Author: portfoliostudent

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Khmer Literacy, Poem and Songwriting

In Khmer class this year, one of our focus is poem and songwriting. In Khmer, poems have their own special rhyme structures, therefore we had to conduct a little research on Khmer poem structure and choose one that we would like to use. I wrote two poems, one using the commonly used structure, the seven syllable structure where every line of the poem has a consistent of seven-syllable. The second poem I wrote was with the ladder structure, where every line in a stanza increase by one syllable. Below is one of my poems written in Khmer and English translation underneath it. 

សំរាមកំសត់

បទពាក្យប្រាំពីរ

អាសូរសំរាមតាមដងផ្លូវ                                  គ្មានទីលំនៅ រឺ បងប្អន      

រសាត់រសល់ប្រៀបដូចក្បូន                                  ក្លិនស្អុយស្ទើរសូនជាដរាប។    

 

សំរាមបានត្រឹមជាសំណល់                                  ដែលគេបន្សល់នៅតាមផ្សារ

             ទីធ្លាទូទៅគ្រប់បណ្តា                                 ឥតពិចារណាទុកជាមុន។       

 

សំរាមត្រូវមានកន្លែងត្រឹមត្រូវ                                  ដែលអាចរស់នៅតាមការគួរ     

កន្លែងនោះជាអ្វីសូមកុំសួរ                                  ចូរអ្នកសាកសួរខ្លួនអ្នក។     

 

Tragic Trash

Seven-syllable structure

I feel the sympathy for the trash on the streets,

they have no home or relatives                                   

rather, they drift around like a raft                              

 carrying a stench for their remaining days.              

         

Trash can be nothing, but waste                                  

    they the ones people leave in the market,                 

    and in public spaces of all sort                                          

          without taking any consideration before doing so.      

 

Trash should have the right place,                               

where they can live in as they should                          

“What is the place?” please do not ask                       

I love would you to ask this to yourself.                      

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Online Neuroscience Course

A few years ago I got interested in neuroscience after finish reading a book called “A Day in the Life of the Brain” by Ana María Rodríguez. From then, I read more and more about the brain and human body. The build-up of my interest led me to do an independent discovery where I take an online neuroscience course made by Harvard University. The course was challenging, but I really enjoy learning it; they include many analogies which helps make every simpler for me to understand. At some point through the course, I learned something really amazing, something that I never thought I would learn in the course, like the GHK equation that is used to calculate the membrane potential of the neuron (brain cell). Another thing that I really enjoy learning about the course is thinking of the neuron in term of electronics; it helps me recall my knowledge of electronic and use it to help learn about how the brain works. So far, I haven’t finished this course yet, but after I finish it, I plan to continue studying about humans, specifically psychology. For my future, I want to work on developing brain exercise to help with learning disabilities to learn.

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Future Food Expertise

As had been mentioned in the previous blog post, Future Food expertise and extension is dedicated to working on things that we hadn’t done in Future Food exploration. In this expertise, we worked mainly wiring the power supply, which is one of the components of the automated system of the hydroponics system that we implemented. Once finish working on the power supply box, we worked mostly on the water flow system, as well trying to install the sensor that will measure the water flow rate and the quality of the nutrient solution.

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Future Food Exploration

As the population increases, more is needed, that includes living space, water, and food supply. Responding to the needs, hunger may be a problem since there would be less space for agriculture usage which would supply us food. Future food is an exploration where we peeked into a corner of the solution for the problem stated above. In this particular exploration, we focused on implementing a hydroponic and a green roof system since these systems would take less time for to stabilize compared to other systems, for instance, aquaponic which we had learned from our research. Once deciding the system we would use, we did further research to learn more about the steps we were making. As more research had been done, we learned that we had to make more choices, for an example, the type of hydroponics system we would use, we chose the Nutrient Film Technique (NFT) system. The NFT system is a system where the nutrient solution would be pumped to the growing trays and to the reservoir. Then it would be recycled and circulated throughout the growing system. In this system, growing medium is not a requirement; the root of the plant can be set to swim freely in the nutrient solution. However, this can only be used to grow leafy light-weighted crops. This system suits our need for a couple of reasons; (1) it suits for the crop we want to grow (the most consumed crop in our school; bok choy and lettuce), (2) there is an organization (RDI) we know that had implemented this system, therefore we would more support and a place to look to while we try to implement our own system, and (3) it is less complex compared to other hydroponic systems. Since there were two things we hope to implement, we divided the exploration members into two teams, one to work on the green roof and the other to work on hydroponics. I was assigned to hydroponics, where I and my partner, Rathanak work mostly on calibrating censors that will be used to automate the hydroponic system. I and my partner worked with Ph, conductivity and some other sensor. We also worked on testing to the acid that would be needed to be used to lower down the Ph of the water nutrient solution at some point of the growing cycle once the system started running. Towards the end of the exploration, we work on making the power supply box and the brain of the automated system, where the signal would be sent around to different sensor once something went wrong, for an example the water nutrient solution don’t have the right conductivity standard. During the exploration, we went out on a few trips to learn more about hydroponics as well as buying supplies to build the system. One of the trips was RDI which had been mentioned earlier. Despite all the effort, every member put into bringing the system alive, we could not get it done by the end of the exploration so we continue working on it in expertise and after-school extension time.

