Category: Latest posts

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Khmer Literature and Culture Festival

Liger is all about project-based learning, so is our Khmer class. After publishing a Khmer poem book we decided to do something a little bit bigger to further promote the Khmer literature and culture. We put our though together and came up with an event that is going to be fun and will promote as many aspects of the Khmer literature and culture as possible. With 50 young-organizers planings and organizing, the event started to become real.

After months of preparation and planning, we’re finally ready for the big event. On the 25th of May 2019, the Khmer literature and culture at Liger prosper. Everybody dress up stunningly beautiful in the Khmer traditional clothes and filled with energy to rock the day with knowledge and fun. As the leader of the Khmer slang booth​(គ្រាមភាសា), I was rocking a Khmer traditional pant (ខោចែវ – khao-chev), and a white long-sleeve t-shirt with Angkor Wat image across the chest.

It was 9:00 am and the event has started. Students from many public schools, private school, and organization rush into every booth to see what do we have to offer. I was more than excited to have fun and teach about my topic. To attract the audience I’ve prepared something very special. I displayed a very appetizing snack on the table as the price for playing and learning about Khmer slang (គ្រាមភាសា). People gathering around my booth and very interested in learning and having fun with my topic. Loud laughs, huge smiles, and kind regards are what I receive from the crowd. I couldn’t be more proud. I am very grateful to take part in the great event and very honor in making the Khmer literature and culture prosper once again.

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Soil Percolation Test Procedure (EWB internship)

This is a soil percolation and infiltration rate test procedure that I’ve research and developed for my internship project.

 

Testing Procedures

Soil percolation test

  • Procedure
    • Drill at least three holes with a diameter of 15 to 20 cm and a depth of 91 to 274 cm,
    • Fill the holes with water,
    • Then measure for the amount of water decreases within a period of time,
    • Use the formula (Percolation = Amount of water (ml)Time taken (min)) to calculate for the percolation rate.
  • Equipment
    • Something to dig with
    • Water
    • Timer
    • Measuring stick
  • Standard for Effluent Percolation Rate (EPR)
    • Poor soakage – 10 litre/m2/day
    • Good soakage – 15 litre/m2/day

Soil infiltration test

  • Procedure
    • Fill a 30 by 20 cm container with soil and pressure it to make it compact like the ground
    • Cut a 5 inch (127mm) PVC pipe into a 20 cm piece and make a 5 cm, a 10 cm, and a 15 cm mark on the inside of the pipe
    • Then vertically bury 5 cm of the PVC pipe into the soil in the container
    • Pour water into the buried PVC pipe then start the timer
    • Then record the time when the water reaches each mark
  • Equipment/materials
    • 5 inch PVC pipe
    • 30 x 20 cm container
    • Soil
    • Water
    • Timer
    • Notebook & Pen
    • Marker
  • Source

Water flowing through the filtration

  • Procedure
    • Start the timer when the first drop of water get to the filter in the second pit
    • Stop the timer when the water comes out of the PVC pipe into the leach field
  • Equipment
    • Timer
    • Notebook & Pen

 

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Human Cruelty (poem)

Description: This is a very short poem that I wrote to celebrate the world poetry day in my literacy class.

BOOOOM!

A giant mushroom-like blast filled the air

A new rocket has launched

A new tragic for the world to be scare

Human is Cruel

 

From China to India

Millions of dollar been invested

Just to give the world a new fear

Human is Cruel

 

United State and North Korea

The conflict is always there

Just because of the stupid nuclear

Human is Cruel

 

Creating peace with guns

Nothing has changed

And yet, it’s not just begun

You see, Human is cruel!

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Research Proposal for Nitrate Concentration in Drink Water

Description: This is a research proposal for my personal research project. However, the project has been forsaken because it does go along the field of my interest.

Background

Water is an essential need for all animal on this planet, including human. In fact, approximately 60 percent of our human weight is water. From protecting tissues Spinal Cord and Joints to helping digestion to remove waste, water is playing a huge role in functioning a human body. Therefore, a person needs to drink a least 2 liters of water per day. As such, people need the best quality water possible to stay hydrated and be healthy. However, only 71.16% of the world population has access to safely managed drinking water services in 2015. Yet, this number is increasing, but due to limited infrastructure in a less developed country, the quality of the water is a questionable concern.

