In math class this year it is harder than the last year. The book we are learning this round is Primary Mathematics 5A. We’ve learned more advance lesson about fraction, factor, multiplication, algebra and more. One of the most challenging lesson that most of the students were struggle was algebra. It requires us to think a lot to solve one algebra problem. After, spending time learning about it I think that is not that difficult if we try to do it. There are so many lessons that we are getting through right now. One of my favorite lessons is fractions. I feel comfortable to learned and solve the problem. There are some new strategies and knowledge in math that are being taught by the teacher. Not only that we use math book we’re also using online program learn. I use to be uncomfortable to solve a problem or catch up with the lesson before but right now I really love math because I spend my own trying to learn it a lot. I love how my teacher explains about each problem very clearly. Math is hard but it might get easier if you practice a lot.
Traveling Community Theater
This is the 1st example of the Theater 3D model
The excitement came after I knew I was going to be a part of Traveling community theater. The purpose of the exploration is to create movable theater that can travel anywhere in Cambodia. One more of our main goal is for Cambodia to gain experience from our movable theatre and gain knowledge from watching our educational play.
There are so many groups that were divided among the member of 15 students. Groups changes over the period of 7 weeks. After divided group brainstorming, the teacher divided us into bigger groups such as video, 3D model, logo, crowdfunding, and animation. I was in the 3d model group which I and my another teammate need to create one or more models of how our theater will look like in Sketchup. It was very useful because we get more idea after studying from the 3d models. I’ve learned to know very well about SketchUp and get creative about it. Before the 7 weeks end, we have some time to prepare the products and presentation for the sharation(The event that liger host to give the opportunity for students to share what they’ve learned). The task of my team is to print them in 3d models. Unfortunately, It didn’t go well with as plans because the 3d printing magic broke. Luckily, my team came up with a new solution which we can show the audience the model in the computer with animation.
In general, I had a lot of joy in participating and looking forward to the actual theatre to exist in real life. The exploration will continue for the next round that gives other students to have an opportunity for the new skill.
Wondering of an Atom
On the lesson that we’ve been discussing is the atom. The matter is made up of atom even if the atom is very small that we don’t have the ability to see it with our eyes. The center of the atom is called the nucleus. The nucleus is neutron and proton surround by the electron. The nucleus is made up of neutron and proton. Proton has charge well neutron has no charge. As a comparison, if an atom is the size of a stadium the nucleus would be the size of a peanut. It is very small. On the other hand, the smallest thing that has discovered so far is quark which is what created proton and neutron.
In general, I am amazed at how small atom is but there are still so many ingredients that made it up such as an electron, nucleus proton, neutron, and quark. I would love to have more opportunity to learn about science to allow myself to have more knowledge about it.
Deepening Algorithm
Introduction to Programming by a drawing game
For the first week of programming, We discussed was to demonstrate the three roles in programs world. Drawing led the students to under the concept of how programming work. There will be three students in a team to play each role. The instructor will give the instruction about how to draw the picture to the one who draws. The instructor represents the idea of doing something before turning to programming. Instructions writer would write the strategy that instructor use, which plays the role of programmer. The last process of programming is the drawer that plays the role after the program is printed out. An algorithm is also the part of programming because it finds the solution to solve a problem as programming does.
Algorithm
When it comes to an algorithm, it can be strategies that give us the ability to solve the problem easier. The strategies for a single problem can sometimes be unlimitable. The purpose of using an algorithm is to solve a problem better easier and faster.
An algorithm that we work on in class this week was to find the sum of (1+2+3+4+5+6……200). After, guessing the answer with different strategies we don’t really know if our answer is correct or incorrect. First, It was very unfathomable to find the efficient answer for the question. But we find out a very useful algorithm pattern for the problem. It is N(N-1) and N stand for the last number of the sum problem which is 200.
To sum up, this splendid lesson has given me the opportunity to discern the basic of programming. It was like solving a problem by finding the best and efficient problem. I am looking forward to learning this kind of subject more to improve myself, as a person who passionate programming.
Technovation
In Liger Leadership Academy, there are so many opportunities for every single student to take a risk and join in all of those opportunities. The calculated risk-taker is also one of our change agent characteristic which it happens when we make a decision to participate or face something without knowing that if it will be good or bad. Taking risk is good but not always good. There is a very big opportunity for women to have a chance to make an application and compete in the worldwide competition. It is a very long term that I have participated in this opportunity along with a lot of stories that changed me.
