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Bike Experience Exploration – Journeys of Change

My second exploration of this is year Bike Experience, which we named it later on as Journeys of Change. The goal of this seven weeks long project is to turn this idea of running a bike tour into a successful business. Moreover, the bike route will contain the theme of change that occurs in Cambodia as it mentioned in our business name, Journeys of Change. Mission: Our mission is to share insights into the lives of everyday Cambodians by creating a tour for visitors and locals, of the Phnom Penh area. The tour will focus on explaining the changes that have occurred and are occurring in this country, while simultaneously supporting local businesses, being environmentally conscious,  training tour guides in responsible tourism, providing cross-cultural exchanges, and creating job opportunities for Liger students to help further and fund their education, after high school.

Our team members.

In order to start this business, our team has divided into three smaller teams that were working on a different part of this business. For me, I was working as a business plan member, that focused on writing the report about the whole idea about this business and to keep it organized. Also, I’ve been working on calculating the expense and decide how much I charge our client per tour and how can we the money. Most importantly, my team had created a lot of forms and documents such as liability waiver, feedback system, and three job descriptions (tour guide, office director, and marketing manager).  

Another team was the tour guides, which they were focusing on the stops for our bike route as well as design training course for the additional 20 tour guides. Moreover, after the finished finalizing the stops, they will need to write the script for each stop in order to make it easy for the trainee guides to summarize. 

Our last team was marketing. In this team, they were trying to use many ways to advertise our bike tours. At the end our exploration, they had created a website and a Facebook page. Additionally, they were trying to partner with some of the hotels by the riverside of Phnom Penh, which is close by our starting point for our bike tour. 

Since we were trying to turn this project into a real business, we had hired our office director and marketing manager to keep track of our progress. Also, all of the students that involved in this exploration will be our official tour guides and we will have 20 more tour guides coming soon. 

 

Our first tour with finalized stops. 

Battambang trip: At the start of this exploration, we’ve been to Battambang for our one week trip. During this trip, we got to learn from one bike tour company, Soksabike who is our mentor. We learned almost everything about their business which gave us so many ideas of our how our bike experience should be.  

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Collision Simulation Lab

The new topic that we’re focusing on is momentum. My facilitator, Sam, had first explained and gave us a general idea what is momentum. Then, she gets in-depth where she gave us the formula and do some examples problems. Moreover, we had also do a simple lab on the first day which is mainly focused on objects colliding and the momentum of each object.

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Creative Writing

Creative writing is one of my expertise classes for this first term. Each week, we were focusing on different types of writing, such as poems and short stories with different themes and topics. It was quite hard for me at first, however, later on, I’m getting better and better with my write. I got fewer grammar mistakes and get to improve my vocabularies usage. Below is one of my essays that I did about the year of 2563 where I need to include of some the vocabularies such as, space station and distribute.

 

“Excuse me, ladies and gentlemen! I just have a quick…surprise… announcement and I’m sure y’all will love it!” declaimed the space station director.

Everyone is all looking surprised and giving the director their attention.

“Every single of you have worked so hard for our latest mission to distribute the water supplies to Mars. I am really impressed by your hard work to make this a really big success. So, you all will have a 2 month holiday starting from tomorrow. And…yet, please don’t forget to come back our incredible, impressive, marvelous scientists! Thank you and good luck!” continued Mr. Aldrich with pride toward all of his staff.

Here it begins…….

“It is now 5:59 AM and my journey will begin in a minute,” said Cathy with excitement.

Oops! By the way, I haven’t introduced myself yet. Ummm….so here it goes!

“Hi! I’m Cathy, 27-year-old. I am a scientist who is currently working at NASA space station. As a scientist, I also like going on adventures on my own. Fun fact, I’ve got this one weird habit which is…I really like wearing dark lipsticks. Moreover, I was born with this special power where I could transform into whatever I want but sadly only for 30 minutes,” greetings by our beloved Cathy.

The mysterious wood…..

It’s almost noontime, but this mystery is still as dark as ever. The sound of the wind keeps whispering stronger and stronger in my ears. However, Cathy has no idea what will she get from this mysterious wood adventure because just come without any plan.

