Category: My Liger Learning

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Writing, Writing

One the projects I joined for Round 1 of this school year is called Theatre Play. This is a year-long exploration in which we write our own play and perform it. So, in this first round, we’ve been working to shape our ideas for what we want our play to be about and write the script for the plays. Then, we’ll start recruiting actors and practice the performances in the following rounds. 

After various discussions, we’ve decided that our plays should be centered around the idea of relationships including the romantic relationship, peers, family, and social relationships. We then divided into four groups to take on different topics. My team is in charge of writing about peers relationship, but it hasn’t finished yet. 

The play will be in Khmer and perform it to Khmer audiences. Each of our plays has the message(s) that we want to convey. So stay tuned to our performances. 

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Flames!!

After the incredible physics course last year, we’re now taking an introductory chemistry class with our new facilitator. 

We’re going through lessons such as scientific methods, isotopes, moles, ions, electron configuration, and emissions. 

Our latest lesson was on emission; we learned how atoms emitted energy to visible colors when it becomes excited.  So, let’s break it down. Throughout history, scientists had been debating whether lights act as waves or particles. But, in this unit, we’re learning when lights act as waves. Ok, what does that have to do with emissions? So, when some amount of energy hits an atom, some of its electrons become excited and jump to a higher energy orbital or excited state. Then, those excited electrons will release the energy as photons which are the visible colors and jumped back to its ground state. Those visible colors are release with different wavelengths that produce different colors. 

We also did a flame test lab on this lesson. It’s fun because..we get to wear those lab coats and it looks cool. Actually, there’s more than that. First of all, we lit up the Bunsen burner with lighters, then we put the different compounds of chloride and see observe the changes in the flame colors. Those compounds are barium, calcium, copper II, lithium, potassium, strontium, and an unknown #1. Then, we have to record all the data of different compounds and write a lab report for it.

My personal favorite is copper II:

This is the color produced when copper II reacted with flame

 

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Are we ready…?

“How many hours you got for these projects?  What is your next class? Have you done any homework? What is the homework since I missed class today?” 

Voices of the senior are rising along the hallway trying to figure out what are they doing in their last 2 years of high school. 

Our schedule has just gone through tremendous changes; word to describes it would be ‘A LOT’. The education team is trying to shape our curriculum as similar to universities as possible to get us prepared. 

For our project-based learning, last year, we were picked to be on one certain project at a time. When we don’t like it, we can blame the facilitators. However, now, we have the right to choose what do we want to do that fits best with our passions and we get to experience a variety of things. So, if we don’t like it, it’s our fault. 

For me, it’s about science. I joined an advanced placement biology class or AP Biology which is like ‘the best’; I’m glad I joined. Then to maintain my literature skill, I’m a member of a school newspaper team called the Liger Edge and also participated in a Theater play that will be writing plays for performances. 

Building more on an established relationship with the International Labour Organization, I’m also a member of a team to help ILO implement soft skills training in Cambodia. On the other hand, I also joined a team that will be creating a podcast channel and talking about Cambodia to the rest of the world. 

It’s a lot, isn’t it? That’s not just me, that’s everyone else too. We have seminar hours with our facilitators and extra hours that we have to work independently on each of those projects. We were expected to spend 22 hours cumulatively for all of our projects a week. So, we have to use them wisely..!

It’s hard, but as we go along and think about it; we’re privileged to experience this during our time in high school!

 

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University?

New school year 2018-19 kicked off with the SAT Bootcamp!!! yay… For the first two weeks after the summer break, two wonderful women, Amanda & Kim, volunteered to teach us how to take the SAT. 

“How to take the SAT”; as simple as that. 

But, things turned out pretty fun. Wait, but before the fun, we had to take the PSAT digitally on the first day of school; then we can start the boot camp. 

