Category: CAS
Project Week Reflection (Summary)
Learning Outcomes: 3, 6, 7
This is our final project week proposal that we completed and submitted in grade 11.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a9m-qiN1jn0U3L6pqmXCiuKPcgwgSMKvlBmz2oG-m8A/edit
Our initial idea for the week was a mix of service and activity. We would be starting off with a trek through Mai Chau, Vietnam, then engaging with the Blue dragons for the rest of the week. Our group have members who are a part of the organisation and others who hoped to work with it. We spent multiple meetings and discussions on the details for the hike, but then were informed of an unfortunate logistical circumstance. The activity providers that work with the school no longer takes independent clients below the age of 18.
Fortunately, we were able to rally as a team and immediately propose alternate plans. This remodelling of our plan was carried out in parts by separate members. These smaller tasks include finding new activities, seeking approval and working around key dates. Finally, a series of local tours became our choice of activity. We all believed that it best suits our goal to be educated about the local culture. This decision later evolved into a bigger opportunity for us to collect and design audio recordings that were to be used by the Blue Dragons GC podcast. We were under extreme time pressure but was able to compile and organise everything at the end. Much of our group were keen on having sections unplanned so as to be more spontaneous, and be able to capitalise on opportunities that can only be spotted locally. After doing some more research, we decided that it was much safer for us to have planned routines. It is important that we stay safe whilst enjoying our time.
The most important part of the trip is going to us working with the Blue Dragons center. This is extremely significant to many of my group mates who have contributed to this organisation overseas. I was also hoping to carry out some activities that we have planned out with the children. We were all very excited to see how the school’s GC programs have made a difference.
Actual project Week cancelled due to coronavirus.
Work 2 (In Progress (so is reflection))
I have made the unfortunate(?) decision to challenge myself with another piece of work that has given long hair a dominant position among its elements. This piece is very far from completion, and for reasons other than drawing, my righthand is experiencing some tension between the index finger and thumb. I anticipate the piece’s completion to be around 15th of January.
Work 1
I originally did not plan to draw the wings, as I did not have confidence that I can create a fair representation. However, I realised an imbalance of negative space as a result of the character’s posture, which made the wings necessary. The original artist who created the digital painting for me to base the sketch on seemed to agree. The route we pursued for the wings were different however. As he most likely used softwares like Adobe Photoshop and was adept at using lighting/gradient/lining effects, the wings he drew were luminescent and rich in shadowing. I am presenting the artwork through pencil sketches, so I wanted to stress the “power” aspect of the wings. I chose to make them as visibly sharp as possible, and this was achieved through thin strokes. To achieve vary depths, I was forced to choose between two methods: holding down a harder/lighter pencil with more force than my usual grip, or using a softer/darker pencil with normal force. The former would result in a much thicker stroke than I wanted, so I went with the latter.
I regret outlining the wings because it prohibited me from creating a halo around the wings later. The lines made any blurry effects appear incredibly forced and impartial to the overall work. With the direction of the lighting being top-right, the upper connection of the rightwing should have a great deal of sheen that I was not able to recreate.
I will improve my treatment of hairs/feathers through self-teaching later.
Cipher challenge second post
LO5 Demonstrate the skills and recognise the benefits of working collaboratively.
Whilst I could not participate in the actual National Cipher Challenge due to schedule difficulties, I was able to sit in on certain sessions and observe my peers solve some rounds of the challenge. Whilst some members solved the problems by themselves at home, the whole club still went over these questions and evaluated the strengths of solutions that worked. As the challenges got more and more difficult, there were only 1 or 2 people that could solve it, and the rigour of calculations increased significantly. The club members no longer worked on their own, but rather split into groups, of which I was able to be involved in for one session. I helped by trying out all the rough decipher methods such as mono-alphabetic or transpositional, and narrowing the range down to a few plausible ones.
During sessions that I can not attend, I self-taught certain ciphers such as Polybius and Double-layered through slides our club leaders created. These ciphers were incredibly exciting and challenging. I was fortunate to have some detail notes to cross check my solution, and I grew more sensitive to older ciphers as I became more familiar with the distance characteristics of the new ciphers.