“We will have an opportunity which we call technovation. You will need to spend Sunday every weekend for 12 weeks to learn” Jan said. Jan is one of our teachers in liger that has left our school for many months but he is still in our memory. There were 19 girls out of 30 girls that have participated in this huge opportunity. We had decided the group by ourselves. We didn’t expect that it will be hard for us. It is very boring which we have to learn how to program for a solution to help solve the problem in our community. I was not passionate about programming before. I am the coder of the group but I didn’t understand every lesson. Every group in this opportunity would have to submit their app and many things to compete for the judging online. Before the finalists are announced we will need to join mini pitch which is a competition in our own country. Unfortunately, my team didn’t win both national pitch and finalist. I was very sad but I didn’t give up. A new year of technovation begins again.
I talked to my roommate and her name is Angely. We talked to each other and find out that we should be together as a team. We started to have some idea about the second year of technovation. We decided to choose two more people (Reaksmey, Wathana) to team up with us. The time went really fast and the second year of technovation started. It was the day when we have to choose the real group together in our school. We had selected one girl (Votey) to be in our team too. Our team name is Five Infinities and our app name is M.E.P Center. Before the half of 12 weeks, our idea is not M.E.P Center but it was an idea that we think it will never work. The old idea is the mental health. M.E.P stands for three words which are mechanical electricity and plumbing. I’ve learned so many things about programming. I understand a lot about coding and love all of those programmings. To me designing an app is one of the big things that can bring more user to use our app but the app should also work. I couldn’t believe that I can make a very good app to help my community. The suppliers can post their information and customers can post their company about mechanical electricity and plumbing problems. There are more functions and features such as login, sign up, about us, how to use, giving feedback, posting information, posting problem and more.
We went ICHING Decor company to present the idea of the app. The company said that the idea was fabulous and if we launch they will directly use it. It was a great time with the general manager of the company. We presented with the slide presentation and test the app with them. Most of the workers gave us some feedback to make our app better too.
Mini Pitch was on 29th April 2108. We won the first place in mini pitch which is the first competition to collect 12 teams to go to national pitch. Our mentor which is the teacher that came to teach us every week said that our team has the full score when the judge gave the score to our app. It was the best feeling ever. On 20th may 2018 we have to compete among 11 teams. The judge and audience were giving a lot of attention on us which is a really good clue for being the first place We won the first place in the junior division. When we presented the Idea to the judge we can that they really love our idea. We have to wait for the finalist to select to go to San Francisco that was announced on 31st may 2018. Unfortunately, we were not the group that selected to San Francisco. It was sad but I will keep up to learn more programming language. Even though we didn’t make to the finalist but we have made a really good app that helps our people’s lives to be easier.
Khmer Literature Festival
Khmer literature festival was a very wonderful event that gives the chance for Cambodians to have more open ideas about Khmer literature. It was held in Battambang for 3 days. The purpose of this big event was to give more knowledge to Cambodian about Literature and the rare opportunity for readers to meet a famous author. We’ve met many fabulous and famous author including Mr, Tim Many, Ms. Pol Pisey, and more.
On the first day, we had a poem competition. There were three liger’s students that participated in the competition to win other older people. I was one of those three people. Two of the students in the first place (Angely Rose and Thul Vutha) among other adults. Even though, I didn’t win I was very proud to participate in this splendid opportunity. I am proud to share my poem that describes the beautiful light that is growing in Battambang province.
I was very contented with the skills I gained from this events on the second days. We got to listen to the educational and motivated speech about youth writing from amazing authors. In the second day, we had a lot of discussion and questions about Khmer literature including writing a poem, short story, long story, publishing book and more.
On the third day was more than what I’ve expected because a lot of Cambodian got to watch so many performances. Those heritages are beautiful and meaningful including Ken dance and Chapey Dong Veng. Besides that, there was a very outstanding performance that was presented by Phare Ponler Silapak. This beautiful performance had a dance and amazing flexibility show.
In general, This was one of the first Khmer literature events I’ve ever joined. I get to receive and exchange ideas about the future and growth of Khmer literature with the other people. One of the skills I love is about Graphic design(Designing book cover) which was presented by Cambodian. I would love to give a big thank to the people that work very hard to make this event happen.
How do I change Cambodia?
How do I think about change?
