"I will never let a circumstance or a situation define my life." Inky Johnson
Category: Explorations
Explorations are project-based experiences during which students work together in groups to explore a relevant, often complex question, problem or challenge. This project-based learning is almost always enhanced with intensive activities that involve student immersion in real-world experiences outside of the classroom.
This year I’ve been involved in an Aquaponic one-year project — relates to any system that mixes standard aquaculture with hydroponics in a symbiotic setting. We are thinking of constructing our own system inside our school. We’re doing little by little, first off, we’ve been doing system research. After a long period of research, we have done some more research on the material we have in Cambodia, which is affordable to the local if they want to recreate the design we have. So we found the material we’d like to find. We did a few designs after research that fit with material and easy to replicate in the future as well. The design we have, however, The design we keep changing the construction phase. We finally collected all the material and started building the system. So below is the building stage’s progress. Enjoy:)
Bambujaya school is a new private school in Phnom Penh, that hopes to offer an affordable option to government school students. It is unique in that it will use the government school curriculum, but with innovative and engaging adaptations. So this is where we come in to play! Writing supplemental activities using grade three Khmer curriculum. This means that we are not changing the curriculum; rather, we are adapting it by writing activities called “add-ons” that are more engaging, hands-on, and address multiple learning styles. These add-ons should also be specific, observable, measurable, and simple for the teacher to understand. Finding cross-curriculum activities→ apply knowledge or value to more than one academic. When students can be shown that topics or subjects are connected, it will be more relevant and meaningful to students. Bambujaya wants activities that are STEM-based using light resources to supplement their curriculum. In this Exploration, we have grade 3 books, that 3 topics, Khmer, Science and Societal study, and Math. So I chose the Khmer textbook to write about. So below is some of the add-ons that I wrote in my exploration.
Book: Khmer book
Topic: Describe an event
Central Lesson:
Name: Art skill at a young age
Duration: 10 min for drawing pictures, 2 min check picture, 15 min writing about the picture
Step: 3
Learning Objectives: Students will be able to use their artistic skill to depict an event, and then allow another student to write a story describing their drawing.
Description: Students will need to have a paper(A4) and pencil or pen. Then let them draw a picture of an event of their choice (it can be anything) (Traffic accident, Birthday party, Khmer New Year, Pjum Ben) that they have seen before. Afterward, the students will switch the picture with another student in the class. The students will take a look at the picture they have been given for a few minutes. Then they need to start to write a story based on the picture that they saw. The story can be made up, or true if they know about it.
Additional Resources: Paper(A4), Color pencil, Pencil, Pen
P.S. This activity can be related to reading and writing
Example: On the 1st of June is the event that everyone in the world come together and having a fun time with each other. When they saw each other they will start shooting firework like lightning shooting into the sky forever. This event had started for the last 20 billion year ago, this event starts with man name Bulletin Zap, so the event name after the founder name.
On February 8, 2018, our exploration (Public Health) had a rabies mission. The mission went so well and we successfully vaccinated 167 cats and dogs! On that day, it was so long and tired but I did lose my courage to continue working. In this mission all of us have a job, some people scanned for chips while some other vaccinate dogs and cats also have a person recording animal’s data. I am really looking forward to other mission like this. on that day it was really fun we work with each other really well also work with the villagers that bring their dogs and cats to vaccinate. The villagers feel really happen with what we had provided them. I am really proud of my team for all of the work, and also I want to say thank you to all of the members that help for this mission to happen.
Rabies is a type of virus that moves through our nervous system and damages the brain in 1-3 months. In Cambodia, it is estimated around 5 million dogs and half of the dogs contain rabies virus. There are 600 000 severe dog bites per year to human and about 800 death due to rabies.Around 60% of severe bites are in children age under 17 years. .Rabies it is 100% FATAL when it goes through your body to the brain, no cure, only vaccine before the bite and after the bite. .The symptoms of animals that have rabies are hydrophobia, acrophobia, hypersalivation, and difficulty in breathing. You can identify the animal if it has rabies by notice the tail down, voice change, lost of orientation, can’t recognize its owner, hypersalivation. Cambodia rabies identifies that it mostly happens on dogs but these animals also have it too, cat, cow, pig, squirrel, bat, and African Dog.
My round 1 exploration focused on animation and was led by Sothea from ithinkasia. In this exploration, I learned how to draw various characters, animals, and humans. I felt inept at drawing, so it was more difficult than previous explorations and took me out of my comfort zone. Before this exploration, I created 3d animation using the software Blender, so this experience pushed me to the next level of understanding. Now I can create my own story and can understand the steps needed to complete animation. My team also went to ithinkasia, located in Phnom Penh, to meet and work with Patrick, a professional animator at Dreamwork. At ithinkasia, we learned how to animate bouncing balls with a program called Opentoonz.
This exploration is the third round of game design, in the first and second
exploration thinking about the mechanic of the game that employs into government school all around the country. The third think about is how to manufacture the game with less time, save money with a really good quality game. This game will help the government school a better understand the subject by the question that provides that base on the Khmer textbook that they learn every day. They can also release stress when they learning a new concept that they don’t know.
In Khmer Rouge exploration we had it for all years long for 4 groups. In each group, we focus on different topics like Before, During, After, and looking for the whole period. It this exploration I was the 4 groups that talking about looking for the whole period it was terrifying how Cambodia citizen get thought in that period of time that Cambodia never gets through before. After the 7 weeks of study, we need to come up with our final product, my product was a 3d model of S21(where they kept the prisoner for torture victims).
Our exploration is called Games Around the World, basically games around the world doesn’t mean to the online games or any sport games but it is refer to the informal or playground games. Our members decide to make a survey to ask students and the staff in Liger about the games, how to play and materials we need for the game. Almost everyone submitted the form and we get a lot games from the student and the staff in Liger. Also we sent the survey to the people at another country who we know. Some of them response our mail and some are not. Not just that we also tried to research more game on internet, especially how to play. After getting so many games we create a blog to put the game in and also we attach the google form if anybody would like to put more games.
When I went there I felt so fresh and happy because I could see many thing like the blue ocean, coral reef, forest and many people that are trying to protect the ocean. The thing that impress me the most were to see the beautiful coral reef and fish and other organisms that live in the ocean. Before, I thought in Cambodia we didn’t have any coral reefs and many different types of fish. I learned about the different types of seahorses, algae and fish. I learned that the fishermen in Cambodia need other ways to make money. When I saw the fisherman take everything in the ocean I felt strong that I will protect my ecosystem. I think in the future when I’m 25 or older I will go back to MCC to volunteer.
In the this Exploration I have been working on how to design the 3D building that we want to create a 3D model for Liger Learning Center(LLC) that we can put in the Visitor Information Palace(VIP). Why we want to make VIP because we the visitor came to Liger they know to walk in with out know what is the liger.In this project we use the 3D design called Blender then we use our own 3D printingto print the building. It was my first time to learn the 3D design and it was so hard to design the building. When we do the 3D design than we need to think about the design for the inside what we want put in the container. In the container we has the 3D model, Liger learning model, thing for sale, a slide show,a video and the solar system.
