Author: portfoliostudent

Exploration Name: Refuse Plastic

Exploration Dates: May 5 – June 17

Essential Question:

1. What are solutions to reduce waste?

Learning Facilitator: Max

Number of  students: 12

Course Description: We learned about plastic. We spent a lot of time to discuss about what happens to plastic waste. We found that in Cambodia people liked to burn, bury, throw away and put in the landfill. When we burned rubbish it had CO2, which means carbon dioxide.There are a lot of CO2 it increases the chance that global warming, greenhouse effect and drought could happened. When the world have global warming the ice will melt and some animals will lose their habitats because some animals need cold place to live. Example polar bears needed cold place to live, but if we burned rubbish the cold place like Arctic will melt and then polar bears went extinct. Also, when global warming happened the world got hotter and the oceans got hotter too. If the oceans got hotter the animals that in lived in the oceans will die like jelly fish because they like to live in normal climate. When the drought happened and then the organisms will die because all organisms need water to stay a life.  Also, when the drought happened the deserts got bigger and it had a lot of winds and sand storms. When we buried it could polluted to the water and soil. So we can’t grew the plants on that soil again. When we threw the rubbish away it could clogged the drain and it could had flood. Why rubbish could clogged the drain because when the rain came the water can’t went through the drain because of  rubbish were clogging already. So when rain came a lot and it can’t went through the drain it could have flooding. When we put the rubbish at the landfill  the problems were taking a lot of space, have leaching chemical and methane gas. Leaching chemical when the chemical came out slowly from the plastic. Example when the rain came it stayed in the plastic that in the landfill and slowly the chemical came out. This chemical was not good for our health. Methane gas were 21 times  more dangerous than CO2.

We researched about solutions that could helped to reduce waste. Our solutions were 3R and 5D. 3R means reduced, reused and recycled. Reduced means used less plastic. Reused means used it again. Example if you have one plastic already don’t threw it away tried to used it again when you went to shopping. Recycle means when you used the plastic already you could put it into factory to made more plastic bags. When you have plastic and you wanted to threw away you have to think could I reduced this plastic. Then you have to think could I reused it and then if you can’t reuse you could recycled it. 5D means define, discovered, design, develop and deploy.

In our class we have other solutions. That solution was reusing plastic. We made many things out of plastic for people to use it. Many students made the bags out of plastic for carried some things when you went to shopping. One student made flowers from the plastic. That flower you could hang it in front of your house or on the table. Our projects were so helpful because all the bags and flowers were the things that people wanted and needed. (You can go to see our blog and then you will see the things that we made and you will know how to do it).   

When we used plastic it have benefits too. People used plastic as materials. Plastic we could used it in many different climates. Plastic could packaged food and water and then that food & water will be safe. It can keep the food be fresh. The best reason why people like to used plastic was because plastic doesn’t cost a lot of money.

We had four trips that we went to Phnom Penh. The first trip we went to Lucky market to interview the seller about plastic. The second trip we went to BKK market to interview the sellers and the buyer about plastic. We went there to observe how people used their plastic. We went to Cintri. Cintri is the company that took the rubbish to put at the landfill. The last trip we went to community to ask about plastic and then we took that information to study.

 

This is our blog: http://refuseplastic.ligercambodiablog.org/

 

 

Exploration 6

• 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 types of 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.

 

Exploration Name: Renewable Energy in Cambodia (Poo)

Exploration Dates: Oct 7 to Nov 19

Number of students: 13 students

Essential Questions:

1. Are bio gas and solar energy sources practical and cost effective in Cambodia?
2. What are the benefits and drawbacks to using bio gas and solar energy in Cambodia?

Description:

In our Exploration class we had three things to work on. The first area was the solar system. The solar system is a resource that can create the energy from the sun. Solar has four types: solar panel, solar cooker, solar water heater and solar lamp. A solar panel is the solar thing that creates the energy to run the electricity. A solar cooker is the solar thing that creates the energy for cooking. A solar water heater is the solar thing the creates the energy to turn the normal water to the hot water. A solar lamp is the solar thing that creates the energy to light the house if that house doesn’t have the electricity. The next thing that we learned about was the biodigester. A biodigester is a natural system that can create bio gas by using poo from the animals. Cow poo is the best. It has a lot of benefits. Example: (1) saving the money, (2) healthier than using firewood, (3) save a tree. The last thing that we learned was about hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity is a thing that creates the energy by using water. It usually is built over the river. The biggest dam in the world is in China. Our goal was to make Cambodians know that all of these things can create energy. Also we wanted them to use these three things because they are good and can save a lot of money. We also had a trip too. The trip was to go to Kampong Speu. Our target was to install two biodigesters. We install them in Camkids and the orphanage called HAP because we wanted to make them easy instead of using the firewood. Both of the biodigesters cost $1100. When we went to to Kampong Speu we also taught some students too. We also slept at Kampong Speu too. We had good days when we were in Kampong Speu.