Month: May 2014

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: Liger Water System

Exploration Dates: August 12 – September 26

Number of Students: 12

Description: In our water group we learned about the pH of water. The full words of pH is Percent Hydrogen. That is the kind of scale that people use to measure the acids and bases. The scale of pH is 0-14. From 0-7 is acidic, 7-14 is basic and 7 is neutral. The hydrogen (H+) is acid and hydroxide (OH-) is base. When we learned about pH we did the experiment with 13 liquid things. For ex: the coca-cola and pond water. The coca-cola was 2.0 so it means acidic. If we drink it a lot like every day we would get sick but if we drink in 1 week only 1 it will be good. The pond was 10.0 so it means basic and if it has a lot of basic like this it also not good for our health either. So we can eat or drink only higher than 7 to 9 or lower than 7 to 5, so it not really have many bases or acids. In this class we also studied about algae. Algae is the kind of plants that live in water and it uses the sun as it food. When this plant lives in water it will make water become basic. We studied our own pond at Liger to learn about this. One other thing that we learned was the water cycle. We learned when the sun rises then it does the evaporation with water. When water goes up it is not yet become the clouds but when the temperature is cool then it makes condensation so it becomes the cloud. When the cloud in the sky catches the cool temperature it will become the rain again. To learn about water we went on the trip to RDI. RDI is the place that makes the water filters to sell. One thing that we learned from there is why they made this RDI place because they saw that some people here don’t have the clean water to drink so they can buy it to get the filter and clean for them. Another reason is when they sell the water filter they sell as cheaply as they can to help the people in Cambodia.

 

Exploration Name: Future Jobs

Exploration Dates: January 20th – March 7th

Number of Students: 12

Essential Questions:

1. How will jobs that help Cambodia look different in the future?

2. What motivates people to choose the job they do?

Description:

During the round four exploration we learned about Future Jobs. In Future Jobs we had to develop the presentation questions (ask more questions). We asked more questions because in our Exploration we had a lot of trips that taught us about the jobs in the real life. After that we learned about Nanotechnology, Water crisis and Alternative fuels. Nanotechnology is smaller than atoms. One thing we learned was that it is waterproof and can go underground without breaking. In Water crisis topic we learned that 70% of the Earth is seawater and 30% is land. But just 3% is good water. 884 million people don’t have good water and nearly 1,000,000,000 don’t have water. The last topic was Alternative fuel. We noticed that the gas can live 60 years, oil can live 60 years and coal can live 1000 years. Last we prepared for our job shadow on the next day. Job shadow means to go to the real place of work to do the job with the people that are in the job that helps Cambodia a lot. All of us went to different places with our partner. For example, some of us went to World Vision and some went to Northbridge International School.

 

Exploration Name: Public Relations (PR)

Exploration Dates: March 10th-May 2nd, 2014

Number of students: 8

Essential Questions/ Areas:

1. Literacy Coaching

2. Presentation Skills

3. Global Connections

Description:

In our Exploration class, we had three things to work on. The first area was global connections. Global connections mean that we share what we do at Liger with people around the world by using Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and blog. The first thing we used is Instagram because we can post the picture and caption to show what we do at Liger. The second area we practiced was literacy coaching. Literacy coaching is about teaching other students about literacy. This means when students need help to edit a blog or presentation we help them edit and give them some feedback or advice.The last is Presentation skills. The presentation skills we learned about are stance, eye contact, fidget, speed, and volume. Our goal was to share Liger to the world, have more people come to our Exploration Celebration and get more followers on Instagram.