Ecology Description

Exploration Name: Forest Ecology

Exploration Dates: Oct 7, 2013 – Nov 19, 2013

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions: (1) What is an ecosystem? (2) What is a natural resource?

Description: An ecosystem is the living things and the non-living things connecting with each other. The one example is algae. Algae take the sunlight for food and fish eat algae and then people eat fish. This is one connection. In Ecosystems class we had a journey book to take notes or write keywords that we don’t know what that word means. In Ecology class the first topic that we learned was tropical forest. We did not just learn only tropical forests but we also learned a lot of kinds of forests like conifers and others. A tropical forest is the forest that has rain a lot all year. We also learned about ecological relationships. Ecological relationships mean that one organism and another organism connect with each other. Ecological relationships are divided in five parts. They are parasitism, commensalism, predator-prey, mutualism and competition. Our Ecology group went to Mondulkiri province to study there. We spent six days at Mondolkiri. We met a lot of people like Bunong people. On Saturday we came back to our school and we shared what we learned.

Food Systems Description

 

  • Exploration Name: Food Systems
  • Exploration Dates: March 10 – May 2
  • Number of Students: 15

A food system is the cyclical process of growing, transforming, packaging, transporting, cooking, eating, and recycling food. Sometimes we can skip some of these steps. For example if we eat a mango that grows from a tree at our house we are skipping packaging, transporting, cooking, and transforming. This is an example of a local food system. An example of a global food system is chips that have ingredients from different parts of the world and are packaged, transformed and transported all over the world.

In our class we learned the difference between all three kinds of soil. They are sand, silt and clay. We started to grow the seeds. The seeds have grew, but we have not taken its to grow in our raised beds yet. In one day we have to give the water to the plants 3 – 4 times. We learned the six steps to grow the seeds, from laying the toilet paper to moving them in the tray. We have learned the part of the seeds. There are seed coat, embryo and cotyledons. We learned about the fruits and vegetables. We also learned about global and local food systems. Global is the food that is all around the world. Local is the food that is near. Ex: If we are Cambodian and buy the food in Cambodia that food is the local because it is near where we live. Ex: If we are Cambodian and buy the food from Malaysia that food is the global because it is far away from where we live. Also, we learn about the pros and the cons about local and global food systems.

We took four trips to learn about Food Systems. The first trip we went on Organic farm. The owner shown us how to grow the seeds. In his farm there are ten different typesof seeds: lettuce, fruit plants and herbs. Also, he told us that insects and the weeds destroy his farm. Weeds are the things that you don’t want. EX: In the farm have the grass that grows, the weeds is the grass because the farmer doesn’t want that to grow in their farm. New technology is that they cover the soil by the plastic because when we put the compost and the water will not go away. Compost is made out of the animals poo mixed with soil and rice husks. The second trip we went to Natural garden store. In that shop sell vegetables, snacks, wine and ingredients. The owner had taught us how to find where the food came from. The owner said that some of his fruits, vegetable and cookies are bought from France, America, Thailand, North America, Singapore, Germany and local. He has own farm in Kampong Speu and at Kampong Som. The third trip we went to University Agriculture. In there we learned about hydroponics. The guide told us that hydroponic is the new technology in Cambodia. Hydroponics means growing on the water. At there we saw lots of lettuce that grows on the water. The last trip we went to Rice Mill. We learned about the different rice in Cambodia. Also, we learned the difference between brown rice and white rice and how both of this rice is good for us.

 

Future Jobs Description

Exploration Name: Future Jobs

Exploration Dates: January 20th – March 7th

Number of Students: 12

Essential Questions:

1. How will jobs that help Cambodia look different in the future?

2. What motivates people to choose the job they do?

Description:

During the round four exploration we learned about Future Jobs. In Future Jobs we had to develop the presentation questions (ask more questions). We asked more questions because in our Exploration we had a lot of trips that taught us about the jobs in the real life. After that we learned about Nanotechnology, Water crisis and Alternative fuels. Nanotechnology is smaller than atoms. One thing we learned was that it is waterproof and can go underground without breaking. In Water crisis topic we learned that 70% of the Earth is seawater and 30% is land. But just 3% is good water. 884 million people don’t have good water and nearly 1,000,000,000 don’t have water. The last topic was Alternative fuel. We noticed that the gas can live 60 years, oil can live 60 years and coal can live 1000 years. Last we prepared for our job shadow on the next day. Job shadow means to go to the real place of work to do the job with the people that are in the job that helps Cambodia a lot. All of us went to different places with our partner. For example, some of us went to World Vision and some went to Northbridge International School.

 

Angkor Architecture Description

Exploration Name: Angkor Architecture

Exploration Date: November 20-January 17

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions/areas:

(1) What is the meaning of architecture?

(2) What information should I know about architecture?

(3) What does Khmer architecture look like?

(4) What are the differences between ancient and modern architecture?

(5) How do we create architecture?

Description:

Architecture is the process of planning, designing and constructing. When we work on architecture with these three things we have to think about durability, utility and beauty. So in our Exploration we learned about architecture in Cambodia. For example: in Cambodia there are many houses, buildings and also the temples. The Khmer architecture was different than the other countries because like the Angkor Wat is made from the big rocks and the foundation that they built is layers of rocks and sand. But in the other countries, like in the U.S.A, there are not really the buildings that have the foundation like that. Before, the buildings in Cambodia were not that big. The houses were also not that big and were not made from cement like right now. Now when they make the houses, they put many colors and many styles that they want. But at the past, the Khmer buildings were not too big and did not have many styles like now. Just the temples had many styles that Khmer ancestors made by hand with the big rocks. On the big rocks they made the big sculptures that showed about Khmer history. To do the architecture we have to follow the theory of architecture and do it step by step. In this group we went on the trip to Siem Reap to learn how did the Khmer ancestorsbuild the temples. Other than that we also went to some places in Phnom Penh. We went to Central Market, Olympic Stadium and PPIT. That is the school that teaches about the architecture.