“Are you tired now, Major?” asked Cathy to her white horse. Major seem tired but he continues the adventure anyway.

Finally, she comes to a stop for a rest and hearing the beautiful voices of a multitude of birds singing with the trees blowing as its rhythm. With those beautiful voices, it had made Cathy fell asleep for awhile.

As she wakes up, the wood only getting darker and darker. The wood seems to be creepy and creepier, but that didn’t bring Cathy into fear. She carries on her adventure and keeps wishing to see something cool and mysterious.

Eventually, she had come to another stop. Cathy wondered, “Why is this book laying down here?” She continued, “There’s must be someone used to come here and bring this book here.”

Right after she finished talking, she saw a shadow running quickly in front of her.

“Who are you? Can you hear me? Why are you here? Please come.” said Cathy while knuckling her hands with scary looking.

No matter how much she tried to scream, there is no reply so she decided to give up on that. Afterward, Cathy begins to open the book slowly with a mind full of questions. She has no idea what will the book talk about and she has no idea what is happening to her at that moment.

“Whaaaaat!!!??? Wo wo wo…wooow! Is this book just magically open by itself?” said Cathy which shocked and can’t believe what did she just saw. Suddenly, the wood had gone so quiet. There’s no more Cathy voice, there’s no more the voices of the birds and there’s no more sound of the wind blowing.

Here it comes 2563……

“What’s happening? What is this place? Why am I here? Where am I?” said Cathy with confusion. Then, she starts to get up and explore in this new place, which is called, “Future time, The Year of 2563.”

After a long walk, she eventually finds out that she is actually living in the future. Where there are no trees, no more different nationalities, no one she knew and it’s the whole full of technology. Everyone is living in peace, no wars, no racism, no criticism and everyone has equal right. Every single thing in this new world was made out of modern technology like those lipsticks, horses and books buildings.

“I knew no one here, how am I gonna live here? I wanna go back to 2017,” cried Cathy.

Living separately from her family, friends and her favorite is really hard. Day by day, Cathy only thinking about of going back to the past like a crazy person. However, no matter how much she’s trying to think, there’s just no way for her to turn back in time. Instead, she just tries to adapt to the world she is currently living in. Moreover, her lifestyle had changed a lot, where she has to be all fancy.

Cathy blaming herself, “Is there any way that I can go back in time? Hmm…Cathy, you’re so stupid! Why would you open that book?”

“Oh, wait! I think…if I found that book, I could go back to 2017! But…how can I find it?” cried Cathy with depression.

Later on, she begins to walk around the city again. Cathy explores and checks building by building, but she still got no clue where the book could be. Finally, she’s here in front of the diamond building.

“This is the last building of this whole city, Cathy, I know you can find it. It’s here, it’s must be here.” Cathy whispered to herself.

Floor by floor, she couldn’t find it, no matter how hard tried. Cathy said with confidence, “Yes! I finally here on the rooftop. It must be somewhere here.” Again, she begins to look for that book and…surprisingly…she got it.

“Oh my god! It’s here. Yessssss!!! Wooo Whooo! I got it back now!!! I can go back to 2017 now!!!!” screamed Cathy with joyfulness. After getting the book, she immediately opens it up and hoping that it will bring her back to the past.

“1, 2, 3!” whispered Cathy while starting to open her eyes.

“Wait, what is this place? Aren’t I supposed to be in 2017?” wondered Cathy.

“Oh, what? Is it a dinosaur era? Let’s me flip the book again,” shocked Cathy after seeing Supersaurus far across in front of her.

I am back……

The house seems so silent and everything is such a mess without Cathy. However, she is now back to her home and there she is; lying on the bed like a dying person. Everything is back to what it used to be. Cathy is now back at work again as a scientist.

Cathy to her scientist friends, “Hello guys and gals!”   

Everyone is looking at her, greeting and they started to share about their holiday.

“So…it’s time for Cathy to share about her holiday. Cathy, what have you done for this 2 months break? Did you get a new car? New dorm? New everything?” said one of the men.

She explained, “If I’ll tell you what had happened to me, you wouldn’t believe me. Wouldn’t you?”

Everyone is begging her to reveal the truth with excitement. They are keep guessing, but unfortunately, no one gets it to the right answer.

