SARAH SAFIYA SHARIFF (MIC 190046)

GIG 1005: SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT REFLECTIVE ESSAY 

SARAH SAFIYA SHARIFF MIC 190046 Date: 29th April 2020 

Social engagement is a course that was required for biomedical science students (2019/2020) in their first year, second semester to register. At first, I did not have a clue about this course as it was a little different from the other courses we registered for. However, something about the course name made me thrilled to know what this course has in store for us. From the word “social engagement” I believe we were required to communicate or socialise with people which is something I enjoy doing. I believe that this is an important skill that would benefit us in the future as it allows us to enhance on our soft skills. 

On the 5th of December 2019, we had our first briefing for social engagement with Dr Puah Suat Moi who is our lecturer for this course. It was held in the lecture theatre from 12pm to 1pm together with the second year students who were also taking the course. During the briefing, we were told about the course structure and also that we had to conduct a program in the designated high school given to our group. The first year students were divided into two groups. I was placed in group two alongside with 26 of my batch mates. Our first task was to prepare a module. As science students we were told to prepare a science related module. There is a total of four modules that was prepared by the first year and second year students. The module that was prepared by my group was entitled “The secret of life : DNA”. These modules will then be exchanged between us to be presented in the respective schools. In this way, we will be more interactive not only within our group members but also with the other groups. Besides that, we also had to prepare a survey to measure the impact of the module on the students, an interactive quiz based on our module and also a small gift for the winners of the quiz. My group decided to distribute the task as it would be more effective. I chose to help out with the module. For the module, we were required to create a powerpoint presentation that would be used to be presented at the school. It was a breeze working in this group as everyone did their part in the task assigned to them within the time frame. 

On the 13th of March 2020, we had our first internal workshop which was held in the seminar room of the biomedical science department. The main purpose of this workshop was to test run all of the activities before we do with the high school students. This is to ensure that on the day itself, everything would run smoothly. The internal workshop was divided to four main activities. Firstly, our activity was to assemble a Foldscope to view the specimens that was prepared. A Foldscope is a portable microscope that can be assembled using simple components including paper and lenses. Dr Puah Suat Moi with the help of Dr Kee Boon Pin guided us on this. We were divided into pairs to assemble the Foldscope. It was a very fun and exciting experience as I have never seen or used a Foldscope before. It was also very satisfying when we were able to see the specimens by using a simple piece of instrument like the Foldscope. The next activity is called balloon bugs where we had to recreate the shape of a few types of microbes by using different balloons and strings. A piece of paper with the steps and also a brief summary about the microbe was given to us. The microbe that I had to recreate is Campylobacter jejuni. As the shape of this microbe is spiral and it has a flagella, I blew out a spiral balloon and attached a string at the end of the balloon that would represent its flagella. By doing this activity, we could clearly visualise the shape of different microbes and learn more about it. This was a very fun way to learn about microbes. In the third activity, we were given a Glow Germ kit. Glo Germ is an effective tool to show how germs could be spread by a single handshake and also can be used to demonstrate proper hand washing techniques. First, we were required to stand in a line. The first person was given some Glo Germ powder to be rubbed between her hands. She then had to shake hands with everyone in that line. By using a UV light, we were able to see the amount of germs that was spread by each handshake. We were then required to wash our hands as per the way we would normally do. We were shocked to see the results when we shined the UV light after washing our hands. Even though, we were confident that we have properly washed our hands there were still some germs seen. Most of the germs left were seen between our fingers. This made us realise that we should wash our hands properly following the correct techniques. The last activity was the sneezing test. 

The materials used for this activity are a spray bottle, coloured water, tissues, gloves, measuring tape, a marker and also a mahjong paper. The purpose of this activity is to observe how far the particles could spread from a single sneeze which is represented by the spray bottle. We measured how far the particles could spread when a person uses a glove, a piece of tissue and also a few pieces of unfolded and folded tissue to cover their mouth. We also measured how far the particles spread when a person does not cover their mouth when sneezing. We realised that the particles spread the furthest when a person does not cover their mouth when sneezing and it spreads the least when a person uses a few pieces of tissue which are folded to cover their mouth. At the end of the internal workshop, I was very happy as I got to use some instruments and kits that I have never used before and I also managed to learn a few new things that would be very beneficial in our everyday life. I was excited at the thought of being able to share the activities that we have prepared to the high school students as I am sure they will have a good time too while being able to learn a few things. 

On the 18th of March 2020, Malaysia implemented the movement control order as a preventive measure in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. At first, most of us thought that it would be just for a week or two but the cases kept rising to a worrying level that the movement control order was prolonged for more than a month. The government has also announced that they may ban mass gatherings for the next six to twelve months after the movement control order is lifted. Unfortunately, our plans to conduct the social engagement program at the respective high schools must also be cancelled. We were very upset and disappointed by this news as we were looking forward to the day of the program. However, we knew that we must support and abide to the government rules to help flatten the curve of this pandemic. As the saying goes prevention is better than cure and it was done for the safety of all of us. Due to this, our field work was converted to a few alternative methods that could be done safely from our homes. We were given three tasks which is to prepare a video about proper hand washing techniques, produce two infographic posters about corona virus and also how to effectively wash your hands and the last task was to prepare an online survey to assess hand hygiene behaviour and knowledge among biomedical science students. Fortunately, we were still able to share the information we prepared to the respective school communities by sharing it via blog that was created by our seniors. We divided ourselves to three groups to complete the task given within the dateline. I was involved in making the online survey. My group and I prepared the questions that was later sent to Dr Puah to be checked. After a few amendments, she gave us the green light to spread the online survey. Besides focusing on the task that we were assigned to do, we also helped each other out by giving our ideas and opinions for the other tasks. In this way, we could help improve each others work and give the best we can in the three task given to us. At the end, we managed to finish all three task successfully within the date line. 

At the end, even though we were unable to share the information physically in the designated high schools, we should be thankful that we are fortunate enough to be living in this modern era where we are able to share useful information online. The designated high school that was given to my group is SMK Sri Pantai. The students from this school could access the information that we have prepared just at the tip of their fingertips by going through the blog post. We hope by this way, we were able to get the message across, share some useful information and also create awareness on hand hygiene that is crucial at this point of time due to the pandemic. We hope that the students from SMK Sri Pantai and also biomedical science students who saw the content posted on the blog were able to learn a thing or two that they could practice in their daily life. I personally gained many new experiences and also learned a lot from this course. I am sure that the information I gained through this course would be very beneficial in my daily life. I am also more aware on how important personal hygiene as simple as washing your hands is. Just by doing one or two extra steps that we were not aware of before this, could prevent you from getting sick. On a final note, I would like to thank Dr Puah Suat Moi for guiding us throughout this course and also my teammates for being very cooperative and proactive to complete all the task assigned despite not being able to