On Tuesday 16th October, NIST hosted students from several other international schools for a day of challenge and camaraderie at Camp Half Blood. As a member of the Bangkok Gifted and Talented Network, each school takes turns to host one of these Cluster Days which are designed to give exceptional learners an opportunity to learn with like minds and to delve deeply into an area of particular interest. As each student was allocated to a group based on their affinity with a particular Olympian god or goddess, school divisions were quickly forgotten as students worked together with their new friends on the challenging tasks.

The Camp Half Blood Cluster Day was based around the theme of Greek mythology, and took inspiration from the Percy Jackson series of books by Rick Riordan. During the day students were engaged in a series of challenging and collaborative activities focusing on Greek mythology and its influence on our modern world, including language, mathematics, history and philosophy.

Reading and writing ancient Greek, calculating golden ratios, exploring the mythological roots of many common words, and discovering what the myth of the Golden Fleece has to do with The Avengers were all aspects of the day that were tackled by our eager students. A final challenge involving togas and some Herculean quiz questions allowed them to demonstrate their considerable knowledge of this fascinating area of study.