Then, Cathy ended a conversation with just a simple answer. “You’ll find that out later.”  

 

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Khmer Sight Foundation Volunteering

The desire to change my country and help its people is hard. However, by joining many incredible opportunities as a volunteer will help that desire to come true. On Saturday 18th, November, a group 10 students (including me) were going to Camkids, Kampong Speu province as volunteers for Khmer Sight Foundation (KSF). KSF is a group of people including many doctors around the world, who are trying to help to protect the Cambodians’ eyes. 

Once we arrived, I observed that there are many people who had arrived since the early for the eyes checkup, but the doctors have not arrived yet. So, we just do what we can do such as organizing the seats for the patients, interview them about the problems with their eyes and did what the doctors told us. 

When the doctors arrived, we then assigned the number to the patients by asked them for their contact. Afterward, four of my friends and I were training of how to give the eyes test. At the start, I was so struggled of what should I do with the patients, like should I give the eye drop or not and what should I write in the report paper. Moreover, I have to explain the instruction to the patients which was so tired for me but I really enjoyed working with my elders and help to improve their eyes sight. After finishing doing the simple eyes test, the patients need to move to the next room where they talked to the doctors about the problems with their eyes. 

 

Finally, the doctors we discussed to choose the patients who will come to the hospital in Phnom Penh to get surgery. At the hospital, I had also learned how to precisely scan the eye that will need to do the surgery. Additionally, I also learned the different problems with the eyes and how will the surgery help with those issues. 

Of course, it has been a tired day for me and my friends. However,  I was so glad to be a part of the team and help my elders to have a good eyesight. If there is another opportunity like this, I would love to join again. 

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Halloween’s Story

During Halloween day, our literacy class had played a game where I first need to start to write the beginning of the story. Then, my paper will be distributed to the next person to continue the story until it gets back to me and I have to finish the story.

 

As I carefully entered the haunted house, the door shut behind me and the creepy black cat came across. I wasn’t shocked. Suddenly, there’s a sound of a female ghost singing the spooky music to her newborn baby. When I turn to my left, there’s a death sign with a blood falling down like an ocean that leads me to another path.

I slowly open the door, and I see a bunch of rotten pumpkins. It was gross, but I decided to get close to it to see if there something interest. As I went closer and closer… “BOOM!” I can hear in exploded voice from nowhere. I was too panic to run away, so I slip into the hole. And, there was an evil witch looking straight at me.

All I remember was her enormous blood-shot eyes sticking out of its sockets. Her curly wormy looking brows, dancing, weirdly across her wrinkled forehead. Her blood sucking pointed teeth shining brightly in front of me.

Her tentacles that were all polished up, nicely. She had 2 mouths. One for speaking, one for bloody sucking. Her tentacles got longer and longer. Closer and closer to me and grabbed me lightly. I tried escaping but I don’t have legs. She quickly and forcefully rolled me closer……..for a hug.

Suddenly, there’s a freaking dolphin appeared in front of me with a human’s arms and legs. I have no better choice than to run to the kitchen to stop the dolphin from eating my cake.

I asked the dolphin, “Why you eat my cake?”

The dolphin replied, “It a prank bro! There’s camera here! Camera there! You just got pranked bro.”

The dolphin continue by asking me more questions, “How do you feel man when you got pranked?”

I replied, “I feel pranked and trolled man!”

Then, I did not care at all about the prank because I was too tired and sleepy. So, I just go straight to my room and sleep peacefully until the late morning.

 

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Creative Technology

Creative technology is my first technology class for this year.  For the first few weeks of the class, we were doing many cool stuff with a simple coding such as trying to make the lights work by connecting it to the breadboard and Arduino board. Those were quite challenging for me, however, I manage to make it work by asking classmates and my teacher, Waseem. 

The next project is more challenging because we will need to create our own mini robot using the objects that we used for the last weeks of the class such as Arduino board. Since we work on this project in a smaller team, we have so many ideas for the designs. Just like in my team, we had to change our design multiple times until getting a right one that everyone wants. 

