How I Change Cambodia 2018-2019

Some of my relatives have said girls shouldn’t play sports, girls shouldn’t be leader, girls should stay home and be a good housewife, girls don’t need to get high education because as soon as they grow up, they’ll marry. However, due to the development of society in this modern day, girls have more rights to involve themselves in anything that they wish. Girls have their own choice and more freedom to make decisions. I feel really thankful to be in the Liger society. I can choose my own path and work towards finding my own passion. Since I’ve been in Liger, my parents give me freedom and always support me because they believe that I can better learn and develop if they don’t put pressure on me. 

 Freedom is given to me, so why should I wait. I started my year by asking myself “What have I done to change and impress those who think that girls are just housewife?” Life is always occupied with work, but I know that in order to change people’s mindset, I must start moving. As Cambodia is a developing country, it takes a very big leap in technology and business field. Additionally, Liger is a project-based learning school and is focusing on STEM, I have participated in many events in relation to those fields; Technovation, robot competition and other environmental related which is No single-use plastic at Liger. 

Technovation is the world’s largest entrepreneurship program for girls age 10-18. Their goals is to empower the world’s underrepresented young people, especially girls, through engineering and technology to become innovators and leaders. They aim to have all participants to develop mobile apps and startups to solve problems around a diverse range of problems in their communities. Technovation has reached 23,000 girls in 100+ countries and I was one to participate. It is a 12 weeks program which allows girls to further develop their understanding about entrepreneurship and coding.

 I and the other four girls decided to walk and fight through this journey together. We have come up with the idea of creating an interactive event hub where performers can promote their performances and audience/tourists can have easy access to the information such as location, date, time and contacts. We aim to prosper Cambodian culture back by giving tourists/audiences authentic experiences and performers greater job opportunity. During the 12 weeks program, I had experience how does it feels like to do a business startup. I learned to critically analyse the problem and the solution, and also make connection with varieties of people. It was the moment where argument and disagreement had initiated. In order to have a successful business, we need to discuss not just taking ideas of each individual. Discussions do not always go with the flow, there must be arguments and disagreement, but because of each individual’s creativity, we were able to get things done and also we have made strong connection together. Our project require reaching out to different people and different organizations. I didn’t know those organizations before, but I got their contacts from people that I know. 

The Credos members

Throughout the program we the Credos has created an application called Amara in the vision of empowering Cambodia art and culture. The app is ready to be launch, but we still need money and support in order to get the business running. This shows that girls have the power to create change in the country. I also believe that girls is a big factor to develop the country too.  

18th Guangxi Adolescent Robot Competition and the ASEAN National Adolescent Robot Invitational Tournament in China

Another great experience that I had so far this year was robot competition. We have 4 members in the team, 2 boys and 2 girls. We are the first and the only Cambodian team to compete in 18th Guangxi Adolescent Robot Competition (GARC) and the ASEAN National Adolescent Robot Invitational Tournament in China. This competition is not only focus on robot but they also include cultural exchange. As the representative team of Cambodia, we had won the best ASEAN competitive spirit and we also grab audience attention through our two performance of Khmer Classical Dance, Neary Jea Jour and Saravan the social dance. Cambodia is a country rich in culture and even though the technology is playing a big role in developing the country, we should at least support it. Furthermore foreigners are eager to learn about the culture of  each country not just the geography. During our trip to China, we made connections with different people and this has shown that Cambodia is a friendly country.

Cultural exchange event
Saravan, the social dance performance
Neary Jea Jour, the classical dance performance
Dragon dance

 Now let’s come to the environment part. As you know that plastic is a convenient product to use in our daily life, especially single-used plastic. Although it benefits us in our everyday life, it also has consequences. Our country is getting dirtier due to the amount of plastic littering in the environment and the paucity of waste management. As students who cares about the environment, we have started a project to help reduce the use of single-used plastics in our school. Even though we only start in our school, but a long journey start from single step. We have to do it step by step in order to pursue the big dream. As a team, we tried to find alternative products to replace plastic products like straws, plastic bags and then we tried to implement it our school through campaign and presentations. As a result, our school had reduce so much used of single-use plastic because people are aware of the nature around and how it affects their health. I believe that once people start to realize about the consequences and how it affects them, they will start to make a little change. 

No single-use plastic team visited BetterU to interview about grass straw

Overall, I understand that change does have to be big. It needs to start from small steps and it starts from each individual. I also believe that I have made people around me think that girls have the power to create positive change for the country and they are better than just a housewife. Lastly, I want to say that all morning and night will pay off.

Independent Learning

For the last round of the year, multimedia class is more likely to be working independently on some specific projects that has been introduced to us from the past. I chose to work on Adobe Illustrator because I want to do some digital art, not just drawing on paper. Adobe Illustrator was introduced to us since the beginning of the year. This leaves a challenge for me because I don’t remember the tools, so I have to go on Youtube and watched the tutorial. Researching is hard. When I have question, I couldn’t ask anyone but searching and finding the right video of what I wanted to know. Sometimes I spent my time on the video that doesn’t even relate to my question. So what I did was trying to find the official website for Adobe Illustrator. I found it easier to look for tutorials on the official website than on Youtube since there are varieties of videos that are already sorted into categories for me. Even though I chose to work on Adobe Illustrator, but I found myself not enjoy doing it due to the time limit and the lack of skill that I have related to Adobe Illustrator. I felt like I didn’t learn much in Multimedia class this round. I prefer learning as whole class.

