My last reflection after my final interview with Dr. Jeffrey Low:
And, here is an image of our Zoom call!
Engagement Activity – Reflection 3 (Mr Stephen Beng)
Here is my audio reflection post-interview with Mr. Stephen Beng
Here is an image of our Zoom
Engagement Activity – Reflection 2 (Dr James Guest)
Attached below is my recorded reflection after my interview with Dr. James Guest.
Here is an image of our Zoom call
Engagement Activity – Reflection 1 (Ria Tan)
Attached below is my audio recorded reflection upon my interview with Ms. Ria Tan.
Additionally, here is an image of our Zoom call.
Personal Motivation – EA (Intro – Post 1)
One of the important International Baccalaureate Global Politics courses is to take part in engagement activity. This engagement activity usually comes in the form of taking part in an internship or volunteering that is related to a political issue. This engagement activity would also involve traveling. However, due to the unfortunate circumstances of COVID-19, I was not able to participate in engagement activity in-person. Therefore, I used active online research and interviews via Zoom in replacement for face-to-face participation.
The topic I have chosen for my engagement activity is on environmental sustainability in Singapore. The key research question was how land reclamation as a form of economic development affects marine biodiversity and conservation in Singapore. Until recent years, rapid development involving extensive coastal reclamation in Singapore appears to have rendered little consideration for the marine environment. As a result of these activities, the marine habitats in the entire southern coast of the Singapore mainland and large areas of the north-eastern coast have been considerably affected. I wanted to learn more in-depth the current situation and future prospects, diverse political views on this issue (i.e. developing Singapore as a global economic hub versus protecting the natural environment), and the ways forward through interviews with relevant stakeholders such as researchers, marine activities and government officials.
The motivation for the choice of this topic originates from my interest in marine life as a young boy. Indeed, I began developing my interest in a blue planet very early in my childhood by reading books and watching documentaries that covered sharks alongside with other marine species. My love for and interest in oceans and underwater world later encouraged me to obtain PADI Advanced Scuba Diver certification. The certification provided me with a unique and ample opportunity to dive with my dad and fellow instructors in different places around the world. During these diving trips, I often notice that many coral reefs have been damaged beyond repair. The destroyed coral reefs were in stark contrast with colorful and beautiful reefs and seabed that I had seen on TV. It was immensely shocking to me. I came to learn that on a global scale, there were several causes behind the loss and destruction of coral reefs such as rising ocean temperatures, acidic water and pollution as well as costal development and agricultural activity. All of these were in many ways attributable to human actions.
While living in Singapore for almost 4 years, I have also begun to learn that reclamation has been a big part of the country’s infrastructure development which is often essential to meet the needs of a variety of sectors including industry, military, fisheries, housing and recreation. In short, reclamation plays a highly significant role in supporting Singapore’s economic growth and this inevitably affects marine environment. Give my interest in marine biodiversity, I thought that Singapore’s land reclamation would be a good case study to demonstrate the political issue concerning development versus environmental sustainability. After conducting some reviews of literature and media reports, I set out to further explore this topic
LO6 CAS Reflection – Jakarta Street Kids
LO6 – Global Issue
In the first session of Jakart Street Kids Global Concern group, I learned more about the issue of street kids and recycling at a higher level of analysis. I learn the significance of this issue but also realized that because of so much work the issue of street kids in Jakarta has gotten so much better in the last few years. This may be a significant issue because there are several kids living in the streets with no income and food. This does not meet the SDG (sustainable development goals) and needs to be fixed. Furthrmore, my actions in this group both have a positive and negative impact. My positive impacts may be that I helped out and did fundraisers in order to promote recyclable products and money to help the kids out in Jakarta. However, me not recycling waste materials can also have a negative impact as they could have been used as an opportunity with JSK. My eyes have been opened with this experience. I think that I should take on a role in the future to be more helpful internally within the service. I think that if I was a logistics officer, I could assist run the team more effectively.
LO3 Project Week CAS Reflection
LO3 – Initiative
I was planning to go with a 6 man group to the Himalayas of South Asia. We were planning to go to Rishikesh, India. It is well known for being near the source of the Ganges River and we are planning to go rafting. We were planning for rafting but our plans were progressively changing which I didn’t think would happen. We eventually had a plan to camp, hike, raft, and see the local culture. We faced some difficulties in trying to arrange what was going to happen with the providers and trying to get a solid plan. We eventually overcame this when we had made sure to be effective communicators and emailed them on a daily basis. Lastly, because of the unfortunate COVID-19 virus, we are not able to go on this trip but instead, have a week to write our EE. This was heavily unexpected and had to change our response to our plans. I plan on using this week effectively to knock out 4000 words for my EE.
LO6 Home-based Learning CAS Reflection
Online learning is a very new different setting for many people and I believe that it will take some time to adapt. I also believe that this is a good time to learn new things and try to utilize this setting that we are living in. I believe this setting allows some students to be freer and have the ability to learn better. I also feel as if this is a productive way to learn as we cannot waste time and must all be engaged. However, there may be challenges such as sitting down in one place for a long period (the whole day) of time especially in front of the computer with no change of scenery it can be difficult to concentrate for a long period of time. This, especially for a couple of months, can be challenging but I believe I will eventually adapt to it. Furthermore, other challenges are technical issues whether that be if the student has a bad online connection or the teacher has an online connection, this can be quite disrupting in a classroom environment. Lastly, for especially somebody like me I have my own problems at home which do not help to contribute a learning environment (construction site) outside of my house. Also it can be hard to ask teachers for feedback on online class.
CAS Meme – Reflection
LO4 – Commitment, showing perseverance and resilience.
This meme best describes my CAS journey to date because it perfectly demonstrates my physical and emotional response throughout the learning experience. Sometimes I would get tired or bored during my CAS activities. And I would not have the perseverance or resilience to continue.
Furthermore, it would be difficult especially with the COV-19 to be on track of all my CAS reflections. I do 5 activities so that’s 15 CAS Reflections in total, and it is a little bit difficult to manage when I am so busy. Additionally, two of my activities had ended early so I need to get on top of them.