On March 17th – 18th, I was a part of the Saigon Model United Nations (Saimun) in Vietnam. It was the first time I ever been traveled abroad. In this Model United Nations, I represented Sweden. The four main topics that we were focusing on were:
It was scary to be in a room full of people trying to debate on a certain resolution. I helped my team prepared the resolution and it was complicated because I don’t really understand those complicated vocabularies. It was such a great experience for me to be there learning new things about the current world.
The video above is about the conference, and these two videos below are just the videos I made for the extra days in Vietnam.
This is a competition opened for people ages 15 or above. It is basically a camp to learn more about astronomy and how it affect human daily life. The camp happen at Thailand which was the neighbor country. By applying to the camp, contestants must write a-300-essay or make a 5-minute-video about the topic “How Astronomy affect your daily life”. My teacher encourage me to make a video but because time limits I decided to write the essay. I actually spent my investigation time to write the paper with the help from Karen, our science teacher – she’s amazing. Anyway, I chose Mars as my topic that I am going to write about. Mars is such an interesting topic for me and I enjoy learning about it. After my research, I ended up with a lot of information and after writing the paper, it ended up with more than 300 words. I had my friend, who was also tried to apply helped me with reducing all the words. I gave it to my teacher for a finally look. She also help to cut out some unnessary information. At the end, I got to apply to the camp. Unfortunately, I didn’t passed, but one of the Liger students did get to go to Thailand for the camp. But it was okay, and we should be proud of our work. Read my essay about Mars below! Please apologize for any wrong statistics or information, I got it through research from NASA, Mars-One and many more.
Film Making was an independent expertise that I had. I did it because I need times to make a movie so I can join the Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival (PPYFF). I spend times in class to write the script for the movie and casting characters for my movie. The other time I started calling people to act. Making a movie isn’t easy. I think I was being a really bad director, well because it’s my first time. During filming, there are some problems- you know all the fight, arguing, and my friends also didn’t have much time to act in this movie, they got other things to do also. But I just need to get through it. I was also producing the movie, it’s hard for me to find times to shoot the scenes. It’s kind of hard when I worked alone. I don’t have team like others because I wasn’t in the Film Making group. Also I don’t have a lot of times like others because I started the film while the other team already finished shooting their movie. Anyway, I finally edited the movie, it was done and I submitted it to the PPYFF website. But the worse thing happened. And I felt so sorry to my teacher, Rich. He was the one who organized the event, he also helped me to delay the date that competitors need to submit their movie. My movie didn’t get to show at the ISPP black box theater- it’s not because it isn’t a good movie but there another reason. I felt kind of mad and sad because all the hard work that I putt into this movie worth nothing and also my friends that helped me in this movie might feel very disappointed- but that’s okay because I understand why my movie didn’t get to show at there and also it was my fault- I shouldn’t blame anyone for this, it’s in the past. I will definitely join the 2017 PPYFF.
I guessed I had changed something for Cambodia this year. One of them is the Project Evaluation Exploration. So basically, Liger were working on implemented a Project based-learning (PBL) and STEM in PBL program into the two resources government schools which the ministry of education had selected. I got to be one of the five students to evaluate the project. Is it relevant, capability and good outcomes? I got to visit the high schools in Kratie and Phnom Penh. I observed, interviewed and collected data. After that, I analyzed it. Now, even though I am one of the Liger students but I shouldn’t just said that the project should put into the government schools. I need to stay in the middle and judge on the data that I had collected and that’s why we as the team were working with an independent consulting company called Sevea, so this pilot program will be completely objective. The result was really good which mean that the students and teachers are interested with the project. 100% of the teachers and students really wanted to repeat the project again. They spent zero money on resources.
Wait, wait. I think I am out of the topic, let’s get back in and explain how it helps to change Cambodia. First of all, it helps to change the teachers and students’ perspective on education that there are many different ways of teaching and the teaching styles can affect to the students so much. If the teachers are happy to teach the students, and the projects are interesting, both of these will encouraged the students to learn harder. I also presented the final data analyzes to the ministry of education. This can help them to realize how important and effective the Project based-learning is. If they are happy with the project, they could spread this program to every government schools in Cambodia. They might talk to someone who expert at PBL besides Liger to go to continue teaching about it to the teachers. Or if someone who is interested with this kind of learning method, they could help to implement this into the other government schools. Why do I said this, because while on the last Sharation day, there’s a man who was asking me and Chheou about this and he said he is interested in putting this into the government schools too. Imagine if PBL and STEM in PBL are successfully in the government schools around Cambodia, it will help students and teachers to learn more about real world problems, and finding solutions to solve them. I hope that the ministry will do something with this. I hope this project will success, so this generation through next generations will get better education instead of sitting in the class, listen to the teachers and taking notes. Now I’m not meaning that learning in government school is not good, I’m just saying that there always a better way to do something.
