Final Reflection (RC3)


After speaking to my supervisor, we agreed on the fact that I developed my research skills and ability to work independently. Personally, I felt that if I had those skills from the start, I would have been more proactive throughout the process of writing the EE. This could have enabled my thinking to be more thorough and focused as I would have a clearer idea as to what my aim of the essay was. I feel that I could have done much more research especially because the topic of my EE was unfamiliar. I could have had a more in-depth understanding of the techniques used in visual arts to make my EE more detailed. During the process, I often questioned the aim of my essay since I would often side-track from my question. I learned that although the essay is 4000 words, I had to make my arguments clear and related to my question which enabled me to keep a focused argument.  Since my essay was on Language and Literature, I wondered how I would incorporate research into the analysis without relying on the internet for ideas. I realised that I could use research to deepen my personal analysis instead.

Culturama 2019: Trinidad and Tobago


This year I decided to do culturama again because I did it last year, in 2018, and I learned a lot from it such as collaboration and commitment skills. I felt that this year I wanted to do a dance but of another genre. Last year, I did France which was of burlesque style. This year, the dance I am in is more upbeat and requires a slightly different skillset.  We have rehearsals once a week but nearer to the performance day, we have to commit extra time to practice. Since we only have 7 weeks to prepare for the show, our dance leaders have sent us videos on what to learn and practice in our own time in order to have it prepared by the next rehearsal. Our dance leaders have been very organised by putting all the videos in a folder (shown in the pictures). Being in grade 12, there is not a lot of free time to devote to this which was challenging for me. However, I learned how to manage my time better in order to have the best culturama experience. Extra rehearsals and extra time into learning dances required commitment. My dance group is a combination of grade 12 and 11. I am able to collaborate with people that I have not worked with before which built my communication skills. I can honestly say that I was able to explore my passion for dancing through Culturama because it gives me the opportunity to embrace and display my skills.

 

(RC) #1 Initial Reflection


I knew that I wanted to do a Literature EE because of my growing interest in the subject. Initially, I wanted to do something related to the war, specifically the Vietnam war, because we covered all of insightful poems and books in class which stimulated my enthusiasm for the topic. However, it was difficult to find something related to the topic that was not covered in class. I felt familiar with the topic from the exposure from lessons, making it hard to find other sources. I met with my supervisor to solve this problem and we made a plan to come up with a new idea. I had read The Watchmen a while ago and remembered that I found it very interesting. So the next steps moving forward, are to reread the book and annotate the book as I go. This would help me construct an EE question.

RC #2: Interim Reflection


 

I read the book and had multiple quotes and moments to use to back up my points. However, I was worried that I did not have enough research since most of the work was my own analysis of the book. I spoke to my supervisor and she advised me on how to contextualise my writing. This would have to be something I research and incorporate throughout the essay. I also understood how to write by technically breaking it down instead of paraphrasing to prevent myself from repeating points. By contextualising and using techniques, the essay structure and intention would be more related to Literature. She pointed out ways in which I could analyse since I have not done comics before, by looking at the visual aspect in depth. She also advised me to stay open-minded and always seek a more thorough understanding.

 

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TOK homework: Mathematical Method


The Mathematical Method involves things that we understand as truths like the fact that 1+1=2 and the fact that each number hold its own value like 1 ≠ 2. Maths uses both inductive and deductive reasoning but the fact that these numbers and signs are made by us proves that it is made only for us because animals don’t seem to use this form of understanding. Whether this is because we are more developed or just to make things easier for ourselves. Since the “truths” is maths are made by us for us, could show that these truths aren’t actual truths because they aren’t real facts, they’re facts because we made them facts. For example, 2D math and 3D math dont hold the same rules. There is a rule in maths that states that the angles in a triangle cannpt add up to more that 180 degrees but the fact that a 3D triangles angles could definately add up to more that 180 degreed pro

HOUGANG CARE CENTRE


In our service, Dance and Zumba with Hougang Care Centre, I am able to work with my peers and run the service. We have established a system in which a different pair of people lead every week, making sure we all get a chance to lead the service. I personally feel that working together to form that system is very helpful and ensures active participation as we share ideas on what activities to run which can help other groups.  By working with our peers to lead a service, collaboration is key as we should agree on what exactly we wanted to do that day. Furthermore, working with the people from the Care Centre, allows us to build relationships with them by talking to them and knowing their names. However, we have faced many challenges- one of them being that the people from the Care Centre are very conservative. Our school is a very open environment which contrasts with their constricted environment, causing them to have a very different mindset than us which places both groups in very different ethical positions. Although we wear full-length bottoms and full-sleeved jackets for service, the participants get uncomfortable. To solve this, we had a session where we focused on their needs and how to overcome this challenge in a thorough refection as a group. Through this reflection, I was able to understand that one of my strengths is understanding my surroundings because during the session I felt that I was very observant during our sessions with them by noticing that we can sometimes talk to them differently as compared to how we talk to each other which sets a barrier between us. By eliminating little things like this, we were able to continue working with them and making sure they enjoy our sessions by persevering through the challenge.