Cambodia for instance just came out of a civil war 40 years ago. Therefore, this country is still lacking in many infrastructures. For instance, in 2015, only 24% of the population got access to safely managed drinking water services. However, the main surface water resources in Cambodia, The Mekong River, and the Tonle Sap Lake qualify the WHO standard. Therefore, the water only needs basic treatment such as disinfection.

Water disinfection can be done using many methods including filtration and more. However, the most popular method of disinfection is chlorination: a process of adding chlorine into the water to eliminate pathogens. This method is so popular because it’s inexpensive and it’s very efficient. However, chlorination can only eliminate pathogen to prevent waterborne diseases, yet, it can’t do anything to eliminate any hazardous chemical, such as Nitrate, to prevent other health problems.

All plants and animals need nitrogen as a component of protein. Nitrogen is everywhere in the environment around us in many different forms. Nitrogen is very essential in plant growth; it’s one of the main three elements: Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium (NPK). Therefore, farmers from everywhere around the world would at use fertilizer with an abandon of these elements on to their crop for more yield. Cambodia for instance, have agriculture as one of the four pillars of the country economy; so in many farmlands around Cambodia, tons and tons of nitrogen have been applied each and every year. Therefore, a large quantity of nitrate is laying around the farmlands. So, in the rainy season, the excess nitrate would get to the surface water source and contaminate the water.

One of the main surface water sources of Cambodia, the Tonle Sap Lake, would expand from the area from 2500km2 in the dry season to 13000km2in the rainy season; thus, it flooded thousand km2of farmlands and circulation of chemical discharges from industry, allow the excess nitrate and other chemicals on the ground to contaminate the water. Furthermore, the rain would not only contaminate the Tonle Sap Lake; for instance, it would also cause erosion which leaks the chemicals residue into many other water sources as well. Therefore, if the contaminated water would’ve been only chlorinated, the nitrate and other chemicals would enter the human body through drinking and accumulate in the human body.

Even though all living things need nitrogen to grow and develop, the excess nitrate-nitrogen wouldn’t do any good for them. For instance, high concentrations of nitrate in drinking water can cause many harmful diseases such as Methemoglobinemia or known as “blue baby syndrome”. Methemoglobinemia happened when nitrate oxidizes the iron in   to form methemoglobin which will limit the oxygen-carrying ability of hemoglobin; thus, causing the blood to unable to provide enough oxygen to individuals body cells resulting in blue vain and skin. However, only infants and pregnant women have a high risk of getting Methemoglobinemia because a human body of age six months or older is able to turn methemoglobin back into oxyhemoglobin and allow the red blood cells to provide enough oxygen to the whole body cells. Therefore, it’s important to ensure that the concentration of nitrate in drinking water is less than 10 ml according to the WHO standard.

 

Hypotheses

  1. The nitrate concentration level across the country will be lower than 10ml because there is only a small amount of fertilizer residue left on the soil that might contaminate the water.
  2. The nitrate concentration level around the Tonle Sap River will be higher than any other location due to the expansion of the of the Tonle Sap lake.

 

Method

In this study, I will collect a tap water sample from their house back in their hometown during the February break of 2019. Then the water will be the water samples will be tested for Nitrate (NO3) in the RDI laboratory. I will collect the concentration level of nitrate in each sample and compare it to the WHO Standard which stated the concentration level of NO3 need to be lower than 10 ml or 10 Parts Per Million(PPM).

 

Significant

The health of human populations is directly dependent on the cleanliness of available drinking water. Therefore, testing for hazardous chemicals in drinking water is indispensable. Such chemical as Nitrate (NO3) is really dangerous for infants under six months of age; with a high concentration of Nitrate can cause blood disorder which leads to Methemoglobinemia (blue baby syndrome). However, there hasn’t been any research done in Cambodia related to this topic regarding of tap water. So, this research is essential in identifying the quality and the safety of drinking water in Cambodia, to prevent disease such as Methemoglobinemia.