Learning how to outline
Learning how to add color to the art piece

អក្សរសាស្ត្រខ្មែរ

ក្នុងនាមជាកូនខ្មែរមួយរូប យើងត្រូវតែមានការយល់ដឹងខ្លះៗអំពីប្រវត្តិសាស្ត្ររបស់ប្រទេសយើង ក៏ដូចជាប្រ​វត្តិនៃអ​ក្សរសាស្ត្រដែរ។ រយៈពេល​ប្រាំពីរសប្ដាហ៍មុននេះ ខ្ញុំបានធ្វើការស្រាវជ្រាវអំពី ប្រវត្តិនៃ ទឹកដីខ្មែរ ព្រមទាំង​ការវិវត្ត៍នៃតួរ​អក្សរខ្មែរផងដែរ។​ ក្រោយពីធ្វើការស្រាវជ្រាវនៅ​ក្នុងប្រព័ន្ធអ៊ីនធើណែត​ ខ្ញុំបានធ្វើការជាក្រុម ដើម្បីរៀបចំជាការធ្វើបទបង្ហាញមួយ ក្នុងគោលបំណងចែករំលែក​ចំណេះដឹងដែលខ្លួន មានទៅដល់មិត្តរួមថ្នាក់។  ក្រៅ​ពីការធ្វើបទបង្ហាញ ពួកយើងក៏មានជាការសរសេរតាមអាន​ដូចគ្នា។​ ការធ្វើដូចនេះ ខ្ញុំក៏ដូចជាមិត្តរួមថ្នាក់បានបង្កើនសមត្ថភាពក្នុងការសរសេរ​ រួមទាំងការធ្វើបទបង្ហាញ។

Word Problems

Math is very complex. As English is my second language, solving word problems is one of my struggle in math. Those word problems include tricky words that sometimes left me a headache all day. I have set my goal to work more on the word problems for math class. I did go over the exercises in the workbook and I usually practice on Khan Academy. By doing that for so long, I felt like I am better with those word problems now since I’ve identified the key words and the important part is I did a lot of practice.

Humans of Cambodia

Humans of Cambodia is my fourth exploration of the year. The exploration was inspired by Humans of New York. We interviewed different people in Cambodia including individuals and families and then we interpreted those stories into short meaningful and powerful captions to put in our blog. Those stories came along with a photograph. We asked people about their life stories and the questions that we asked were usually relate to their feeling, memories or their experiences. For examples:

  • What is your happiest (it can be any of the emotion) moment in your life?
  • What is your best childhood memory?
  • Do you think money can buy happiness? Why or why not?

Throughout this project, I had improved my skills of approaching people that I don’t know and interpret long stories into short and meaning captions that match with the photographs. Can you tell people stories through photos? How would you tell those stories? Different person has different perspective and point of view. Check out our blog for human of Cambodia stories. “Don’t judge the book by its cover”

Happiness

The theme of round 4 literacy is “Happiness”. We’ve read many articles relating to happiness and how people can achieve it. Different people have different perspectives of what happiness is. We have come together as a group and discuss what does happiness mean to each individual of us. Furthermore, we wrote some poem about something that inspire us to be strong and happy. Take a look at my golden shovel poem below.

Failure is Helper

People afraid of FAILURE

Somehow it is

something that what

Make you stronger, get experiences and the word F.A.I.L. makes

You try harder towards accomplishing your

Goals. If you FAIL,  you can think of it as the First Attempt In Life

Don’t give up, investigate your mistakes, improve it and make it meaningful

Python Project

Round 4 of Multimedia was still about Python coding, but we were learning about new materials such as Python functions, Python lists and Python dictionaries. While we were learning that we also got to do some hands-on project in Code Club. There were different tasks for different material and I found it really helpful because when I set things into practice, I received a better understand of that material. Beside working on code club, we also met as a team for  Q&A session to help anybody who is having struggles. By doing that, we can share our knowledge of coding with each other. Below is my project on Code Club that is related to Python functions.

https://trinket.io/python/cc8157d769

Outdoor Leadership

Outdoor Leadership  is a project that teaches the students about survival skills and the environment awareness while we are outdoor. Those involve trip planning and preparation, traveling strategies, risk identification, management, first aid training, emergency response and self awareness. We have 17 students and 2 facilitators in total.