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LMRT Trip | November 16-19

On this particular trip, lasting from November 16-19, LMRT is focusing on practicing marine survey and substrate identification ability assessment. As usual, on the way to Koh Seh island, we review what we’ve learned and read our books. There, all our dive were focused on transect survey practice. For the first dive, we had to do everything by ourselves to practice our transect survey. Laying the transect line was one of our main problems. I could feel myself floating on the surface all the time when holding on to the safety marker buoy (SMB) while laying the transect line. After that dive, my dive instructors figure that I need more weight to help me descend into the water. They also learned that they need to teach us one skill at a time, then teach us to combine the skills together to learn a more difficult skill like marine surveying. For the next dives, we only need to swim with neutral buoyancy and record everything we see there. Though things we had to do were reduced I still had a lot of troubles. I felt very uncomfortable swimming with my new weight; which made it hard for me to control my buoyancy. I felt the need to move my legs all the time to keep my neutral buoyancy, which made me swim very fast; it was too fast for the survey. I couldn’t write everything I saw when I finished the survey. I continued to have the similar problem every day while trying to adjust to my new weight until my last dive of this trip, where I got used it.

Beside the dives, I took the substrate identification test and got involved in projects with people at MCC (Marine Conservation Cambodia). MCC is an organization that is working protecting the marine life. With MCC’s people, I did a beach cleanup around the island with my dive team, consisting of three other students. In less than an hour, we collected about 28 kilograms of trash, which later was used by the other dive team to stuff into plastic bottles that had been collected in order to make eco blocks. I was also involved in a dolphin survey where I had to use a binocular to search across the sea in a zig-zag pattern, standing up high on the hill. Unfortunately, we did not spot a single dolphin that day, in fact, MCC had not seen any dolphin in two weeks. Even though my expectation was to see a dolphin, I felt very happy to search for them. 

Overall, the whole trip was a very good experience. I felt like I was already a part of protecting the ocean through picking up the trash and learning to do an underwater survey.

  • Making eco blocks
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LMRT Trip | October 26-29

On the 26th of October, LMRT (Liger Marine Research Team) went back to Koh Seh to practice our SCUBA diving skills as well as taking a test to see how well we identify fish species and learning more about marine surveying. On the second day of being there, our dive instructor planned us a dive where we had to practice our navigation skills underwater. Unfortunately, the visibility was very bad, so we weren’t able to do much.Later that morning, we reviewed for our fish identification test and took it in the afternoon. I felt very nervous when the test started. At first, I did very bad, so the mentor gives me more tips to identify the species which look very similar. For, I second try, I score much better, this time I passed the test. It felt like the most rewarding thing ever especially when we got to dive with the bioluminescence after the test. I swam in the water and release all my tension from the test there while moving my limb around to see the beautiful glitter of the night. The experience made me feel like I had seen underwater firework celebrating the success of passing the test.

 

Later this trip, we attempt to practice our navigation skills again.We had two dive buddies team dive together, one team lead first and take down the note of the direction they are traveling in, then they would the note our team and the next team had to lead back to the starting point. When my team got the dive slate, we couldn’t understand the writing, so we just use our instinct and the nature around us to find our way back. It turned out that we didn’t get to the starting point, the boat, but we were very close. We just had to swim around 50 meters to get to the boat. On this trip, we also practice surveying with transect line, but on land. We had to practice walking on land with the speed of about 1.5 meter per minute, which is the speed at which we should do the survey underwater. At that point I felt like doing a survey isn’t that hard until I practice a real one underwater on the next trip.

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Changing Cambodia 2016-2017

School gets more intense as we get older. In this school year, the first year of  high school I had been in a lot of explorations that have the potential to make changes in Cambodia, for instance, the Game Design, and Waste Management exploration.

 

It might sound silly to say being in a Game Designing exploration has the potential to make changes Cambodia, but this exploration does has the potential to shape this country. Through this exploration, we found that not many public school students have the knowledge of climate change and how it affects us. Due to this fact, and the fact that climate change is a current global problem we decided to make a game that is aimed to be fun and educational. So far, it isn’t completely done yet, but hopefully it will be ready shortly. Through playing this climate change board game that we had created, the students or anyone can learn about climate change and/or review anything they wish to. I and my team strongly believe that this game will raise the awareness of climate change, and perhaps get people to take action no matter if it is big or small. There were lots and lots of challenges in this exploration, but over time we learned to solve them.We have our favorite quote of our exploration that states, “Failing is not trying.” This quote kept me and  my team to try and do things at risk and overcome our “fear of failure”. An example of something we did was when we change the mechanics of the game or changing parts of the game without being afraid of failing, all we did was play-test the game and see if it works or taking the game to the next level. As mentioned before, the game isn’t completly, but hopefully, it will be in the near future because the only work that need to be done is getting it manufactured and/or improve the game because improvements never stop.