 

Timeline

Activities Start date End date
Collecting water sample 23 Feb 2 March
Testing (at RDI) 10 March 15 March
     
     

 

Budgets

The requested fund will be largely spent on testing for Nitrate concentration ($4 per sample).   

List of Proposed Purchased Materials and Cost

Nitrate Testing………………………………………………………………………………………$72.00

 

 

Works Cited

“Drinking Water Standards and Risk.” Drinking Water Quality, pp. 37–64., doi:10.1017/cbo9780511805387.003.

“Figure 2f from: Irimia R, Gottschling M (2016) Taxonomic Revision of Rochefortia Sw. (Ehretiaceae, Boraginales). Biodiversity Data Journal 4: e7720. Https://Doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.4.e7720.” doi:10.3897/bdj.4.e7720.figure2f.

“Methemoglobinemia: MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopedia.” MedlinePlus, U.S. National Library of Medicine, medlineplus.gov/ency/article/000562.htm.

“Nitrogen.” Fertilizers And Soil Acidity | Mosaic Crop Nutrition, www.cropnutrition.com/efu-nitrogen.

Oram, Brian. “Mr. Brian Oram, PG.” Pennsylvania Well Water Testing Private Wellowners Drinking Water Pennsylvania Ground Water Education Program, www.water-research.net/index.php/nitrate.

Vanny, Leng, et al. “Phnom Penh’s Municipal Drinking Water Supply: Water Quality Assessment.” Sustainable Water Resources Management, vol. 1, no. 1, 2015, pp. 27–39., doi:10.1007/s40899-015-0004-9.

“Water and Sanitation.” UNICEF, www.unicef.org/cambodia/19061_19073.html.

“What Is Chlorination?” Safe Drinking Water Foundation, www.safewater.org/fact-sheets-1/2017/1/23/what-is-chlorination.

Yurtoğlu, Nadir. “Http://Www.historystudies.net/Dergi//Birinci-Dunya-Savasinda-Bir-Asayis-Sorunu-Sebinkarahisar-Ermeni-isyani20181092a4a8f.Pdf.” History Studies International Journal of History, vol. 10, no. 7, 2018, pp. 241–264., doi:10.9737/hist.2018.658.

“Http://Ljournal.ru/Wp-Content/Uploads/2017/03/a-2017-023.Pdf.” 2017, doi:10.18411/a-2017-023.

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Correlation – Statistic

Correlation in a statistic is a factor used to describe the relationship between one variable and the other variable. In a graph, there are two axes: X-axis (explanatory variable) and Y-axis (responses variable). For example, If we would use height to predict weight then the height would be the explanatory variable and the weight would be the response variable. Then we would use the data of the height and the weight to calculate for the correlation coefficient (r).

 

The correlation coefficient(r), rage from -1 to 1. When the r-value equal to -1, it shows that the two variables have a negative relationship/correlation; in this case, it means that as the height increase, the predicted weight will decrease. On the other hand, if the r-value would to equal to 1, the two variables will have a positive relationship/correlation which means that as the height increase the weight will also increase. Yet, if the r-value equal to 0, the two variables don’t have any relationship at all. However, a perfect r-value of -1, 0, or 1 is not a value that we’ll get calculating real datasets because real datasets won’t have such an exact relationship between real datasets.

 

The equation for r is r =1/n-1∑(xi-x/xs)(yi-y/ys), however, it would take forever to plug in and solve this equation; so we use the Ti3 calculator instead. In our case of using height to predict weight, we receive an r-value of .76. This value shows a high correlation between the two variables, therefore, it’s positive to use the height to predict the weight.

Watch me solving for the r and r-square value!

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Lewis Dot Structure and VSEPR Model

This round in chemistry essential, I have learned so many new concepts that manoeuvre me deeper into the world of chemistry. For instance, we were learning about the Lewis Dot Structure and Vsepr Model. These two concepts were very interesting to me because it gives me a better sense of how chemical bond together at the atom level.

