Nurul Anis Danishah Binti Zulfikri (MIC180034)

GIG1005: SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Reflective Writing

“Visit to SMK Sri Aman”

Nurul Anis Danishah Binti Zulfikri (MIC180034) 28th March 2020

During the last two semesters, we were informed by the management of our department that we won’t be taking our Social Engagement that semester. I was actually quite disappointed because I was really hoping that we would just get it over with when our Friday’s were free back then and had more times on our hands. However, I decided to just continue my semester and not question this matter further. During our first meeting, our coordinator, Dr Puah Suat Moi, explained to us regarding the activities that will be conducted during our Social Engagement. I was actually very pleased to know that Dr Puah was our coordinator for the course because she is truly an awesome lecturer. Also, I was really thankful and relieved that our Social Engagement was conducted differently compared to my friends in different courses where they have to conduct the activities on their own while we are accompanied by Dr Puah. Besides that, she had also prepared everything, and all was left for us to do was prepare the materials we needed and conduct the activities at our respective schools. On the 26th of February, a workshop was conducted by Dr Puah which was like a preparation workshop before we present the modules in front of the students. I was bummed as I was not able to attend the workshop because I had to attend my elective course outside of the faculty. I was worried that I would not able to understand but luckily, I had my friends to help me out. On Friday afternoon, 28th February 2020 we embarked on our journey to Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Sri Aman, Petaling Jaya right after our Molecular Techniques practical. My group and I were supposed to present the modules at a different school but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we had to cancel our trip and help out the other 2nd Year group instead. I was really excited because it has been a long time since I had set foot in school as I really enjoy the atmosphere there. Everything was running smoothly as planned. I was actually really impressed with the students because from my experience tutoring students when I was in high school, the students tend to be very uninterested with outsiders. The students of SMK Sri Aman really amazed me with their attentive listening and even jotting down notes even though it wasn’t in their syllabus. They were also really friendly and welcoming which puts me at ease as I am actually very shy when it comes to meeting new people but at the time, I didn’t hesitate to start up a conversation with them and facilitate the module for them. Things started going downhill when my friends from the other group started to conduct the quiz. The slides were made by the 1st Year students, and they did not include the answers in the slide. The group responsible for this trip also did not check the slides before the presented it which caused some misunderstanding between my friends during the quiz. When my friends decided to come up with spontaneous questions, I felt bad because one of the students from SMK Sri Aman answered accurately and correctly to his question, but her answer was rejected. After the activity, we said our goodbyes and had a post-mortem before we left the school. I can understand that Dr Puah is disappointed in us, but she did not scold us, instead she advised us to be more careful the next time when we conduct our Social Engagement. I know that everything has been carried out but I really hoped that my friends will be much more careful next time if we were ever to participate is such activity in the future, which also applies to me too. Besides that, I hope that next time everyone should participate and contribute actively during the Social Engagement because I caught there are some students who did not contribute much after the Social Engagement even though we had the chance to choose what we want to do like editing the video, managing the blog and so on. This is really unfair to the others who contributed so much more than those who didn’t. Despite the ups and downs throughout this course, regardless I still enjoyed it because I really love sharing knowledge with the public and I really wish I could do this again someday.

(754 words)