 

Waste Management is also a good example of a Changing-Cambodia exploration. The goal of the exploration is to educate farmers about the importance of waste management and how they can use their organic waste to turn it into something beneficial___compost. I really hope that this exploration will help to improve the environmental status, because if more people are making compost, then the amount of trash in the community will be reduced and the organic waste will help to save people’s money and potentially bring them money through selling their compost. To accomplish this goal, our team interviewed a lot of people about compost and their waste management method as well as trying to find the potential supplier(s) and buyer(s) of compost. Through this, our exploration will be able to start the project at a small scale to prove people that this project can really have positive effects for both, the people and the environment, so we will be able expand the project into a larger scale. As many people might have noticed, trash and waste is a really big problem in Cambodia especially plastic, if this exploration can really work some unestimated amount of trash would be reduced and someplace might become less aromatic.

 

Overall I feel as though I became an adult this year. I feel so much wiser now although I can get very silly sometimes. I feel like I and the rest of liger students are making some really good move for making big changes in Cambodia, our national country. Not only that I feel proud of myself and other Liger students, I feel proud of my village. Recently, there had been a dance club almost directly in front of my house. The club was  made for anyone at any age to go and dance every evening as their exercise. I thought the idea of a dance club is a great one, because many middle-aged and old people around my village have diabetic and/or hypertension disease, and exercising is a really good thing for them. Seeing this change the people are making in my village inspire me to think of something to do as a change agent. I at least distribute the scoliosis papers during the summer break, but I am hoping to come up with something big and change my village. I had been thinking about making a community saving, where a group of people would save money together and anyone could borrow the money anytime without having to pay interest, but the payment time have to decided by the group. Through, observation I realized that my idea would take a long time to get it to work. Most people there don’t like saving money, and in fact, they like to borrow the money from the bank, the fact that they have to pay to the bak monthly motivated to work harder. These habit and mindset is really hard to change. Often, when I talk to the elder they would tell me to stay out of their business.

 

Though my plan didn’t work, I will be looking changes to make in my community and in Cambodia. I believed that, everyone can see a lot that could be done better in a small area, and anyone could make a change. I will be watching how my country grow, as I try to help it grow. Soon I’ll be an adult, then I can get in the adult business and give people suggestion more effectively with my new appearance.

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Khmer Literature Festival

On the 20th of October, I and nine other students attend the Khmer Literature Festival. It was a new event, hosting for the time in Siem Reap province.  On the first day of attending the event in Wat Damnak Pagoda, I was very impressed and inspired. I got to meet Cambodian expatriates who write a story everywhere they go. I also got to know many young Cambodians authors. For years, many Cambodians including me thoughts that Cambodians are losing interest in their own literature, but now people had proven me wrong. Throughout the event, there were always more and more talks that inspired me. I learned a lot about the development of Cambodian poetry, famous Cambodian authors, and people’s opinion about the development of Khmer Literature. There were also books on sale and really caught my attention; I can’t stop myself buying them. Buying them to support the authors. Buying because I love to read books. Besides all the impression, I felt disappointed and confused, I was hoping to find some Khmer adventure book, but there weren’t any while there are many in English. Though I couldn’t find what I was looking for, the experience was really good. I enjoy seeing people coming together and combat a national problem. I am looking forward to seeing Cambodians getting more interested in their national literature.

 

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English Literacy

In literacy class this year, we are focusing on English grammar and vocabulary. This is meant to improve our English and also getting ready for the SAT test. As part of literacy class, we learned about coming of age and write one about ourselves. Coming of age is an experience from one’s  childhood that means a lot to them or changes them and them who they are. Below is my final draft of my coming of age. It is about speaking up to my family for my own thoughts.

Below is my short story.

Continue reading “English Literacy”

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Book Club

One of my After School Extension (ASE) this year is book club. In this book club, we read a book called “The brain that changes itself” by Norman Doidge. I find the book interesting for many reasons. (1) The book focuses on the brain which is what I like learning about. (2) The book has many interesting stories relating to the plastic brain. (3) One of the most courageous women (Barbara Arrowsmith) I know is also mention in the book. Barbara was born with a brain disability which limits her from understanding relationship, like reading a clock. However, she does not let lead the destiny of her life, she designed her own brain exercise and frequently challenge herself to do things out of her ability. Soon, her brain can function like anybody else’s, and now she working on making brain exercise for bran disabled kids. I also enjoyed reading about how neuroscientists are working towards curing brain disability or problems like autism.