Clock ticking and two hours already passed; I didn’t realize the first class on the reading section with Amanda came to an end. So many words, so many strategies, so many readings… We went through the three main types of passages in the SAT: literary narrative, social science & natural science, and historical persuasive. Then we started to analyze 10 different types of questions and learned different strategies for each type of question!!!! 

I personally found historical persuasive passage is the hardest to understand because I’m not native American and it is antiquated English that no one uses nowadays.  

On the second week, our main focus shifted to writing and language section. Similar process: analyze questions types, learn the strategies, and practice it. 

“Keep the hardest passage for last and if you’re running of time, make an educated guess.” – Amanda. 

Shifted to the math section, Kim was here to teach us every shortcut we could take for math problems. We played games (math-related) and practiced lots of problems. We set goals for ourselves for how many questions we planned to get wrong (psychologically, it makes us feel less stress). 

“In real life, you have to do the proper steps, but for the SAT, it’s shortcut.” – Kim

The teachers spoke really fast and we got tons of homework every day which fried us for these first two weeks; however, this depicts what our lives are going to look like in universities. It’s hard for high schoolers, but we have to be prepared for everything because the graduation is in two years’ time. 

Despite all the work, we were able to create a strong bond with them. We’re so grateful for having you guys here. 

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Physics Behind Dr. Strange’s superpowers

Doctor Strange

Dr. Stephen Strange known as Dr. Strange is a fictional character appeared in the Marvel Comics and debuted in 2016 as one of the superheroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. His first movie, “Doctor Strange” initially released on November 4, 2016, was a successful science fiction movie starring very passionate actors and very quality content. In the movie, Dr. Strange suffered from a severe traffic accident caused him to broke both of his hands. Then, he decided to go on the journey of finding a cure to his broken hands; his last choice was to get a mystic healer from the “Ancient One”. In the process of healing; he’s also learning mystical arts from the ancient one, gaining his superpowers in various ways in order to protect this universe. All of his superpowers seem like magic; however, it isn’t really magic; therefore, let’s go debunk Dr. Strange’s superpowers by science!

Astral Projection

One of Dr. Strange best superpowers is Astral Projection. Astral projection is allowing your body to travel in a spirit form. To do that, one must be separated completely from the physical form. However, this is not really a scientific event that can be proved, but rather a psychological theory. Nevertheless, this superpower is fantastic in a sense that it can allow you do different things in your body form and your spirit form. This might happen a lot to those who usually do meditation.

The Eye of Agamotto

An incredible item that wore by Dr. Strange is the eye of agamotto. It allows for time manipulation, dimensional travel, and see through illusions and lies. As seen in one of Dr. Strange’s scenes; he has the ability to travel through a hole and appear in another place and that is called “Dimensional Travel”. The eye of agamotto makes that happen! According to a physicist Lisa Randall, “the only possible interaction between dimensions is through particles.” In the movie, Dr. Strange manipulates the particles inside the eye of agamotto that can hop into other dimensions, then those particles can create a black hole for him to travel through! Since we know that particle is the only way to interact between dimension, it is possible for dimensional travel if we can manipulate those particles.

As said that the eye of agamotto can also enable the user to see through the illusion. For example, one of the scenes showed the illusion of a city in various dimensions:


People might question what are these weird dimensions of the city. To explain, Ancient one once said, “We harness energy and shape reality.” This illusion is not magic and so does every magician, they did not create something that is “magic” instead they “shape the reality” for people to fall for. There’s no such thing called “magic”; however, because our perception is limited, magicians are trying to shape and alter it so that we believe in it. They did not change reality, only perceptions did. That same thing applies to Dr. Strange’s ability to see through the illusion, the image above is neither upside down or sideway; however, it “appears that way through a refracted repeating image.” So, how do they shape reality? Well, when Dr. Strange first met with the Ancient One, he saw crystal lights. It started with photons; according to a scientist Mikhail Lucan, “They created a special medium in which photons interacted so strongly that they began to act as though they had mass and banded together.” When photons interact so strongly, it becomes atoms, then they become solidified light or light crystals. When Dr. Strange first knows how to use his power he created a crystal wall:  

As you can see here, there are multiple Dr. Strange’s faces on that wall which basically means it is refracted repeating image. In addition, the city’s image case is when it happens on a bigger scale!

