TEOW JUN YAO (MIC190049)

GIG1005 SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT

Reflective Essay

Introduction of Microbiology and Proper Way of Handwashing

TEOW JUN YAO (MIC190049)                                            DATE: 22 MARCH 2020

        Margaret Fuller once said, “If you have knowledge, let others light their candle in it” and I totally agree with the idea. I had a great moment with my group members when we conducted the field work together in order to share our knowledge to students from SMK Sri Pantai. Early exposure to knowledge related to science of microbiology could arouse students’ interest to question the phenomena around them and to explain them with logical and scientific theory. Besides, we aim to increase students’ awareness towards proper way of handwashing to prevent spreading of disease.

        On 13 March 2020, an internal workshop was conducted among my teammates with the lecturer, Dr Puah. This workshop aimed to prepare us to present our knowledge in SMK Sri Pantai. The two main part of the workshop were introduction of microbiology and the proper way of handwashing. For introduction of microbiology, we were planned to introduce different bacteria with various shapes by mimicking it with ballons. The next objective was to introduce Foldscape to the students. This was our first time using Foldscape and we faced difficulty while using it. Foldscape is a convenient microscope to observe microorganism and it was interesting. For handwashing part, we would like to show the power of bacteria or virus spreading through squeezing with different method of covering our noses. We demonstrated it with water sprayer and tissues. Lastly, we conducted a handwashing tutorial to see whether we can wash away all the bacteria completely from our hands and what would happen if we shake hand with contaminated hand.

       Although we were fully prepared to conduct the workshop, our plan was ruined due to the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic where the government decided to implement MCO. We need a change of plan in order to transfer the knowledge we have to the students. Lastly, we all come to agreement where we decided to share our content via our biomedical blog. We had uploaded our infographic posters, video of proper way of handwashing. In order to make sure that they received and understand our content, we had conducted a survey about hygiene to make sure they have enough awareness towards it.

       I was a member part of the infographic poster production. Due to this Covid-19 pandemic, we planned to make a poster about Covid-19 in order to increase awareness among the students and also the inform them the proper way to protect themselves to prevent transmission of the virus. My members and I had searched information about the disease and we put all the important messages and information in our infographic poster. We really hope that our poster could give a reminder to the students that everyone has the responsibility in order to prevent the virus outbreak by practising proper hygiene.

       Throughout this workshop, we hope that our online content capable to give important information not only to the students but also the public. We wish to rise the awareness among the school community that practising healthy personal hygiene would be the best way to prevent virus spreading. It was reported to have more than 6000 cases of Covid-19 patients in Malaysia and this exponential rise in number of cases could be avoided if we follow instruction from WHO and government, and maintain good personal hygiene. We hope that our handwashing video could help to provide the best example to keep a good personal hygiene not only during this pandemic but everlasting. During this workshop, we also benefit as we know that the importance to spread the right message to the public in order to increase awareness and perhaps to reduce confusion.

603 words