WISELY KOAY ZHI TANG (MIC180051)

GIG1005 Social Engagement

Reflective Essay

WISELY KOAY ZHI TANG (MIC180051)

 Date: 23^rd March 2020

                  As Oprah Winfrey once said, “To move forward, you have to give back.” I believe that this saying applies to all of us, especially when we grow older. Giving back does not just mean donating to the community although it is one way of doing so. As we grow older, we get stronger physically and mentally and also, we gain more knowledge as well. If we could contribute and share our knowledge, we would be able to empower and educate others. I’m glad that we were given Social Engagement as a platform for us to contribute to the community. Before that, I always thought Social Engagement was where we would help out those in need by carrying out activities or volunteering at a old folk’s home kind of giving back. What surprised me was this year, our lovely course coordinator Dr. Puah Suat Moi arranged our Social Engagement where we could apply our knowledge that we learn from classes and teach them to younger students.

                  Before the activity itself, we were briefed by Dr Puah so that we get an idea of what we were going to do for our project. At first, I was scared to participate as I have zero experience in conducting activities like this. But everything was explained in detailed later on as our coordinator had everything well-planned and it got me relieved as we have our coordinator supporting us. The dates, venues and programmes were all planned systematically. We were then divided into groups and each group will be attending different schools to carry out different modules.

                  We were tasked to teach secondary school students (Form 4) about DNA, microscopy, genetics and also introduce them to the biomedical science course. I felt that this programme would benefit a lot of the students and clear up whatever inquiries that they have. I would have appreciated it if there were similar programmes being held in my school back in the days as I am very interested in the particular course and would have been great if there were seniors that I could approach and ask questions.

                  We started our preparation early during our mid semester break. We prepared presentations and quizzes to aid our programmes for it to run smoother and have more engagement with the students. The work to prepare the presentation slides and quizzes were divided among our group members. Meetings and internal workshop were held intensively to make sure the activities can be carried out smoothly on D-Day itself. Attendance for the internal workshops were compulsory to ensure all of us are well-equipped with the knowledge of the particular topics and are able to explain any necessary questions that might be asked by the students during the activities. 

                  On 28^th February 2020 (Friday), we left for SMK (P) Sri Aman at 12pm after class. Immediately after we arrived, we started with the preparations and set-up. A briefing was then given in the hall by Syafiqah and Rajwa to quickly explain about who we are and what we will be doing for the day. After that, we went on a small break for the Muslim students to carry out their prayers. Carrying on, we all proceeded to the labs to start our hands-on activities. The session was led by Amir and Anne. Students were divided into groups and each group has our batchmates to assist them in their experiments. The experiments were about DNA extraction using household items such as soap, salt, alcohol, paper clips and more. The students were all very attentive and cooperative. Everyone paid full attention and asks questions about the use of the reagents in the experiment. I took over one of batchmates to facilitate group 7. I was concerned at first as this was a full girls school, but the students were active and they did not shy away from questions and participation. Some other batchmates were assigned as photographer and videographer. They took photos and videos of our whole session even starting from our departure for the school. Appreciate all their efforts as they managed to record all the great moments throughout the project. It was heart warming to see all the students having fun and enjoying the session we prepared for them. 

                  After the students successfully extracted DNAs from themselves and also from the fruits we provided, we carried on to the quiz session. The students participated actively, and it was very enjoyable. All of them tried their best to be the quickest to answer the questions provided by us. They raised their hands so fast we could not even know who was the very first one to raise it. A few flaws were also found in our quiz slides, and it led to a heated debate for what the right answers were. Luckily, our lecturers Dr. Puah and Dr. Chai was there and they corrected our mistakes. The quiz was a fault from our side as we did not do a final check on the questions before our session, leading to the misleading answers. We will make sure our following sessions are improved and no similar mistakes are to occur again.

                  Overall, it was a wholesome experience for me to be able to share what we learnt from university and inspire more youngsters to delve into the field of science in the near future. It was a disappointment we couldn’t carry out a second visit due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Thanks to Social Engagement, I have been given a great opportunity for me to give back to the community with the knowledge that I have. With it, I have also grown to be more confident to carry out similar programmes like this.

(945 words)