Doing a survey in your own brain about a change from observing you can literally do it everywhere. Whenever I am traveling somewhere. The clear glass of the car can reflect the light that is growing in the country as well as the darkness of it. I can see how has Cambodia country work in a different way from other country develop the country in the world. I can see through my eyes about the culture and economy in this country. Thinking is good but after I think I always tell myself to take action on it. It is not easy to make a change because it needs time. My school which is Liger Leader Academy has provided me with thinking about the change a lot because we always go outside to explore the reality. The reality makes our life more realistic with knowing things that are happening around us. With all of the majors problem happening in the country, we as a part of humanity should participate to make our world a better place.
How did I try to promote and encourage change?
Sharation (Sharing and Exploration)
Once every 7 weeks, all the students are given the opportunity to speak out and share the knowledge of the exploration they have worked on. People who are willing to gain knowledge are free to come and listen to the presentation on the sharation day. Throughout the event, I have the opportunity to present share and acknowledge the change and problem we’ve helped and discover within those explorations. Those include as Geography of Cambodia book, historical symbolism, disability podcast, entrepreneurship, the network play and many more.
In every one of the event, I was able to promote and encourages changes thorough speeches, presentation, podcast and more. Those events, help and remind both Khmer citizen and foreigner about the possibility of change to make Cambodian and the world a better country in many fields.
How did I raise awareness about change?
“Woman can Be a leader” (Khmer Mun)
On the 2nd of May 2018, the Liger Leadership Academy host an event called “Khmer MUN”. It was Model United Nations but it is in the Khmer language. As the Khmer language is our first language, we want to preserved and learn about how to use it in professional circumstances. It was an amazing opportunity to come together to research and share opinion by representing a different country about gender equality. The topic is about “Women can be leaders”. Furthermore, my team and I have created a resolution using different sources, claused to show all of the possibility to fight justice in order to allow women to be leaders. During the event, against and in favor team discussed the suitable solution for the topics. In the end, I was really grateful to be a part of supporting and encourage women to be leaders in different field especially in a government that is mostly dominated by men.
How Did I make the possibility of change?
Girls in technology and Entrepreneurship (TEchnovation Cambodia)
Technovation is a program offering girls opportunity learning about technology and entrepreneurship. They are challenged to identify a problem in their community, and then solved it by developing a mobile app solution. It is also a chance for us to compete in national and international competition by pitching our ideas to judges and summiting them through the website. I have participated in this program for 2 years (2017/2018).
Farmer market Application
A major problem in Cambodia is poverty. After the Khmer Rouge, economic and many other fields of this country were destroyed. As the destruction remain, many of its survivors sill struggle from the damage the regime has done. According to data from the workforce in 2016, 45% of Cambodia work in the agriculture field. The farmers don’t have markets to sell their agricultural products, such as vegetables and fruit which can lead to poverty. Our app is created for farmers to post their agricultural products such as vegetables and fruits and customers can access to view and buy the products.
Click here to see our presentation
MEP Center presented by Five Infinities
In 2018, I’ve joined the program again and form a team called “Five Infinities”. We develop an app called MEP center which stands for Mechanical, Electricity, and Plumbing. It is created to allow customers to contact suppliers to fix their MEP problems and suppliers to find more customers to earn more profit.
It was a very successful competition and experience. One of the highlights is we went ICHING Decor company to present the idea of the app. The company said that the idea was fabulous and if we launch they will ensure to use it. It was a great time with the general manager of the company. We presented with the slide presentation and test the app with them. Most of the workers gave us some feedback to make our app better too.
On 20th May 2018 we have to compete among 11 teams in the national competition after we pass the mini-pitch competition. After the presentation judges were extremely happy about our idea. Shockingly, both of the mini-pitch and nation pitch, one of the judge have the same startup idea as us. This shows that our application can really help the problem because it does really exist in our society. Eventually, with all of the teamwork, collaboration, time, we won the 1st place in the junior division of the national grand prize.
To sum up, this program is one of the solutions to gender equality in the technology field. By encouraging women to participate in this program, I am sure that they will discover a new part of societies and themselves. Before I start this program programming is my least favorite subject. During these two year journeys, I’ve come to a point of enjoying coding and I was an app developer for both years. Now, I’ve tried to learn many new programming languages such as javascript, java, HTML, CSS and python.
Read more about us from different articles:
http://geeksincambodia.com/technovation-cambodia-the-journey-of-five-infinities/
https://www.voacambodia.com/a/cambodian-teams-through-to-mini-final-of-tech-challenge/4437175.html