"Have you heard of it? The 2023-2024 Science Innovation Program (SIP) of THISDL is now open for application!"
"You’re bluffing! That SIP? Where students have specialized experiment-oriented courses based on the six research laboratories to enhance their scientific skills?"
"For sure! I’m enrolling my kids in before it’s too late!"
The Science Innovation Program (SIP) aims at broadening students' interests and expertise, developing scientific research skills, and stimulating the spirit of innovation and creativity, with the goal of establishing a focused mechanism of sending talented students to top-tier institutions around the world. The SIP program selects for innovative young researchers and develops leadership skills in preparation of their future professional development as world-class scientists.
Tsinghua International School Daoxiang Lake (hereafter "Tsingxiang") is under the direct management of Tsinghua University High School，providing the first-class international education from kindergarten to high school. The school adheres to the motto of "Self-discipline and Social Commitment" and the school spirit of "Virtue Precedes Wisdom, Actions Speak Louder than Words. " Tsingxiang takes "International quality, Chinese foundation, and Tsinghua characteristics" as its school characteristics; and "focus foremost on education and students" as the guiding ideology. Tsingxiang provides a high-quality international education integrating China and the West and an innovative education model to cultivate outstanding international talents who are independent thinkers with a creative spirit. The campus covers an area of 145 acres, with a total construction area of 162,000 square meters. The campus has diverse and functional facilities, including kindergarten, primary school, middle school, and high school teaching buildings, two indoor gyms, a 25 metere, 8-lane swimming pool, a standard 400 meter plastic track and a standard football field, two libraries, a theater that accommodates 1000 people, 3 students dinning halls, a faculty dining hall, a cafeteria, a fitness center, dormitories for boys and girls, and an apartment building for students.
The Science Innovation Program (SIP) helps students to explore the scientific fields that are appealing to them, learning the cutting-edges of current research. Students will be equipped with essential research skills by going through complete research processes. SIP encourages students to design their own experiments and supports students’ extracurricular studies in laboratories outside the school.
Students may join SIP after passing the Qualifying Exam and be sorted to a SIP homeroom based on their research fields.
First-year SIP students will take specialized courses from six fields: organic chemistry, marine biology, physiology & anatomy, engineering mechanics, artificial intelligence and earth sciences. Students will take 2 out of the 6 courses provided for one year.
Starting from the second year, students will choose a lab mentor based on their interest and take core laboratory course. The core courses cover more advanced topics through project-based learning and offer specialized research per students’ ideas and requests.
The Organic and Applied Chemistry Laboratory is equipped with lab benches, fume hoods, preparation rooms, gas cylinder rooms, and emergency shower systems to meet the conditions of analytical and organic chemistry experiments. The laboratory equipment includes high performance liquid chromatograph, gas chromatograph-mass spectrometry, infrared spectrometer, ultraviolet spectrophotometer, melting point meter and other cutting-edge equipment. At present, the main research directions of this laboratory are the exploration of synthetic methods and structure-activity relationships of potential drugs, the identification of small molecules, the use and maintenance of analytical instruments, and the assistance of other laboratories in the testing of samples
Biological Technology of THISDL is equipped with clean bench, -80 refrigerator, electrophoresis apparatus, microbiological incubator, high-speed frozen centrifuge, the lab offers college level research opportunities on genetic engineering and cell culture. Projects designed include investigating the optimal growing conditions for soil microbes, extraction and identification of natural products, the genetic engineering and inductive expression of engineered bacteria as well as cell culture and drug testing.
Marine Biology laboratory features on the coral reef tank and rocky reef tank and lead students to explore the composition and function of marine ecological system. In the meantime, students will compare the morphological differences of fishes through dissection, as well as their identification and classification. Marine Biology Lab offers project-based studies, including investigating the effect of temperature on the aquatic organisms’ respiration efficiency, the effect of pH on the formation of the shell and exoskeletons of crustaceans and the optimal conditions of raising coral larva in captivity. Project-based study encourages students to ask questions out of curiosity and to design experiment, collect data to draw conclusions.
Physics and Astronomy Lab will provide students with instruments, materials, and space for exploring the contents of physics. Students are going to explore how the world measures everything from coffee to the cosmos. Here, imagination makes collisions with talent. New supernovas in physics are about to come. Research and projects will focus on the following aspects: 1. Measurement in New SI base unit and related physical quantities. 2. The engineering application of physics knowledge and theories. 3. Research about the philosophy of science and the history of technologies.
The Earth and Environmental Lab focuses on cutting-edge issues in areas of geochronology, paleontology, stratigraphy, climate physics, modeling of social/natural complex systems, hydrology, and geomorphology. One program is to study the paleoenvironment (vegetation, temperature, precipitation, etc.) of some paleolithic archeological sites in China. It is aiming to synthesize the characteristic environments of these paleolithic sites to know more about those early homo species. Another possible program is to design more sustainable and environment-friendly hiking trails for mountainous parks in Beijing.
The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory is equipped with high-performance computers, professional cameras and powerful GPU clusters to provide an extraordinary scientific research environment for the students. Students will not only learn necessary Mathematical preliminaries; they will also gain knowledge on some specific fields that interest them. So far, the lab will be specifically focusing on machine learning and will reveal the mechanism of some of the most charming algorithms for the students. With properly and elaborately designed projects, students will understand and be able to apply these algorithms to their own research.
Dr. Jing Yao, mentor of Organic and Applied Chemistry Laboratory. She got her Ph.D. in chemistry from Emory University. She has been engaged in the synthesis of small molecule drugs for many years, and has been developed a class of GluN2C/D-selective antagonists of the NMDA receptors for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases (Parkinson's disease), and has extensive laboratory work and patent application experience.
Allen Li, mentor of Biological Technology Laboratory and Marine Biology Laboratory. He obtained his bachelor's and master's degree in marine biology at UC San Diego. He studied the extraction and purification of anti-tumor agents and antibiotics from the secondary metabolites of marine bacteria.
Ma Qinghua, mentor of Physics & Astronomy Laboratory. Successively graduated from Wuhan University (BE of Engineering Mechanics) and University of York (MS of Engineering Management). Head of a national level research and innovation training program for college students during his undergraduate studies. Years of experience in teaching IBDP and AP physics. Excellent coach for international physics competition. Experience in international peer review of papers related to physics.
Zhao Xiangming, mentor of the Earth and Environmental Sciences Lab. He received his B.A. in Geology from Kent State and M.A. in Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences from Brown University. His research at Brown focuses on the use of biochemical marker (cocolithphore's alkenone unsaturation) to reveal the history of changes in mean sea surface temperature in different regions during the M2 period; he has an in-depth study of the coupling of climate cyclicity with the periodic changes in the Earth's orbital parameters, and has unique experience in interdisciplinary research topics.
Ryan Wang, mentor of the Artificial Intelligence Lab. He obtained his Bachelor’s degree in the major of Measuring & Control Technology and Instrumentations in the North China Electric Power University and his Master’s degree in Mechanical Engineering in the University of Waterloo. His research was on the binocular vision-aided inertial navigation system in SLAM and the object recognition from the 3D Lazer point cloud.
SIP is now open for application nationwide. Students in grade 9 or 10 in the school year 2023-2024 who love science and enjoy doing research are welcome to join us!
SIP will hold Qualifying Exams on June, August, and January of the next year. For current THISDL students, the exam comprises 3 parts: written examination (40%), students interview (30%) and comments of teachers (30%). For new students, the exam includes the written examination (55%) and student interview (45%).