Cloak of Levitation

Last but not least, an item that is worn by Dr. Strange is the cloak of levitation. It is capable of giving its master the ability to fly, providing aids and assistance during battle, and even have emotional feeling and affection with its master! Well, that’s unexplainable. There is a possible chance that the cloak is made out of a unique material that allows that master to fly; however, having affection and feelings are sort of magic since it is not a living object. It doesn’t really follow any science rules and that is normal for movies. In order for any science fiction movie to look incredible, something in it have to look impossible!

To sum up, Dr. Strange is capable of doing awesome super powers and following physics rules. At the same time, the MCU is a really well-known company of creating powers that are relevant to our science rules and using it as an entertainment and also education for all ages.

 

Works Cited

“Doctor Strange’s CLOAK OF LEVITATION Explained! (MCU).” YouTube, YouTube, 10 June 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBgQqBOMhQ0.

FilmTheorists. “Film Theory: Doctor Strange Magic DEBUNKED by Science.” YouTube, YouTube, 16 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=drXGJ3ZZdvc.

Hybrid0027. “How Doctor Strange Travels Dimensions | Super Science.” YouTube, YouTube, 22 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-NIaomDr8.

“The INFINITY STONES: Part 6 | The Time Stone (MCU).” YouTube, YouTube, 1 Mar. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=164lpEx2Vw0.

“What Are DOCTOR STRANGE’S Powers?” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Oct. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwZK6YGdD8U.

fluidicbeats. “The Powers of Doctor Strange Explained.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Nov. 2016, www.youtube.com/watch?v=2b_61_RdOw8.

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Greek Mythology Project

In literacy, we’ve been learning and researching about Ancient civilization specifically Ancient Greek; therefore, we were assigned to write a research report about Ancient Greek mythology and Greek god or goddess. Everyone was assigned a god/goddess to do research about and I’m the goddess of marriage, women, and childbirth, HERA. Researching about the family trees of Greek gods/goddesses were quite complicating, but managed to pull out vital information about them. Here is my research report about my goddess:

GODDESS: HERA

General Information

HERA was one of the goddesses of the Olympian gods. Name “HERA” derived from a baby girl’s name which means “protectress‘. Therefore, Hera was the queen of Greek gods with certain roles including goddess of marriage, childbirth, and women. She had super strength of immortality, resistance to injury, and since she is the goddess of marriage, she had the power to bless or curse marriages; furthermore, she also had the ability to protect women from all causes and to help preserve women’s health longer. She didn’t have the physical weapons like swords or bows, all she had was the power of her cleverness and affection. This queen of heaven was found at Mount Olympus where most gods and goddesses live.

Family and Relatives

HERA was a daughter of the Cronus and Rhea along with her siblings: Poseidon, Hades, Zeus, Hestia, and Demeter. She married to Zeus (her brother) and gave birth to five children including Eileithyia, Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus, and Eris.

History

HERA had been swallowed by her father, Cronus, at birth. However, she was saved by Zeus who tricked and poisoned him to vomit her out. Her siblings also suffered the same fate of getting swallowed by their father. The reason was that there had been a prophecy saying that Cronus will be deposed by his children. Therefore, to prevent that, he swallowed each and every single one of his children at birth. However, when it was Zeus’s turn, Rhea decided to switch Zeus and let Cronus swallowed a rock instead. Then, when Zeus grew up, he successfully overthrew his father and became the king of the gods. HERA didn’t have many memories during her childhood because she spent most of her time inside her father’s stomach.