2.Google Science Fair
Pencils I got from science fair….
The second thing that I had changed for Cambodia, well I guessed for the world also is the Google Science Fair (GSF) competition. I’m not completely changed it but just started it. GSF was a global online competition open for anyone who are the age from 13-18 to make something better with science and engineering. I worked on a project called Organic Insecticide. First, I thought it’s going to be really fun and easy. Well, it’s completely opposite from what my expectations are. I went through many challenges and finally came up with a really really simple strategy. I don’t need to talk about my result but I submitted it into the competition. If I don’t win, there’s still advantages. It gets to read by scientists. If- I said “if”, if they liked my idea, they could continue to work on it and if it succeeded, the idea will spread around the world. And this means that it can helps to solve Cambodia or world’s problem. Farmers will get better vegetables or plants that they could sell in a good price. Customers will get better food to eat. People’s health will not effected by those chemical sprays. The economy will become better and sustainable. I can talk good things about my project in many different ways but there’s a catch. It will destroy the insects, if insects gone, I can describe the impacts, but let’s not talk about it because I know I will write an infinity thoughts in here. So scientists or I need to be careful with that, let’s don’t kill them, let’s just scare them away. Though, there’s a .01% chance that my project will be accomplished, this means that there’s a 99% chance that this project didn’t change anything at all. Well, at least I submitted the project and it gets to read by scientists. I at least already changed 1% for Cambodia or the world.
The time that I wrote this sentences were about two months until the announcement made for winners of the GSF. When the day came, I checked it. I was right, my project didn’t get passed. But this does not pulled me down. It’s the opposite. It encouraged me to continue study about science and make a better project next year so I can join 2017 GSF and the next GSFs until I’m 18. I’m not losing, I’m just learning. Though, I was really happy because I got stickers and posters from the competition, I was very proud of it. I also made a commercial for GSF to encourage Liger students to join the competition. I really want them to join, it is a really life-change opportunity. I also told a man to join GSF when I met him at the maker fair contest, his product was so amazing and he would win the competition, and that product will help to change the world also. I keep telling people about GSF, so more people will share their ideas and there will be more solutions for the next big world problems.
But, I was so happy when I got the posters, and pencils that they sent us from America! It was my pleasure to have it. Here is the video that my team made:
3. Crime In Cambodia
Let’s talk about the third changes. CRIME IN CAMBODIA. I almost forget about this Exploration. I had visited and learned at Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC). What I changed in this Exploration for Cambodia was that we had created a blog that show all what we did in class and information about fisheries. So if anyone who wanted to learn about marine life, they can go and visit the blog. The second thing that I changed in the Exploration was that my team had created a documentary about fisheries in Cambodia. This documentary had shown to many different people like when Sharation day, it showed to a lot of students’ parents, ministry, people around Phnom Penh and people from different countries. I did shared the documentary in my blog and diy.org.
4. Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival
Related to the change above, my fourth change for Cambodia was joining the film festival. The documentary was showed in the black box theatre at ISPP and won the best documentary. And there’s about 100 people watching it. Not even that, I think the documentary also showed in MyTV, which is one of the biggest channels in Cambodia.
Finally, this documentary that I and my friends created had distributed to many people around Cambodia and the world. I had brought a message to every people that, marine life are very important and we all should help to protect it. The good thing about this, is that people will started to get interested with MCC and they would help to preserve the marine life which nearly extinct. When fisherman had educated, they will also help to protect it and they will continue fishing through their next generations with a sustainable fisheries.
5. Film Making at Government School
Let’s just say this a fifth change for Cambodia that I make, not made because this project will continue to next year. We invited students to come to our school and teach them about film making. They got to learn new things! They will know how to make a movie, such as writing a screenplay, directing a movie, produce, acting, filming and edit. They will know how to work in team better than before. We did this, so they can join the 2017 Phnom Penh Youth Film Festival (PPYFF). I had just given an opportunity to students. So, they can share their movies to their friends and family once they are finished. This will help filming in Cambodia to improve because this kind of stuff didn’t happened a lot in this country. If they are interesting with filming, they might continue doing it and share it around.
6. Sharing Center
Other things that I did on my holiday as my sixth change are the sharing- I don’t know how to call that. But what it means is that, I had brought a local library and putted it in my village, so if anyone wants to read books, they can borrow. I saw kids came to borrow the book to read, so that’s a great thing. Also I putted a poster about deforestation, so I guessed someone could look at it and thinking about it. Another thing that I was really happy about is that I had given an animal guide book to my old government school. This change is kind of success because my brother told me that his teacher read the book to the students and asking questions about what the students had learned about the animals. I hope that the students there will continue read the book and gain more knowledge and help to preserve the wildlife.
