Morals: Home Fire

Morality stems from two sorts of decision-making systems: Utilitarianism – what we think is good, and Consequentialism – what we think is the best decision based on the known consequences. In defense of Isma, she was considering the consequences in terms of her family and in terms of the safety of her country. Isma was considering the safety of her country if her own brother, Parvaiz, who is a member of ISIS, were to be able allowed back into the country. Thinking about the impact it would have in general instead of just her family. The duty of thinking about the bigger picture instead of thinking of just her family which could potentially come off as selfish. The idea of virtue ethics where a good person would do what is good in general. In this case, Isma is portrayed as a good person throughout the entire novel as she wants what is best for others and cuts ties with those who have made ‘bad’ decisions. When she decides to report Parvaiz, she decides it in a way where if she were to step into someone else’s shoes and what would they want for the better of society.

Duty Ethics is the idea that you completely ignore the consequences and think about the duty you hold in your role. For example, Isma clearly cares about Parvaiz and Aneeka but did think about her role as a citizen of her country. Weighing out the pros and cons of what could potentially happen. She knows that it would ruin her relationship with Aneeka but thought about her duty to report such actions that someone did such as Parvaiz potentially being a threat as he is part of ISIS.

Sumo Robotics: Working My Way Through Challenges

Expectation:

Going into Sumo Robotics, I was expecting a kit that we would be given, build the kit then make modifications that would help us in the sumo ring. Thinking that this activity was going to be easy that it would be something I could easily breeze through.

Reality:

Something I was not expecting was learning the basics of coding. We had to completely make the Sumo Robot from scratch, something which was completely new to me. As a child, I was always interested in building robots, legos, and figures but most of them were fairly simple. In this activity, we were given an Arduino (brain – where the code goes) and a pair of servos. We were expected to build a small 10cm by 10cm sumo robot by the end of the 2 seasons and I had absolutely no idea where to start.

How I was able to Overcome the Challenges:

I was previously a DT: Systems and Controls student which was a 2-year course in IGCSE which specialized in Electronics, Structures, and Mechanisms of Design Technology. Coming into this, I had no previous knowledge of how to code or how to read code, therefore, I had to learn the very basics of coding so I could build the robot. When I was learning how to code, I asked for help from our supervisors and we found a code online for free which was easy to read and understand. Using that I was able to just make some small edits to control my servos and to the sensitivity of my sensor.

Now the real challenge of it all was building the body of the robot itself. Prototyping has always been something I have not been great at so I wanted to work on that purely visualize what my final product was going to look like, and practice working with card/cardboard for prototyping.

Update on CAS Experience

My CAS Experience so far:

Currently, I am on the track of completing all my CAS requirements. Although due to this whole epidemic of COVID-19 especially here in Singapore, it has affected my service and activity as we are not allowed to be within a large group of people. Realizing that I might not be able to finish my requirements due to this virus, I am still holding onto what I have done as thinking it will be enough for CAS. My service has changed from being a local service to more of a college service which still meets the requirements so that is all good. On the other hand, my activity which is Basketball within the Filipino community which is weekly is being postponed due to the whole COVID-19 outbreak, it is starting to creep up on me that maybe I might not meet the requirements if this virus lasts a lot longer than I think it will.

At the same time, CAS takes up a lot of my time which leaves me less time to work on everything else such as studying, preparing to start my Extended Essay, starting my IAs for all my subjects and so on. I just need to be more organised in how I set up my schedule so that I can manage everything in IB.

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