Below are some of the robot’s parts that will be printed by the 3D printer.  *Note these are not all our final design*

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Animation

My first exploration of this year was Animation. The goal of this exploration is to create short animations about anything. However, since animation is a subject that will take a lot of time to focus on, we had changed our goal.

From the start, I was thinking that I will do an animation and I will be using more and more technologies. However, the expectation wasn’t like the reality. In class, we spend most of our time focusing on different types of drawing such as caricature, characters design and perspective drawings. Also, we were learning about storyboards and how to design our background which is pretty difficult. 

Still life drawing

As an outcome, our class was divided into 4 groups and come up with a short 1-2 minutes story. After each group finished with the writing about the whole story, we started to create a storyboard of each important scenes. If we finished everything by time, we will make it into a short animation. 

STORY: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mAm00pW4hKotYqVddOty66wWQovnoxjCn3KOVECWRsE/edit?usp=sharing

 

 

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Solar Pi

The last exploration of this year is Solar Pi.  The goal of this exploration is to create a successful computer lab that will be located in the government school. The lab will be running by solar power and the computer will run by the Raspberry Pi which is like a small computer. Most importantly, we highly hope that this computer lab will help to improve some of Cambodians with their study. 

In the computer, we will include the 3D design program called FreeCAD because as we can see nowadays, many computer labs do not have these type of program. Moreover, we will have Edemy; an English learning website created by Cambodian as a part of our curriculum.  We decided to encompass those two main courses because as we can see Cambodia today, does not have these type creative technologies. 

In class, we were working different jobs such as; how do we run a screen to the raspberry pi and how will that connect to the solar panels. In addition, we had to find a school that is good enough to get this lab in their school and how will the school use this lab as a part of their curriculum. Also, some of our teammates were working on creating tutorials for the FreeCAD to help the users to begin their lesson. 

Since we have a lot of work to get done, we do not have enough time, so we are going to continue to the next round of exploration which is next year of school. Our goal for the next round is to figure out the school to install the lab and keep in touch with them.  Lastly, we would love to see the successful lab that will be installed. 

 

Project Report:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1q6fZ5W-ZjZKGgjRYngYUGRXTN1-POTRfKLj0ZaTnTWE/edit?usp=sharing

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Drone

It’s my second joining drone ASE (After School Extension). For the few weeks of the ASE, we’ve been filming all kind of sports that we have in Liger such as; soccer, running, biking, yoga, badminton, basketball,  swimming, and frisbee. After, get all those football, our friend Makara had to combine those footages and make a cool short video of it.

After finishing sports in Liger, we’re starting to film many cool stuff at our new football field. On 24th, January, our drone team try to gather many people as possible such as Junior Cohort, Senior Cohort, staff and of course our school director to film a mannequin challenge using drone. Our friend, Samnang N is the one who is filming and we are all trying to help and give advice to him about what he should do. After about 10 minutes, we are success with our filming. We all like the result that we got, it’s turn out great and the footage was so smooth.   

On our exploration trip (Preventative Health), we also get to used drone to film a lot of cool footages of the Koh Rong island and the Palm Beach village. We got to see the whole view of the beaches there which is so beautiful that we can’t even describe. Moreover, when we took the boat ride, we try to film follow the boat which is a hard footage to get. However, we tried our best to do it even if there are a lot of wind and hard to control the drone. It was one of my memorable moments of the trip. If I have a chance to back again later, I’ll try to get more and more interesting footages of the island.

The footages of the unfinished senior campus. 

 

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PSAT

Just a few weeks ago, in literacy class, we were preparing for our first reading and language use’s  practice SAT. We were doing taking this test on one of the most effective learning website, Khan Academy.

Our tips to on taking this test are to not stress out about the test. Nevertheless, we should start with reading the questions and the given choices first before we do because some of the questions don’t require us to read the whole passage to answer. One of the easier ways is to follow the process of elimination the answer choices. That mean, in each question there will be some obvious answer that is not something that the question wants, so we can eliminate that one out. Most importantly, we should check for the key words in each answer because one word can change the whole meaning of the answer choice.

Another important thing is that we should try to do all the questions even if we are not sure with the answer. After I took the test, I just realized that I left too many questions which will take out a lot of my points. However, if I were to do all of the questions even with guessing, I might have get some more points