The Guidelines say 10 minutes but the Guide in Post 1 15 minutes for the debate cycle. What is the correct amount of time?

Answer: The debate cycle is 10 minutes.

 

Question: Also, what if the 2 first teams use up all the time? Is there a maximum time each team can speak for?

Answer: Once the time is up it moves to focus onto the next role (max 2 teams); that’s why the time limit is there to make sure that the time is divided more or less equally. However, it is up to the team to make the most of it.

 

CREATIVE EVENTS

 

Question: You mentioned before that groups will have some time to practice for the Drama. I would like to know if groups will also have this time for the Acapella Song given that some groups also have a choreography that goes along with this and would be nice to be able to practice with the actual space.

Answer: You will be able to see the venue beforehand, but I cannot guarantee a practice time at this stage.

 

MYSTERY CHALLENGES

 

Question: We just saw the sample of the Mystery Challenge Semi-Final 2019 (in the Forum – post 4) and we are worried because we’ve been preparing for something very different. The guidelines state that “The key task in the BEO Mystery Challenge centres around using creativity and ingenuity to maximise the use of limited resources in order to achieve the goal of the task. Teams nominate a group of students who will participate in this skilful and creative problem solving challenge”. In the training sessions for BEO school leaders held in Buenos Aires in 2019 (which was preparing us for the BEO 2020), it was clearly said to us that the Mystery Challenge involved building something STEM-related (they also provided us with the sample attached). The sample provided in post 4 is much more similar to the improvisation sample (attached) sent to us in 2019. My point is: the training sessions that I conduct with our Mystery challenge team and with our Improvisation challenge team are very different. I’ve been training the Mystery Challenge team to build things, fix structures, solve problems related to limited resources, etc. My improvisation team has been training with different improv games and study sessions of social studies & world culture. Could you clarify how I should proceed?

Answer: The event you are referring to was neither an initiative of Oxford International, nor were we asked to consult on any materials presented, I cannot therefore comment on what you were told or given there.

The Mystery and the Improvisation Challenges are two different challenges and the brief and content changes to match the overall theme of the year. They do combine creativity and ingenuity, use of resources, and creative & critical problem solving challenge but id we clearly outlines how, there would be very little mystery left 😊. However, another sample of Mystery Challenge can be seen here and another sample of the Improv Challenge can be seen here.