Physical appearance and symbols

HERA was described as stunningly beautiful. Everything that was on her body was pure gold including her sandals, chariot, and throne. She wore a high cylindrical crown! She always dressed up elegantly, feminine, but not exotic fashion. She was serious about her appearance and no one could beat her on that; she was considered purely beautiful even topping the beauty of Aphrodite. HERA’s most known sacred animals are cuckoo and peacock. Cuckoo symbolized Zeus’s love for HERA because he disguised himself as a cuckoo as he first approached her. Since HERA was immortal, peacock exemplified immortality. Other minor symbolisms were: lily flower which is believed came from HERA’s breast milk when she gave births, pomegranate which symbolized fertility since she was the goddess of childbirth.

Celebrations

To honor HERA, they created a game called “Heraia” that was like Olympic, but only women can participate which is a foot-race. They celebrated every four years in August. HERA’s Roman name was JUNO. Likewise, the month “June” was named after her; furthermore, since she was the goddess of marriage, most people prefer to get married in the month of June.

Important Myth

On the other hand, there was one major myth that involved HERA. It was called the tale of HERA and Heracles or Hercules. To start, Hercules was a son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Alcmene. Since HERA was known for her vengeful character, Hercules and she never had a good relationship. She was always jealous of Zeus’s extramarital affair and illicit child and Hercules was one of them. Due to HERA’s jealousy, she made Hercules’s life miserable. She hated him so so much that she caused troubles at every opportunity. For instance, as part of his sentence, he had to do 12 labors, but HERA didn’t let it go smoothly. She stirred up the Amazons against him or sent gadfly to destroy the herd in one of his labors. After these labors, he was known for Greece’s greatest hero which increased HERA’s hatred towards him to its ultimate. Even after the labors finished, HERA always got into his way, notably, when the hero sailed the sea, she sent violent storms that cast the boat around like a toy. Hercules did try to calm situations between this angry queen and him down, but HERA doesn’t seem to lessen her anger until he died. Once Hercules died, HERA’s hatred seems to cool down, surprisingly, after he died and ascended to the Olympus, he married to Hebe, HERA’s daughter!

Conclusion

To sum up, HERA was one of the most respected goddesses. Despite her vengeful character, she was a symbol of fidelity because she was always faithful towards her loved ones. Once again, she was a goddess of marriage, childbirth, and women. However, don’t ever forget her vindictive characteristics!

Works Cited

Study.com, Study.com, study.com/academy/lesson/the-greek-goddess-hera-stories-lesson-quiz.html.

https://study.com/academy/lesson/the-greek-goddess-hera-stories-lesson-quiz.html

“Appearance, Personality, and Special Abilities – Per,.3 Hera.” Google Sites, sites.google.com/site/per3hera/place-on-the-mountain/apperance-personality-and-special-abilities.

https://sites.google.com/site/per3hera/place-on-the-mountain/apperance-personality-and-special-abilities

 

“Goddess Symbols: Hera.” Goddess Symbols: Hera Symbols and Myths., www.goddessgift.com/goddess-myths/goddess_symbols_hera.htm.

“Greek Stories about Hera-The Sacred Wedding of Zeus and Hera.” Greek Gods, www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/hera/myths/zeus-hera-wedding/.

“Hera’s Powers.” Hera the Supreme Goddess, griffinquestproject.weebly.com/heras-powers.html.

“Hera: Goddess of Love and Marriage.” Crystal Wind™, www.crystalwind.ca/mystical-magical/pantheons-and-myths/greek/hera-goddess-of-love-and-marriage.

“Queen Hera (Juno), the Olympian Goddess of Marriage.” Greek Gods, www.greek-gods.info/greek-gods/hera/.

 

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HIV/AIDS Workshop

Over the course of seven-week exploration, learning about HIV/AIDS, we’ve established a workshop in order to combat HIV/AIDS discrimination through normalizing conversations, dispelling common myths, and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS transmission, prevention, and treatment.

In this workshop, we’ve divided into four sessions including general information about HIV/AIDS, Transmission and Prevention, Treatment, and Stigmas/Discriminations. We covered main information and some activities that would help them to understand aspects of HIV/AIDS. We’re trying to compress every content into a four-hour workshop without sounding too scientific. 