 

 

Culturama ’19


While preparing for culturama,  I understand that it is a very big commitment. Therefore, I have to put alot of time aside for it but also make time for studying. This is personally quite challenging because grade 11 has just started and I am still settling into IB. Furthermore, I was in FIB last year, with the same few people the whole year round, so having so many people to interact with in school was a very good way to get me more comfortable with my environment. My leaders are in the grade above and they are very understanding, making me come out of my comfort zone. By understanding the balance between studies and activities earlier in the year, I was able to adjust much better to the rest of the year with activities alongside my studying. I felt like I understood how to prioritise

Dance and Zumba Season 2


We have been working with the Hougang Care Centre for 2 seasons now and have learnt a lot more about them, regarding their interests and needs. As mentioned in my season 1 reflection, we planned to rely on Zumba videos on youtube for the members to follow. However, we found that Zumba was a very high energy activity which relies on more physical capacity. The members of the care centre, on the other hand, are not very physically active so it was very difficult for them to keep up. As they weren’t able to keep up, they wouldn’t participate which forced us to plan activities for those who didn’t want to dance. Some examples were drawing or playing Jenga. However, this required alot of pre planned planning as we had to contant the service department for the resources for that session like food and

SL2: Social Media


For the second and final week of my internship with Sustainable Living Lab, we were given the task to plan our posts on Instagram for the rest of the month.  We decided that since our company was dedicated to the environment and SDGs that we should post on every significant environmental date. So firstly, we had to search up these dates and choose which ones our company most related too so as to avoid becoming a social media account that solely raises awareness.

As shown in the picture above, we had to write captions that would appeal to our audience and attract more people. However, we had to avoid sounding casual so as to seem more professional. We first got together and listed some points on what we really wanted to achieve from this post. I then also used Canva to make our Instagram post and also some infographics we could post on our Instagram story.

an example for the post is :

an example of the story is:

 

By being more active on our social media account, we aim to draw attention to our company and our work so as to grow. We are also fairly new company so raising awareness about us and our mission would be difficult but by using a large platform such as Instagram, we are working to make connections with other companies to build relationships which would also aid in our growth.

SL2: Hackathon 2019


With my time at Sustainable Living Lab, I took part in hosting the Hackathon 2019 which took place in the Science Centre from 27th to 29th June. I did not know what the event was about previously, so, first of all, I got exposure to this. I learned that children (14-18) from many different schools come together in a group of max 3 people, with the aim to build something towards an SDG. They need to pitch this idea with a prototype by the last day (29th) and they then proceed to the next few stages in order to win luxurious prizes for their invention. I was shocked to see how many students knew how to do computer programming, software development and graphic design. This entire experience was very unfamiliar because I have never taken part in events like these before because I was never particularly talented in this area but to see how innovative these people were, really inspired me and opened my eyes to how creative this event was.

In preparation for this event, SL2 was responsible for the stationary equipment, layout and equipment. So we had to manually put every piece of stationery into the stationary bags which consisted of pencils, penknife, scissors, tape, post-it notes and a booklet which we also had to fold and staple.  We also had to bring some technological equipment like wires and batteries which I helped in organizing. Personally, I did not know the name or function of most of the equipment but there were people all around me to teach and explain to me. I had to count how many we had so as to understand how many more we needed. I also helped in cutting up the many stickers that we would give the participants.

 

On the first day, I was responsible for giving out materials to everyone and their groups and taking their attendance. I feel that I was comfortable with this task because I am sociable and did not find it difficult to talk to the people there to answer their doubts or questions about the Hackathon. However, having so many people to interact with would get overwhelming at times especially due to the lack of my expertise in this event. There were also so many students to give the materials to so I had to ensure that each person got what they needed (a wrist band ticket, power bank, stationary pack) and also mark their attendance. However, there were more people to help.

Furing the event, I was given the task of being in charge of social media. This meant that I had to take photos to post on our company istagram account, and also photos for the Instagram stories. This was personally in my comfort zone because I am so familiar with Instagram and how to get eye-catching photos.

Above are some photos I put on the Instagram story to raise awareness of the event and also SL2’s participation in it.

 

Above are some photos I took and edited for the Instagram page. 

 

The Instagram page had 53 profile visits in the last 7 days. On the photo on the right, you can see that all those profile visits were on Thursday, the first day of the Hackathon in which I was responsible for. By doing simple things like making hashtags, we made the Hackathon more interesting for our followers. I feel that I did my task successfully because I was able to increase our level of activity on our social media page which will play a very big role in the future of this ‘start-up company’ if we keep up the account.

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, this hackathon allowed me to learn and try to many different things such as learning about technological equipment to interacting with participants to activating the social media account. I was able to explore my interactive side by walking around and talking to the groups about their innovations and helping them come up with creative ideas. I was also able to gain an interest in events like this by understanding how they allow the participants to be innovative and understand pressing global problems at the same time which is amazing for young minds because they can grow up and actually make inventions like this.

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