Group photo

Throughout the course, we have had a lot of activities. The first week (December 3rd – 7th) of this exploration was just an introduction week. We got to know what are the goals, rules and how to do sit and spot in nature. Sit and spot is an activity that allows us to explore the nature. When doing this activity, we take notes or draw picture in our nature journal book that include what we see, hear, smell, feel, notice, what does it remind us of and what we wonder about what we choose to spot. I felt like this activity help me a lot. It helps me to express my feeling, emotion (sometimes) and it has catch my feeling to love nature even more because I get to look closely into it.

sit and spot

On the second week (December 10th – 14th) we did a lot more things than the first week. 1/ Outdoor leadership promises. I had to write three of my strengths that can involve in the exploration and what are my three goals throughout the whole course. 2/ Want or need. This helps students to think either the staff is what they need or what they want when going anywhere. 3/ finding sources of our survival. Our survival needs are really important. In this case, it teaches me how to find something in the nature to replace my needs when necessary. For example, I am running out of water so what can I do to get water. Where can I find water and things like that. 4/ risk identification games. There were so many games that we had played (but I can only remember some) such as trust fall and getting over a rope without touching it (pretend that the rope is a hot wire). Those activities has trained me to think of suitable solution for some emergency situation.

On the third week (January 7th – 11th), we had a trip to Kirirom national park for 3 days, but before that happened, we need to prepare our needs for the whole trip. I enjoyed the trip so much even if we have to trek for long distances. I enjoyed seeing all the birds, plants, mountain view, sunset, sunrise, camping, cooking, sit and spot to explore the nature and the life without using the technology media.  

sun rise
sunset
hornbill

The fourth week (January 14th – 18th) was mainly about risk management. We learned about the meaning of risk, types of risks and how can we manage it. We know that there are risks in every situation except we have to think about how high can it be. We have to ask ourselves about the severity of the risk that we take like is it low, moderate or high. Another thing is the probability of the risk like how likely is it going to happen. Those help us to decide whether we should take the risk or not. When making decision, we also need to know about the human, environment and equipment condition too.

Let’s come to the important part. We had spent the fifth week ( January  21st – 25th) learning about the first aid staff. We need to check a lot of staff when helping someone and if we are not fast enough they could have died already. First of all we need to check the scene and then second one is how the victim looks and how are they doing. Finally, ask yourself what your plan. I found it very hard since there are so much to remember, but by learning this I think I could help to save someone’s life. So, to get used to it, we had to act in the role of victim, lead rescuer and assistant rescuer. To do that we were given some medical scenarios to follow. Rescuers had to follow all the steps to make the victim feel normal again.

The sixth week(January 28th- February 1st) was the most ridiculous week ever. We took a trip to Mondulkiri to go trekking and camping again. We met different people such as the Phnong and have done so much things that I can’t describe it all. We had longer trek than our first trip, eat different foods from different region of Cambodia, spot different cool birds and bugs, play with each other a lot and I feel so thankful to the nature that has given me the opportunity to see the things I’ve never seen or done before.

After all the fun things, this project has come to an end, but we also prepare ( February 4th – 8th) presentation to share our knowledge to the other people too . On Friday the 8th, we had our presentation done and all set up. We had three different stations such as Naturalist which we present about the places that we visited, birds and plant that we saw during the trip, Phnong soup which we cook the Phnong soup, and the Shelter station that teaches people how to built tent and bivouac. Everyone did a good job sharing the knowledge and I am proud of all of us.

Where I’m From

The theme for the beginning of 2019 in Literacy is the search for our own identity. We opened discussion, read some articles to find out who we are. We also learnt about literacy devices such as metaphor, simile, tone, mood to write about ourselves. At the end, we had write a poem that describe where do we come from that inspired by George Ella Lyon and her project called I am from project.

 

Carbon Cycle

Carbon is the main focus in STEM since the beginning of 2019. Carbon is a very common nonmetal element in our everyday life with the atomic number of 6 in group 14 of the periodic table. It is most like to react with hydrogen and they can have different number of Hydrogen and Carbon.When reacting with hydrogen, it’s called Hydrocarbon. Interestingly this element has its own cycle too just as water has water cycle.

Carbon Cycle – Google

To get more understanding about Carbon we had an experiment called black head. In order to do this experiment, we need sand, baking soda, sugar, alcohol, matches, aluminum foil and a bowl. First wrap the aluminum foil around the bowl if we don’t want wash it later. Then put sand into ½ of the bowl. Mix 20 g of sugar with 5 g of baking soda separately. Then put the mixture on the sand in mountain shape. Up next, pour alcohol around the sugar and baking soda mixture to make the sand wet. Lastly light up the match, put it in the bowl and wait to see the reaction.

This is what my team reaction was. After put we put the match into the bowl, the fire started dancing around and push out the black ash carbon ash from the mixture of sugar and baking soda. The process continued until the fire stop and because we did not mix the sugar and baking soda in the right amount, the mixture froze and turn to light brown. Not like the other teams, it only push the black caterpillar not black snake. 

Black Snack Experiment – other team results
Black Snake Experiment – my team result

That’s not a big deal but the deal is why does it puff up? Base on my knowledge about Carbon, my prediction is that the heat of the fire help to break the bond within Sodium and Carbon in baking soda and then the Carbon that has just break will react with Oxygen and it will create Carbon Dioxide (CO2). The CO2 will push the Sodium up to become Carbon ash.