hongly

Exploration Name: Life on Border

Exploration Dates: March 10 – May 2

Number of Students: 15

Essential Questions/Areas:

(1) What do students know about planning and running Exploration projects?

(2) What are the steps of running Exploration project?

(3) How to keep track ofworking process?

(4) How to use resources efficiently and transparently?

(5) How is the situation of people living along the border such as: education, health, economic and immigration?

(7) Why do people move there?

(8) What are the advantages and disadvantages of living there?

 

Description:

In our Life On Border group we learned a lot of  things about border. Students know how to run the Exploration very well. Students know the goal to run their project. The first step that we can run our project is we learn about our goal. Our goal is Project Summary, Project Outcome, Project Mentors, Field Experiences, 21st Century Learning Skills and Core Curriculum Areas. After we learned about our goal we planned and thought. The situation of the people that live along the border is normal. Some people don’t have money so they don’t have work. Some people go to find work at Thailand so when the people go already some of the people can’t come back. People’s health is not so good at the border because they don’t have money to buy their food. They move to the border because if the people have the money they come to border to sell something because the border have a lot of people came from Russia to the Cambodia. So that why people want to make their business there. The advantage to live there is there are not a lot of bad people at there so it safe for people. The disadvantage to live there is if people don’t have money and they don’t have work they will not be safe for their life. We went to the border to learn and we saw some people have a work and some people don’t have work. Some people have a work but it like cart worker it is not easy to get the money. We interview the cart worker and the sellers. We went to casino to visit, but we didn’t get a chance to go in.

 

Exploration Name: Forest Ecology

Exploration Dates: Oct 7, 2013 – Nov 19, 2013

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions: (1) What is an ecosystem? (2) What is a natural resource?

Description: An ecosystem is the living things and the non-living things connecting with each other. The one example is algae. Algae take the sunlight for food and fish eat algae and then people eat fish. This is one connection. In Ecosystems class we had a journey book to take notes or write keywords that we don’t know what that word means. In Ecology class the first topic that we learned was tropical forest. We did not just learn only tropical forests but we also learned a lot of kinds of forests like conifers and others. A tropical forest is the forest that has rain a lot all year. We also learned about ecological relationships. Ecological relationships mean that one organism and another organism connect with each other. Ecological relationships are divided in five parts. They are parasitism, commensalism, predator-prey, mutualism, and competition. Our Ecology group went to Mondulkiri province to study there. We spent six days at Mondolkiri. We met a lot of people like Bunong people. O

n Saturday we came back to our school and we shared what we learned.

Exploration Name: Renewable Energy in Cambodia (Poo)

Exploration Dates: Oct 7 to Nov 19

Number of students: 13 students

Essential Questions:

1. Are biogas and solar energy sources practical and cost effective in Cambodia?

2. What are the benefits and drawbacks to using biogas and solar energy in Cambodia?

Description:

In our Exploration class we had three things to work on. The first area was the solar system. The solar system is a resource that can create the energy from the sun. Solar has four types: solar panel, solar cooker, solar water heater and solar lamp. A solar panel is the solar thing that creates the energy to run the electricity. A solar cooker is the solar thing that creates the energy for cooking. A solar water heater is the solar thing the creates the energy to turn the normal water to the hot water. A solar lamp is the solar thing that creates the energy to light the house if that house doesn’t have the electricity. The next thing that we learned about was the biodigester. A biodigester is a natural system that can create biogas by using poo from the animals. Cow poo is the best. It has a lot of benefits. Example: (1) saving the money, (2) healthier than using firewood, (3) save a tree. The last thing that we learned was about hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity is a thing that creates the energy by using water. It usually is built over the river. The biggest dam in the world is in China. Our goal was to make Cambodians know that all of these things can create energy. Also we wanted them to use these three things because they are good and can save a lot of money. We also had a trip too. The trip was to go to Kampong Speu. Our target was to install two biodigesters. We install them in Camkids and the orphanage called HAP because we wanted to make them easy instead of using the firewood. Both of the biodigesters cost $1100. When we went to to Kampong Speu we also taught some students too. We also slept at Kampong Speu too. We had good days when we were in Kampong Speu.

 

Exploration Name: Simple Machines (Toys)

Exploration Dates: August 12 – September 26

Number of students: 13

Essential Questions:

1. What are simple machines?

2. What is mechanical advantage?

3. How can simple machines be used to create engaging interactive toys and why is toy          creation a powerful form of learning?

Description: In our Exploration class we learned about simple machines and how to make toys using cams (it is like a circle, like wheel and axle) + simple machines. Simple machines can make some jobs easier to do. We learned about wedges, levers, pulleys, inclined planes, gears, screws, wheels and axles. Each of these things have different advantages and disadvantages. Levers are the most used in real life. Levers can be anything you hold. Ex. sword handle, computer lid, all of those things are levers. When we started we learned about how to use simple machines in our toys. We watched a lot of videos to understand and to get new ideas. We first built toys for testing our project. It worked but it was too small and not good enough. We researched more and then we got more ideas from books, computers and videos. When we had enough knowledge and enough information, we got an idea and we worked in teams. We thought that to make our toy more interactive, we have to get some paint to make it colorful. When we finished the toy we planned a trip with our teacher to Takeo province. Our trip was not long just half a day travel and half a day at NFO to teach the students there about simple machines and how to make toys. We came back to set up for our presentation in the big area. All of Liger students came to see us and learn from each other.