Category: 2018 – 2019

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Healthcare System in Cambodia

For this first term of Healthcare Exploration, we were learning about the healthcare system in Cambodia, as well as, different perspectives and areas of improvement within the health services. We had talked to many different NGO and hospitals, both private and public, regarding their services and their views toward the healthcare system. There were some inspirational moments, where the medical staffs raised a remarkable point regarding the improvement.

Different inspirational quotes:

“Technology and education should parallel each other.”

Referral Hospital Manager

A doctor from a Referral Hospital in Phnom Penh said that “Technology and education should parallel each other.” Meaning that it is essential to understand that with only just technological advancement that doesn’t necessary improve the healthcare system in Cambodia. Our nation also needs technicians who specialize in using the medical tools as well, implying that there is still a lack of human resources within the medical field.

“You can build a health center, but health centers don’t treat people. People treat people.”

Medicins San Frontiers

A doctor from Doctor Without Border said that building health facilities doesn’t necessarily improve the acceptability of the healthcares, and that quality human resources in the medical field is an essential aspect to improve the quality of the healthcare.

After this first round, I was inspired to do a healthcare related project. This project is about creating a flyer that contain a list of precautions that patients can take in order to reduce the risk of getting Healthcare Associated Infection, which aims to provide a basic health education for patients and their family to avoid further risk.

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Cell Organelles: Peroxisomes

This school year, there are 12 students who are enrolled in the AP Biology course, which is a college-level biology class. This course is opened for students to sign up, personally I signed up for this class because I want to understand the natural world around me, and the living organisms within our world. In addition, I believe that it would be helpful to understand the basic of this field especially because I want to attend medical school.   

In this first term, we learned about Ecology Biology and we’re introduced to the Cell Unit. To further our understanding of the Eukaryotic Cell, our facilitator assigned each student with an organelle. Students had to do research regarding the functions of their organelle, and share the information with other students, by simulating that we are being interview for different job’s position of a company. So each student had to pretend to be their organelle, and tried to convince the facilitator and other student why they (the organelles) are important for a company.

Here is my speech as peroxisome, trying to convince others to hire me as an employee.

 

Hello, My name Peroxi-glyoxy.

Let me get one thing straight, I might not be able to move around the company by myself, however I have good communication skill that allow be to hitchhike other endosomes to move to places, and with all my skills you’ll be amazed on how I do this nearly all by myself.  

Okay, so I understand that this company has cell wall to maintain the security of the company. Provide shield so that outsiders can’t intrude the business. But while cell wall is busy doing its jobs, sometimes there are enemies within our company, the one that can’t be killed by cell wall or any other employees. Such as hydrogen peroxides that can destroy the cell wall. Therefore I believe that both animal and plant department needs someone like me to be a staff member.

So at first glance, I might look like lysosomes, or one of the microbodies. However, we have a totally different role, actually roles.

I have over 50 different enzymes, that can be use to help and secure the company in different variety of biochemical ways.

As I have mentioned a second ago, hydrogen peroxide are really harmful for a company, since it is a by product of digestion, we can’t just stop getting energy to get rid of this H2O2, there for you should hire me. One of my enzymes call catalase is used to break down hydrogen peroxide, and convert it into water. For me since hydrogen peroxide can’t do me harm, I can use this toxic to break down other organic compound such uric acid, amino acids, and fatty acid though the process of oxidation. In addition, the oxidation of fatty acid can provide a major source of metabolic energy, the process of oxidizing fatty acid can be done by mitochondria and peroxisomes in the Animal Department, however for the plants department this job is only restricted to me.

For the Animal department, I can also do helps some other jobs such as synthesize cholesterol and dolichol those that use to make hormones, vitamin D, and digestive fluids, and especially in the Human sector of animal department, I also help to produce bile acid for the liver. And help with some aspect of energy metabolism.

For Plant department, I play a great role on converting of stored fatty acids to carbohydrates in seeds, so germinating plant has energy and raw materials that can be used for growth whereby here I am known as glyoxysomes or peroxisomes.

In the Leaves sector of the plant, I, peroxisome also involved in photorespiration, by allowing most of the carbon in glycolate to be recovered and utilized.

You must hire me because I am a hard worker and an essential aspect for the company to keep running.