Lewis dot structure is a diagram that shows how atoms are bonding together and how many lone pairs of electrons are there in the molecule. For example, if we have an element of Phosphorus trifluoride (PF3), we would start off by looking for the valence electrons. In this case, the valence electrons for Phosphorus and the three Fluorine is 5 and 21 respectively. Then, we would draw P (symbol for Phosphorus) in the middle of the diagram since it’s less electronegative with five dots (representing the valence electrons) around it. However, the dots can’t just be laying everywhere around the P: It needs to be placed on the four sides of the P (top, right, bottom, and left.) Then we need to define the bonding between P and the three Fluorine (F3). Since Phosphorus has three valence electrons, it only needs 3 more to get to the stable stage. Therefore, it can share its three individuals electrons with the other three individuals electrons from the three fluorine. So we can draw three lines from P to the three fluorine with a free pair of electrons on the top of P and 6 free pairs of electrons around each F.

Lewis dot structure of PF3

Afterwards, we can also turn this structure into a 3D model using the VSEPR model. Since this diagram got three bonds with a free pair of electrons on the centre atom, it falls under the category of Trigonal Pyramidal.

VSEPR model of PF3
3D VSEPR model of PF3
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Flame Lap

Chemistry is the scientific discipline involved with compounds composed of atoms (google.) Chemistry is one of the four essential classes Liger provide this year. Two years ago, we got introduce to chemistry by a Princeton student. Back then we were just learning the very basic of this subject which include atoms and significant figure etc. For this first round, we were basic review stuff that we learn two years ago with the new facilitator. Yet, we did experiments/labs along with the topic we went over. My most favorite lab so far is the flame lab. In this lab, we were basically testing different salt on fire to see the change in color of the flame. So first we deep a popsicle sticks in fresh water, then deep it into the salt, and then put on the fire. By heating the salt up is like adding energy into the atoms. Therefore, it makes the electrons shift from the inner shell to outer shell which produces photons in the process: create colors. My most favorite reaction is when the fire reacted with the Copper Chlorine.

When Copper Chlorine reacted with fire.
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The Book of Khmer Poem

There are so many aspects that make Liger different from the public school one of those is the curriculum. At Liger, most of the class were conducted in English, yet we still spend 5 hours a week learning our native language: Khmer. Unlike the classes in public school, our Khmer class also have small projects like research papers and poems. At the end of last year, we started to write poems about any topic we like. Then now, at the beginning of this year, we decided to turn those poems into a book along with some research about the different type of poem and their history. After the book is finished, we have a showcase at the Khmer Literature Festival in Battambang province. Surprisingly, we got a lot of support: we sold out all of our printed books. After the showcase, we found out that there are some parts of the book that needs to be further edited before another showcase in Phnom Penh Book Fare in December.

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2017-2018 How I change Cambodia

Mohandas Gandhi once stated, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” In our life, we’re having so many goals that we’re headstrong to achieve. Yet, we have to acknowledge that on our way to achieving our goal, we’re going to face problems that we want to see the solution to; and changes that we want to see. If we only keep walking toward our goal and take no action to create the change that we eager to see, there is a great chance that the change will not occur. So as a “change agent,” I have to pause my journey and plant the seed of change that I wish to see. Still, I have to acknowledge that the seed wouldn’t just grow big overnight; it takes time. As a 15-year-old “change agent,” this is how I plant my seeds and be the change I wish to see in the world.

