Nabilah Wafa binti Baihaki (MIC180020)

GIG1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT/JALINAN MASYARAKAT

Reflection Writing

Nabilah Wafa binti Baihaki (MIC180020)                                                        28 MARCH 2020

     Deoxynucleic acid which is also known as DNA can be found in all living organisms. Whether you are human, animals, plants or bacteria, each and every one of your cells contain DNA. In a rare exception for human’s mature red blood cells. DNA is a nucleic acid that contains genetic instruction for the development and function of living things. I have always wondered how the scientist extracted DNA. Before the visit to the school, I had attended two internal workshops that provided us lots of information and knowledge for us to share with the students especially about DNA. The internal workshop was handled by our Social Engagement’s instructor Dr Puah with assistance by Dr Kee and Dr Puah’s postgraduate students. Through the exciting workshop we are able to strengthen our friendship among our group members and get to know the postgraduate students! Other than that, we had also prepared some slides for seminar, quizzes, survey, games and of course gifts for the students!

     During our visit to SMK Sri Aman on 28th February 2020, I had obtained lots of experience when handling the experiment with the students. We went to SMK Sri Aman using Grab and MyCar. And as soon as we arrived, the teachers and students were welcoming us. They are very friendly and remind me of my high school that I left for a few years already. For the first activity, the seminar, the students look very curious and it’s quite challenging to explain about DNA because not all of the students have the basic or previous knowledge about DNA. But eventually, during the quiz session most of the students were able to answer the question correctly and this shows that they were paying attention during the seminar. My favourite part of this event is the hands-on activities. We had prepared some simple stuff like salt, dishwashing liquid, measuring cup, fruits, resealable plastic bag, wooden stick, stirrer, dropper, bamboo skewer, water and also isopropanol. There were 2 activities that we did, one is extracting DNA from cheek cells and the other one is from fruits. For the first activity the students will gargle salt solution that will extract the cheek cell and for the second activity, fruits like banana, kiwi and papaya were smashed in the resealable plastic bag respectively to extract the cells. During DNA extraction, the dishwashing liquid will cause the cell membrane to lyse and release DNA into the solution. Then when alcohol is added, the DNA will precipitate out. Along with the hands-on activities, we asked the students whether they know the regarding procedure behind each step and I’m impressed because some of them answered it correctly. We also chit chat with the students and explain to them the pathway after the Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia (SPM) examination. We did also share some tips for the SPM which is the national examination taken by fifth-form secondary school students in Malaysia. We ended the event with a photograph session with the student and teachers for memories.

     Eventually I think the event ended well as we received lots of good feedback from students and also all of us gave our best handling the event. After all there are some improvements that I think we could do for instance, we should review the teaching slides for the seminar and slides for quizzes as it was being done by the first year biomedical science before presenting to the students. Other than that, we should also evaluate the question and prepare answers on the slides for the quizzes to avoid confusion during the quiz session. However, I think we did a great job and the event is a success even though we are all busy with our tight schedules and college’s project.

     After all, I wanted to thank our Social Engagement’s instructor, Dr Puah because of her dedication and determination making this event a successful one. Not to forget, Dr Chai that helps to accompany us during our visit to SMK Sri Aman and gives some feedback for our improvement. Through this project, we have created meaningful memories together that we will remember for the rest of our lives. I had learned a lot from this project. This project helps to improve my social skills as I become more confident to talk and share experience with the students. Besides, I feel that our bonding between my batch mates is strengthened through this social engagement project. And I hope that we as batch mates could involve more doing volunteer work together.