Urban Gardening in Circuit Breaker
LO5- Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively
Grade 11s are unable to come back to the campus due to the circuit breaker, so our service sessions have to be conducted online. Since we are having our directions of exploration passed down to our aspiring grade 9s, it is important that we provide information and our own experiences to them via google docs and online chats. Our grade 11s worked together to compose a document with potential research tasks and time lines, as well as general instructions on how to maintain a garden. Our service chair really helped coordinate the grade nine members to work on their own since we can’t help them. Usually in school we can just contribute to the service by working alone, now we have to work together to compose plans for the future, which made me realize how important communication and collaboration is.
Circuit Training at Home
LO4 Show Commitment and perseverance in CAS experiences
Under the circuit breaker context, I found my skills developed in circuit training valuable in maintaining a healthy lifestyle for myself. Despite my condominium gym being closed, I have a rowing machine at home, which makes exercising a lot easier. I took notes from my previous training sessions to design a series of training routines to maximize my training efficiency, as well as making my training more targeted. Running outdoors is not recommended as it is quite uncomfortable to run in masks. Rowing exercises your whole body, but sit ups can help me train my leg muscles specifically in terms of strength and endurance. This made me reflect on the spirit of exercising, which is essentially self care. It is important to correctly treat yourself and adjust to counter difficulties that you may encounter. In terms of the circuit breaker, we have lost offline human interaction to some degree, and the freedom to release your stress at places like the cinema or parks. Exercising helps relief stress and refocus your mind. To a degree, being able to keep exercising has helped me fare with home learning.
Urban Gardening 3rd Reflection
Learning outcome 6: Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance
Our service has recently started a project before the April Break to introduce plants such as pothos into classrooms as means to expand the influence of urban gardening. We have harvested many produces such as mint, ginger, turmeric and rosettes from our rooftop garden, and it has led to the realization that the effective application of urban gardening techniques can lead to a great amount of reduction in carbon footprint. Urban gardening alone can not supply food for the entirety of Singapore, but can certainly reduce our reliance on imports for certain vegetables. Decorative or office plants can also be germinated and taken care of on rooftop gardens. This plant to introduce plants into classrooms is to further advertise the service, and bring awareness to an often overlooked solution that we can all use in our journey to reduce carbon footprints.
Urban Gardening Reflection 7th February 2020
LO4 Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS
Over the past two months, our service has made several additions to the plethora of plants that the rooftop garden is consisted of, and refurnished certain beds so that each bed is being used to maximum efficiency. For example we have successfully transplanted a large pineapple plant onto a corner bed. There were several long term projects such as the support system for the grape vine. As the vines grew we had to add more and more support with recycled materials like wooden planks to allow the grape vines to further extent. Other long term projects like these are maintaining the banana trees, and the transplanting of the Hawaiian Plumeria that has grown too large for its original pot. As a service member, we are required to constantly think about the development of these plants and make adjustments as they grow. Sometimes we have to think ahead and prep certain materials before we even decide that new changes are necessary. One example would be us needing to acquire sandy soil for the Plumeria 2 weeks before the transplant so they will arrive on time for the plant to be immediately transplanted. This has improved my self management and collaboration.
What impact has your service made on you/others?
At the start of every session, I am motivated by my supervisors but sometimes intrinsically to start working on my beds as soon as i get there to make maximum use of my time in the service. This has improved my self-management and tendency to procrastinate. The amount of independence given to us regarding what we can grow makes us think critically and evaluate our options. This skill can be later on used in life to help us make better decisions. We also have to consider the conditions we are in and the resources we are given which leads to realistic decisions with foresight invested into it. There is a large variety of community impact that the service creates. Placing greenery on the sixth which has screen heavy and comparatively more demanding subjects like science and math helps the students relax during their journey to get to class. There is also a nice pod area in it made for recreation. Our produces can be used by services like sustainabrew and also supplied to community members. We are elaborating on the difference urban gardening can make on cities like Singapore with a high population density.
LO1