Growing up, I got exposed to so many gender-based stereotypes from my surrounding. Even though it’s not specifically from my parents, but those words are really effective in my early life. For instance, the phrase “Boys should not cry,” has always been an immense threat to my ability to express my feeling. That because people have always define crying as being weak, and so do I. In many tough situations, this phrase acted as a blockage and constrain my tear. Even when I became a Liger student I still struggle to express my feeling because I haven’t exposed to any discussion about this topic yet. Fortunately this year I got the opportunity to be apart of the Gender Equity exploration where I’ve changed my perspective one hundred and eighty degrees. From the first few days of deep questions discussion, “crying is weak” has become a myth and the crying blockage has dissolved. Yet, this is only one facet of the exploration that changed me. In further conversation, we’ve talked a lot about the gender gap how we don’t really want “Gender Equality” instead we want “Gender Equity”. Because with gender equally everybody would have the same opportunity or resources, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they will get to the same stage. For example, in the technology field male are already had a huge head start so if we only give women the same opportunity as the man, it would be really hard for them to catch up. But for gender equity, we would give women a little bit more opportunity than the man so that they can catch up easily. From these fruitful discussions, we decided to create an event called gender summit where we invited about a hundred students from 4 schools in Phnom Penh to come together to discuss gender under the theme of “How can we empower change while preserving the culture”. The event was a huge success with both languages: English and Khmer. Moreover, we have created a website as a platform to publish our gender-related articles for the whole the world to see.

After the project, I found out something really different about myself. Every time I open mouth and start speaking, I think about it at least twice before I disperse my words. Every time I hear someone make a sexist joke or say something sexist, I tend to feel uncomfortable, I tend to feel disappointed, and I tend to feel like I really need to speak up. My freedom of speech, I need to speak against the old outdated-mindset; the mindset that only maintains the gender gap. Furthermore, I have an acute willing to fight for gender equity and to empower all men to support women. Finally, I declared myself as a feminine, and I’ll use the independence I have to do anything I can to be the change I wish to see.

Learning at Liger, I have a clear idea of what changes I want to see and a clear vision for my future. Even though I have a clear path to walk, but many more students in my country doesn’t have the skill needed to create their own path as we do. We -Liger student- are able to plant the seed of change because Liger has exposed us to many experiences so that we can set our goal and our vision. For those students whose not in Liger, they never get the chance like we do so they might not even have a goal for their future. In fact, this is not just a problem in Cambodia it is actually a problem for the whole world. Therefore, the International Labor Organization(ILO) work to improve this problem by providing soft skill to students from high schools to colleagues. As a really great opportunity, the Liger Leadership Academy get to be a part of this process. For instance, we help the ILO to make the training more culturally appropriate and help them to enroll in the training to four high schools and three universities in Cambodia. The training is called “Vision Setting and Professional Development” which has a goal to help students – especially girl – to get an idea and set a clear goal for their own development and their future. The module that we’re enrolling will allow them to look deep into their self, create their own path to their future, and develop their own strategy to reach their goals.

With all students having a clear goal for their future and a strategy to achieve them, they will have a successful life which will then allow our country to grow at a really fast rate. If the seeds of gender equality keep growing, I believe that it will turn this country into a country where everybody has the same right, same opportunities, and the same resources regardless of their gender. This is how I change Cambodia, and this is the change I wish to see in the world!

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Future Food

Name that one thing that all human needed to survive, of course, food! Where are food come from? Well, agriculture is where most of our food came from. We grow a variety of food using soil and water. But as the population growing rapidly, we don’t have enough of those resources to do this old farming method. So what can we do? Well, we can instead of using soil, use a system called Hydroponic. Hydroponic is an agricultural system using sponge/perlite as growing median and water as the nutrition source. Unlike the traditional agriculture where we need a large space of land to farm, hydroponic is a system where we can install it in such a small space such as wall etc.

 

So basically we mix the water in our reservoir with nutrition solution, and as the water flows through the system, the plant will observe the nutrition and water to grow itself. Once the water flows through the whole raising bed, it flows back straight to the reservoir and ready to reuse again in the system. By growing produce in hydroponics, we can save both land and water which are really essential for our growing population.

 

So in an exploration called Future Food, we’re working on getting one of this new technique running so that we can supply the product to the main kitchen and for the senior cohort. In a group of eight students, I am working as a 3D designer for the project. So for any project, we need a clear plan on how things going look and how things going with each so I designed a 3D model of the whole system using a software called Inventor. One of the biggest challenges I face during this process is finding the exact measurement for all the parts in the system. The thing is that I started working on this project without any actual parts to measure, so I have to look through all over the internet for those measurements which take so much time. This challenge gave me a good practice in my researching skill, which is a really good opportunity to improve.

The front view of the wall in Inventor
Right/Top view