The workshop that happened on the 28th of March was successful with audience engaging, session leaders explaining, and the atmosphere turning this topic into an influential one. We are educating people to understand that HIV is just the same as other viruses, that AIDS is not a consequence of bad doings, that people living with HIV are just like people living without HIV, and that the only difference between them is people living with HIV need to take their treatments. We have established this workshop to be a safe space for everybody since it covered some sensitive topics that people might have a hard time dealing with. It turned out that everybody was honest and opened themselves to this topic and that we as the session leaders were touched and grateful for everyone’s participation. We’re also doing a modified version of this workshop in Khmer targeting the high school Cambodian students as well. 

Our mission statement: “Cambodian youth combating HIV/AIDS discrimination through normalizing conversations, dispelling common myths, and raising awareness about HIV/AIDS transmission, prevention, and treatment.”

Here are further details on Google presentations that we’ve made:

General Information about HIV/AIDS

Transmission and Prevention

Treatments

Stigmas/Discriminations

Playing “Circle Busters” activity
Conclusion Time
Our team 
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Independence Discovery

As part of our curriculum, we are permitted to have classes to further research our own interest subjects. This round, Venghour and I partnered up and studied Korean language. Without any tutor, we used resources from Korean textbooks, Ewha, and an online website, Korean 101.  We started off by studying basic grammars and daily vocabularies. Our goal is to be able to read, write, and understand Korean language. We’re starting off with very basic steps and we will continue to expand our knowledge in this language as much as possible. 

Example of how we learn
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VEX Robotics Competition 2018

On the 3rd of February, there was a VEX robotics competition that held by NIST international school in Bangkok, Thailand. A boy team, Botjitsu, and a girl team, Beta-B represented Cambodia and participated in this competition.

Likewise, we’re required to create a functional robot that can lift a cone (Yellow) to stack it on the Mobile goal or Stationary goal, lift the mobile goal to the zone, and park the robot at the end of the game (The red and blue tiles). 

Therefore, the girl team has decided to build a diagonal Omni-wheel base with a reverse bar lift and a claw. Due to robot’s dimension limitation of 18 inches cube, we decided that our robot can only stack yellow cones on goals; therefore, we abandoned the mobile goal lift. 

The game ended well. We made it to the final with two other alliances and come back home with Tournament Champion award.

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Gender Summit 2018

In one of our 7-week explorations, there is an exploration called ‘Gender Equity’. This exploration talked about how the world nowadays giving equity to both genders. One of their final products is to host an event called, ‘Gender Summit’, and participate by liger students and other schools that are invited. 

On Saturday 27th, the discussion of gender equity was held in English and Sunday in Khmer. They’ve divided into four main points including Culture, Power, Commercial, and Language usage regarding gender issues. 

We talked about how culture shaped our perspective on many points especially the idea of boys being masculine and girls being feminine and talked about how we still keep that perspective functioning in our brain. Power, how this male-dominated society gives opportunities to male, female, and LGBTQ+ community. On the other hand, we also discussed how commercials, TV-shows, and other entertainments shaped our young adults’ perspectives. For example, those funky dresses that girls on TV wear influenced the young kids of how girls should look like. Furthermore, the color, Pink, that should only be girl’s color while in fact, it’s just a color. Lastly, we talked about connotation and denotation that the society refers and uses to describe female and male. For instance, the word, ‘male’ the society connotated this word as masculinity, strong, while in fact, it’s just a sex to describe a person. 

After all these discussions, we’ve concluded to the point where we are all equal and we’re trying to change the new generations’ ideas upon this. We all are capable of doing what we want to do, achieving our dreams, and living to the best of our lives. Therefore, we’re trying to fight through gender barriers that happen currently and it should be an issue that concerns everybody, that urges the eager of everybody to keep fighting. 

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