KHOR SIANG HOOI (MIC190012)

GIG1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT 

REFLECTIVE WRITING

KHOR SIANG HOOI  (MIC190012)                                                               12 APRIL 2020

I used to be a medical student before and through the study in medicine, I did not get exposed to this course since it is not included in our curriculum. This year, I had the chance to be transferred to the Biomedical Science course and signed up for Social Engagement as well. At first, I was not so sure about what the course is about but things were crystal-clear after our instructor briefed us so well. 

I was in Year 1 Group 1 in the beginning. After the course briefing, there was an internal workshop conducted for each group. Instructor was kind enough to let us decide which day we wanted to have our workshop and so we came up with one. We were pleased to have such a considerate and understanding lecturer. On the day of the internal workshop, we were briefed about the schedule in the seminar room. Since this workshop acted as a preview on activities that we would carry out with students in the secondary school outside campus, we  concentrated throughout the process so that we were clear about all procedures. Then, we proceeded to the first module, the DNA fishing experiment. The experience was somehow fun. As weird as it might sound, we had to rinse our mouth with salt water and spit it out into a cup.  As a result, we were able to fish some whitish DNA. For the next module, we were given many DNA fragments and we had to determine which DNA fragment is compatible to the criminal’s. The process of searching for the fragment and cutting it out was interesting. Every group had their own way of presenting their results and the instructor taught us how we should look at things differently. I have always remembered she said that, “Being different does not mean you are wrong. We all have our own way or perspective to see things.” It was special because it was not only about how I felt about this entire course, but also how she taught us in her own way. For me, I learned a lot from her besides the course. As what she said, she is able to see things differently even things get bad. She is able to stay clam when problems come up. Her personality is what I would admire. I feel blessed because I do not only learn things in academics, but sometimes I learn more about how my lecturers deal with problems with their experiences and views. 

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, I was not able to join the school visiting session with Year 1 Group 1. Fortunately, my instructor assigned me to be part of Year 1 Group 2. I felt strange at first but the group members were so friendly. With some help from my group leader Akmal, they welcome me as a new member. It was the first workshop session when I first met them. We had two modules to conduct and the flow was exactly the same as the first one. This time, it was more like an art session and I totally enjoyed it. We were divided into groups of two and were given a set of papers. Guess what? We were going to build a paper microscope! I would never imagine making a paper microscope and we even had slides to look at. The lecturers were patient at assisting us and it took us almost an hour to build it. It was fun and I shared the experience with my previous group members and they were so jealous of me. Next one was even more fun that balloons were distributed to us in different shapes. We used different shapes for different bacteria. It was indeed a good learning session. For me, every workshop was great in their ways as we were not conducting just for the sake of doing. I really saw the points in every experiment, which was informative for me and I guessed the secondary school students would think the same too. 

This was where the sad part came in. I did not expect that we would have a movement control order (MCO) announced on 18th March 2020 due to the coronavirus outbreak. It was saddening because we have prepared a lot and we really look forward to having an interactive session with the students. My previous group mates always told me how fun their session was and it made me really look forward to it. The university has declared that off campus activities and physical classes are disallowed. It was unpredictable and we can barely do anything about it. Fortunately, I did learn something in the process and interact well with group members. We learned how to work together, how to speak out without hurting others’ feelings, how to come to a conclusion while respecting everyone’s opinion at the same time. 

Although we were not able to conduct the session in school, we still carried out plenty of non-face-to-face engagement efforts such as preparing posters and questionnaire. I hope that the posters would raise awareness on how important hand hygiene is especially during this crucial timing. Since one way of preventing coronavirus from spreading is through hand washing, we presented all the steps of hand washing in the posters with an emphasis on how proper hand washing steps help with current situation. Besides, questions such as “How often do you wash your hands in a day” and “How long do you wash your hands” were asked in the questionnaire. It was expected that they would understand more about hand hygiene after reading the posters and going through the questionnaire. During this MCO period, I hope that everybody will stay at home, reduce times going out, wear masks if they need to go shop for necessary items, use soap water or hand sanitizer to wash hand frequently. We make our effort to prevent the spreading of coronavirus, so let us try our best to stay at home. I am certain that we will get through this together!