 

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American History

This first term of Literacy Essential, our main focus for this class was the American History which aims to prepare students for the historical passage of the SAT exam. We read texts from a website called CommonLit such as: Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death, Excerpts from Thomas Jefferson’s Writing on American Indians, Causes of the American Civil War, America’s Shifting Views on Immigration, Excerpt from The Jungle, and The Great Depression. When we finished reading an article, we have to write an open response to further our understand of these historical text, as well as, work on “Vocabulary Exploration,” which is about exploring difficult words and understand how to use those words in all of theirs forms and part of speeches.

My response for the question of: Compare and contrast how Hoover and Roosevelt responded to the Great Depression according to the text. How did their actions impact this period of economic depression?

Both President Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt had both tried to end the Great Depression during their office. However, the main difference was the presidents’ judgement on the severity of the recession. Herbert Hoover “believed that the government should not directly intervene in the economy,” because he thought that just like other recessions in the past, it would run its course. So, consequently, He did not assist Americans through this tragedy. But, eventually he exercised “two laws to spur new home construction and public work programs,” but even so, those policies were too small and too late to make any significant difference.  

In contrast, Franklin Roosevelt started his office by believing that the recession is a crisis, and that it was his duty to restore the American economy to health. Thus, Franklin Roosevelt launched an impactful program called New Deals that consisted of many programs that helped to reform and recover from this economic setback. By: “bring[ing] Americans out of the Hoovervilles and put them back to work,” and ensuring that savers don’t lose their money in a bank crash; which helped to circulate the money within the country’s economy. Furthermore, the programs, Wagner Act, guaranteed basic rights for workers to have better terms and conditions at work. As a result these policies provided jobs to millions of Americans who are unskilled and unemployed, which fulfilled his pledge in his inaugural speech, that The Great Depression was a parlous situation and that America “must act and act quickly,” so that the economy will revive and will prosper.   

Example of the Vocabulary Exploration:

Jest: (noun) – a joke

  • Definition: (verb) – to say something and intend it to be funny
  • Example in the article: “…. they could now study the whole of the spoiled-meat industry on the inside, and read a new and grim meaning into that old Packingtown jest—that they use everything of the pig except the squeal. ”
  • Sentence: For those that just met him wouldn’t be able to tell that his suggestion was a jest because of his emotionless expression.
    • I found it’s frankly rude and inconsiderate when people jested about wage-gap.   
  • Different Form: In jest, Surely you jest, jester
    • In jest: (Common phrase) – not serious, as a joke
      • Everyone should have their own secret language with their friends, I personally found it’s amusing to speak in jest knowing that only my roommates understand the reference.   
    • Surely you jest: (common phrase) – surely you joking
      • Surely you jest; I don’t believe that you would just quit that competition just because you brother couldn’t join.
    • Jester: (noun) – someone whose job is to make people laugh
      • I like the original costume of Harley Quinn where she dressed up as a jester, after all she was known as a jokester-villain.

 

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SAT Preparation

This term of Math Essential, our class was focusing preparing for the SAT test on the 6th of October; therefore students were independently working on different areas that they are struggling with. One of the main topics that I learned was Unit Circle.

Unit Circle is a circle with the radius of 1 with the origin of (0,0), which is used to calculate and understand the relationship sines and cosines of special triangles such as 30/60/90 and 45/45/90.

For Unit Circle the measurement of angle is in radians instead of degree, there are 2π radians, which is equivalent to 360 degrees.

United Circle with 30/60/90 triangle

Unit Circle with 45/45/90 triangle

 

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Atomic Emission: Flame Test Lab

One of the topic that we learned in Chemistry class this term was about Atomic Emission; sets frequencies of the electromagnetic waves that emitted by atoms.

Reason why atoms emit electromagnetic waves:

When atoms receives energy from an external source, the atoms will absorb the energy and become excited, which is when electrons are move to a higher energy orbital. The excited atoms then emit photons of light in order to go back to the ground state, which is.

Introduction to Flame Test Lab: (This introduction was written by our facilitator as the Pre-Lab)

Flame tests provide a way to qualitatively test for the presence of specific elements by seeing colored flames.  The heat of the bunsen burner excites the electrons in the atom, and this energy is released as the electrons “fall back” to their ground states. The color we see is a combination of the visible wavelengths of light emitted by the atoms.  

If you have a spectroscope you can also make quantitative observations. A spectroscope can be used to see a pattern of narrow lights called an emission (bright-line) spectrum.  The actually wavelengths of the spectrum serve as a quantitative test to determine atoms identities.  Each element has a different “pattern” of electrons, so it will show a different combination of colors.  

In this lab you will perform flame tests on seven different elements. You will use your observations to identify an unknown solution.  

Click here to read my lab report.