Siti Nur Athirah Binti Azman (MIC190060)

GIG1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Reflective Writing

Siti Nur Athirah Binti Azman (MIC190060)                                                     6 May 2020

            It all started at the end of semester one when my coursemates and I were asked to gather at the lecture hall for a short meeting on Social Engagement course. Honestly at first I was confused and hesitated to go because I did not know anything about the course. But later, I just followed the order without asking much. As soon as my friends and I got there, the meeting had already started so we slowly sneaked into the lecture hall and took a seat. After Dr Puah, our course coordinator finished explaining about the course and the modules that we were going to conduct, then only I understood the purpose of this gathering. After that, we were divided into four groups and I chose to be in the fourth group (Year 1 Group 2). At the end of the meeting, I am very very excited for this course because it is very unique and not like the other university courses and it also reminds me of a few community service programs I had joined before.

            After the first meeting, we continued our discussion through whatsapp application since everyone is still on their semester break. One of the things that we discussed was to assign the person in charge for certain tasks such as logistics and multimedia. Even after the second semester has started, we still communicate through online until Dr Puah suggested we hold our first internal workshop. As our group was scheduled as the last group to present, our workshop was held later than the other groups. We had some issues setting the workshop date as some of us could not attend on the suggested dates. After further discussion, we finally reached an agreement to conduct the workshop on 13 March 2020.

            The workshop was very fun and informative. It really helps us deepen our understanding about the module that we are going to present at SMK Sri Pantai and help us get a clearer picture of what we actually need to do on that day. The workshop started with an explanation from Dr Puah and Dr Kee about the overall module and the details of each activity that we will conduct with the students. Overall, it was a very educative workshop and a great experience for us to create bonds between our group members so that the module can be conducted successfully with the students at the school. The first activity that we had was installing a simple paper microscope named Foldscope in pairs and then using it to view samples such as microbes and cells. I am very amazed how this little microscope works as it can view such a very small thing and that makes me realise how advanced our technology is nowadays. The second activity was blowing balloons. We were divided into three groups, each group had to blow different shapes of balloons which indicates the general shapes of bacteria. The shapes are coccus(sphere), bacillus (rod) and spiral. The next activity was the ‘sneeze transmission’. This activity is carried out to educate students on how fast and far a sneeze can carry contagious germs and ways to reduce the transmission distance. It was done by doing a simulation using a spray filled with coloured liquid on a long white ‘mahjong’ paper. The distance of liquid travelled using different ways of covering the mouth is recorded to compare their effectiveness. The last activity that we had was the ‘handshaking transmission’ by using coloured dust and UV torchlight. This activity is carried out to raise the awareness among the students on the transmission of germs through handshaking. After the handshake, we were asked to wash hands before observing them under the torchlight to see whether still got the tiny dust or not. This is a very effective activity to be done to educate students on the importance of hand hygiene and the correct way of hand washing.

            Unfortunately, luck is not on our side. Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced on 18 March 2020 due to a sudden surge on Covid-19 cases in our country. As a consequence, the university had officially announced the change of mode of learning to e-learning completely. I am very sad that our group was unable to present our module to SMK Sri Pantai students even though our preparation was almost complete. Even so, we never lost hope and were still eager to finish the task. So, Dr Puah had suggested an alternative assignment to our group which comprises three tasks; making two infographic posters, a video of the correct way of handwashing and an online questionnaire. The main aim of this alternative assignment is to educate the public about a pandemic that is currently active all over the world.

            Even though we faced a lot of issues such as internet problems, we still managed to finish the assignment on time. I am very proud and grateful to each of my group members for their endless commitment and cooperation throughout the journey. I also gained a lot of knowledge and skills from them and Dr Puah especially in terms of managing and making sure everything went smoothly. I hope our little efforts help the public gain little information about Covid-19 so that they can take precaution. Last but not least, spreading awareness and useful information is something that everyone should be taking part in as it exposes us to many unexpected things that we never knew before.