7. Ind.Dis : Factories
My seventh change is about my independent discovery expertise. I had made a blog about Cambodia past factories. I got all the information from interviewed and researched. I guessed I might be the first one who made the blog about it. So, I kind of brought back some of the past factories that had gone during Khmer Rouge. Read more about my project!
8. Humans of Cambodia
My eight change is connected to this too. I had became a part of a project called Human of Cambodia. Which I interviewed and write a story for that people, it similar to a website called Human of New York.
9. Garbage Collecting
I just know what I can write for my ninth change. It was my ASE time, Frisbee. It was Jan’s idea though. He told us to collect the rubbish on the field that we were playing. I helped. Not only helped to clean the environment but I became one of the students who shows to the kids around that place to clean their environment too. Connected to that point, I also tried hard not to use a lot of plastics when I’m at home or at Liger. I used my reusable bag, bowl- anything that isn’t plastic to pack things that I bought. Talking about the bowl, I used it to store the porridge, instead of plastic. It seems a bit crazy to the people in the village, but whatever, I still did it over and over again. Most of the time when I bought something, I give the plastic bag back to the seller and tell them that I didn’t need it. I’m not saying that I am a good Liger student that didn’t used or throw any plastic. To be honest, I sometimes used plastic and when I’m at home, I also do throw plastic away because there’s no rubbish bin to put, which is a bad thing.
10. Maker-faire
Anyway, my tenth change is about sharing my creative idea to other people. I’m talking about the maker fair contest that I had joined. I got to the semi-final. I present about my product on the stage in front of about 150 people. Oh, related to that, I also shared a new art thing that I had discovered through internet to the people at the STEM fair.
11. Science Story
The science story! How could I forget this important change I made! And this is my eleventh change for Cambodia. I made a book about pH and Water Cycle with Sovannou and had shared it to the kids that are living outside the Liger campus. They just learned something from me, I mean not from me but learn about science concepts.
12. Ministry Day
Oh and this # twelve change is kind of important too. I had presented about recruitment to the ministry people, to explain about PBL to them. This is the first time that I did to the ministry and this can help them to get interested with Liger, if they liked what Liger are doing, they might wanted to do like us too. And that’s why PBL and STEM in PBL projects had implemented into the government schools as I was talking about above.
13. STEAM
Joining the Hunsen Mission was my thirteenth change. Soliday and I got to share our STEAM painting which has a lot of meaning in it. The changes above are what I can remembered. I hope the changes I made this year will help to improve a part of Cambodia.
I’m ready for the next four years and willing to enjoy my journey.
I did Hip Hop during weekend. We learned from a teacher from Phnom Penh. This year, we learned from a different teacher. He taught us the dance style for different songs. We didn’t learned for a specific song, our teacher taught us a short dance for a short song and many types of songs. Anyway, I kind of love hip hop even though I am not good at dancing. Some of my friends were really good. I did watched a little video about hip hop dance through internet, they were awesome!
During weekend, I joined Khmer dance activity. I didn’t really like to learn Khmer dance but I joined because I wanted to wear the traditional clothes when we perform the dance to our parents- the last day of the school year. In this class we learned how to dance traditional dance and we divided into two teams. Some dance are only girl and some dance are mixed, boys and girls.
In Frisbee, we went to the field near Liger where we can play. We learned from different caoches, but mostly with a coach named Jared. I loved Frisbee but sometimes it feels so tired to run back and forth for the frisbee. At the end of the Frisbee game, we collected trash around the field. It was our teacher idea (Jan). We leave the place cleaner than it was before and this also show to the other kids around there to help clean their environment.
I kind of love Slack Line. But I didn’t do it a lot. I got to learn how to balance myself on the slack line and it is so fun! We tied the slack line between the two trees at Liger. I don’t really know what to write for this ASE. 🙂
In writing ASE, we wrote a little newsletter about the animal guide book launch at Meta house. I didn’t really got to come to this class because at that time I have to go outside to practice swimming. We did learned how to write a newsletter. We did a little interview of the author that wrote the book, and yeah- that’s all for this class.
A teacher had brought a new game to Liger this year- Floor Hockey. It sounded like ice hockey, well we have no ice at Cambodia so we played Floor Hockey! I did love this game. Running and shooting the small boy into the small goal by using the hockey stick, that’s awesome! I often did things with my right hand, but when I played hockey I used left hand. It’s more comfortable. I like to try new things, I think people that often using their left hand are unique. So I learned how to use left hand. Right now I knew how to eat with my left hand, and I am working on writing with left hand. That’s out of topic, it’s not about floor hockey at all! That’s how my brain work, it’s going in many different directions.
