Nurul Farhanah binti Rahim (MIC180035)

GIG1015 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT 

Reflective Writing 

Nurul Farhanah binti Rahim (MIC180035) Date: 30 March 2020 

At the end of Semester 1, 2nd year students and 1st year students were informed to gather at Lecture Theatre for GIG1005 Social Engagement briefing by Dr Puah, our coordinator. To be honest, I was not expecting anything from this course because my heads were already full of other subjects for next semester and interacting with strangers was not really my cup of thing. I heard that this year we had to do this Social Engagement project with 1st year students. When I entered our Lecture Theatre and I saw 1st year students, back in my head was like ‘The rumour is true, great’. It was not because I dislike 1st year students but doing a project together meaning there are higher chances that our schedules are going to clash. Even within 2nd year students, our schedules were different.

Dr Puah explained everything we should know about this course. Basically, we are going to teach secondary schools students science subject using simple experiments. Two modules conducted were studies of genetics and microbiology. These students already knew the basic of these topics, but the aim was for these students develop interest with these field of studies. Also, this project was a great opportunity to give early exposure about biomedical science programme. After the briefing ended, this project piqued my interest. I thought I should give it a try because sometimes it is good to get out of our comfort zone.

The first internal workshop was done on Wednesday during the same week. We had to attend the internal workshop to deepen our understanding regarding the topic and get used to the experiment procedures because it would make the explaining and demonstrating the experiments a lot easier to the students. Unfortunately, I could not attend the internal workshop due to other commitments, but I did attend the second internal workshop to compensate the first one with the 1st year students.

On 28th February 2020, noon, we went to SMK (P) Sri Aman. Curious eyes were watching us like hawks made me nervous. We made our way to the school’s hall. We prepared everything while waiting for the students and teachers to come. It did not cross my mind that I would be at school teaching students. The students started to fill the hall. Facilitators started to take their places. A brief introduction of biomedical science programme was introduced by my friends. The next slot was introduction of genetics and DNA extraction. I watched some of these students were diligently taking notes. They were so enthusiastic to answer questions from presenters. I felt nostalgic I used to have the same passion as them, somehow, I felt sad of the person I become.

We had a break before we started our experiments. The students were divided into small groups and facilitators were assigned to each group. Facilitators started to demonstrate the experiments as the students were intently observing before they did by themselves. I was impressed by the students, they kept asking questions and reasons of every steps in the experiments. After the experiments ended, we did a quiz session. All of them were so eager to answer the questions. We finished the session around 4pm and took a picture for commemoration.

After this project ended, I felt I would regret for the rest of my life if I did not join because this project taught me to be a great team player, friend, facilitator, student and better version of myself. Seeing the students’ passion and enthusiasm brought back the passion I used to have. I was busy to make ends meet until I forgot the excitement to learn new things. Maybe Social Engagement is not that bad. (614 words)