Nur Aliah Faqihah Binti Muhammad Hafidzi (MIC190058)

GIG 1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Reflective Writing

Nur Aliah Faqihah Binti Muhammad Hafidzi (MIC190058) 22nd April 2020

            In this course, we are asked to do a field work on teaching basic genetic information to high school students. We were provided with modules guidelines to be prepared, for two topics, which are Introduction of DNA (Module 3) and DNA Fingerprinting Lab (Module 4). Around a month before the field work, we elected a group leader and assigned committee members to prepare the modules, multimedias, provide gifts and manage financials in terms of items and transportations. Some of us; me, personally, were a bit confused on how to carry out the preparations for the field work, but as time goes, with guidance from our lecturer, Dr. Puah, we managed to get a clearer vision to accomplish our objectives.

            On Saturday, 29th February 2020, which was a week before our field work started, we attended a workshop conducted by our lecturers and 2nd year seniors. The purpose of the workshop was to give us the exposure and teachings on how to handle the hands-on activities in the modules. For Module 3: Introduction of DNA, we carried out a DNA extraction of human cheek cells and fruit using household materials, which are salt, plastic cups, liquid soap, bamboo skewer, alcohol, and paper clips. It was a fun and interesting activity as we get to see clumps of DNA from our cheek cells and fruits.

            The activity for Module 4: DNA Fingerprinting Lab was a crime scene investigation where we needed to find the culprit who took the Queen’s cheese based on DNA samples found on scene. The activity was easy to understand but quite confusing to carry out. We spent quite a long time to cut out the papers with gene sequence and pasting it on a mahjong paper to compare the DNA sequence of the suspects to the DNA sequence found from the crime scene. This activity was interesting as well since it had a story behind it.

            A week later, on Friday, 6th March 2020 was our first field work. We woke up early in the morning with excitement and book a grab at around 7:00 a.m. to SMK Lembah Subang which was 40 minutes far.When we arrived there, I was amazed by the beauty of the school and thinking about how fun it would be to be in that environment again. At around 9:00 a.m., we met the teacher in charge and entered a science lab to set up our teaching materials and get ready to start the activities. We were well welcomed by the teacher and the students which made us less nervous and more excited to start. However, we were quite surprised as we only got to know that the students we were going to teach are not from Science stream students, but from Business and Geography streams. At first we were kind of worried that we would have some difficulties in teaching, but thankfully the students were responsive and curious to learn. After the teaching session, it was the hands-on session where we carried out the activities just like how we learned it during the workshop. It could be seen that the students were having fun as well extracting DNA from their own cheek cells and from fruits. We also held a quiz session afterwards which received a great response and contribution from the students. They all were so excited to answer and receive gifts. At 12:30 p.m., the field work ended with a survey for the students and also appreciation gift for the teacher in charge.

            On the next Friday, 13th March 2020, we carried out Module 4: DNA Fingerprinting Lab. I, personally was more nervous on this day as I was the presenter for that day, along with two of my teammates. I spent a lot of time the night before to edit and go through our slides and practised my presentation so that I would not have any difficulties for the real situation. Thankfully, I managed to present well and made sure that the students understood every point of our presentation. I even asked my friends on my performance and they told me that it was good and easy for the students to understand, but there were some improvements that can be done. Then, we had the crime scene investigation hands-on session and quiz session afterwards. When the field work ended, we took some photos to commemorate this nice experience.

            We then all went home feeling tired but satisfied with our work. Personally, I really like this course as it focuses more on our social skills alongside our intellectual skills. I also feel really grateful that my team had the opportunity to do this work field before the Movement Control Order (MCO) started. I felt sorry for the other team that they didn’t get to experience this due to MCO. Thus, I hope that there will be another chance for us all to experience something like this again in the future. All in all, I am grateful that this course exists.

 

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