GIG1005: SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT
Name: MUHAMMAD NOR SOFWAN BIN MOHD NOR AZMAN
Matric No.: KIG190509 (17202861/1)
Program Name: UM/Kinrara TinkerCAD Mentoring Program
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Blog Entry #1 (4 April 2021)
The Sokju Team consisting of 8 members whom of which are;
- Sofwan Azman (myself) (top left)
- Hazmie Faiz Zohdee (top level 2nd from the left)
- Treechawith Wiklei (top level 3rd from the left)
- Muhammad Nur Iman (bottom level 2nd from the left)
- Yusri Najmi (bottom level 1st from the left)
- Irfan (top level 4th from the left)
- Aiman (bottom level 3rd from the left)
- Imran (bottom level 4th from the left)
began our first brainstorming and discussion session via Google Meet.
Initially, we planned on teaching basic physics concepts using hands-on teaching experience for the students of a Secondary School. Our first proposal was done by each one of the members and filled in the details of how and what we planned on teaching the students.
Blog Entry #2 (5 April 2021)
I myself am glad to volunteer to be the leader/representative of the group, because I feel as though I have the capability of doing so with prior experiences and also experiences with teaching other individuals, particularly youngers ones.
Therefore, I have requested the work of the other group members in completing their own part of a proposal for which I have distributed the work via a Google Docs link. The proposal entails the idea that our group, which is 'Group 11' has selected a community and are prepared to approach them on the basis of the acceptance of said proposal by our GIG1005 course lecturer; Dr Norhafizan.
Blog Entry #3 (7 April 2021)
The requirements of GIG1005 is mainly based around these few terms;
- The proposed activities should be able to meet a total of 32 hours.
- Since we are Mechanical Engineering students, the department has required for us to involve concepts of science and technology in our activities
- Since the timeframe of the course is within PKP in Malaysia, we must be able to conduct said activities via an online platform.
At first glance, the requirements seem doable, but in my opinion, the 1st and 3rd term is quite challenging and bothersome. This will be mostly referred to the 1st term. Why? Because, the calculation of hours of service is requesting 2 things from our affect of studies. The first is decreasing the level of sincerity and requiring a robotic and analytical approach to the activities in a much more "we'll need to increase this activity's hour count in order to achieve the requirement. Meanwhile in reality the objective can already be met with a much more shorter amount of time. Second, is since it has to be online, there can only be so much time people are able to gather online to discuss and focus for a timeframe of 32 hours.
Anyways, requirements are requirements, so we've had to work with the terms and have started to think of how we'll be able to distribute the time to completer 32 hours of service and engagement.
Halfway through completing the proposal, we realized that if we were to contact a school , we'll have to ask permission from multiple people, especially the education board. This we found to be a challenge, and instead of working through the challenge, we have opted for a different community, which was a Tahfiz School.
Blog Entry #4 (11 April 2021)
Close to the completion of the proposal, we found that our time requirement of 32 hours is still not enough. This was early in the process and most of us still haven't been able to understand the concept of what can be counted as hours of engagement, therefore we counted the hours as hours of teaching most of the time.
This issue itself, has our group thinking of wanting to add another Tahfiz, of another community to approach. The one tahfiz has us at 16 hours and we thought that by adding another tahfiz, we'd simply need to add and copy/paste the hours once execute both similarly.
Once we've all agreed and the proposal was complete, I've submitted the proposal and all of us hoped that the proposal would be accepted.
Blog Entry #5 (21 April 2021)
I have been called into a meeting with Dr. Norhafizan and the other team leaders and received the news that our proposal has been accepted. Happy with the news, and sharing it with my group, we now await the response of the two tahfiz and see whether or not they'll give us the greenlight.
Blog Entry #6 (29 April 2021)
Bad news. The tahfiz has cancelled on us due to them having made other plans. Though I am upset and a bit angry because this will put us back on square one. The possibility of this happening was realistic and must be taken into account in the first place. I learned here that we must distribute our chances much more instead of putting all our eggs in a couple of baskets per say.
Blog Entry #7 (1 May 2021)
We now need help. I have concluded that we are stuck without a community to engage with, therefore, I've personally asked for help from the lecturer. Notifying him of our situation and with great relief, he has been able to reach out to another community with the condition that our approach of engagement must be in the STEM field.
Blog Entry #8 (5 May 2021)
The community that we will work with involves a two part process, teaching them 3D CAD modelling and the other being Circuitry using CAD modelling. It involves a Secondary school; SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara and Form 2 and Form 3 students in conjunction with their RBT subject.
The two parts of engagement will not need to be taught by our group only. The first part will be made responsible by another group represented by Adam Haziq. I have had to contact him in one on one sessions discussing what the school requires.
The sessions have concluded that the school requires a few things
- Teaching the students how to model in CAD.
- Teaching the students in accordance to the syllabus of a Form 2 and 3 RBT subject.
- Solve an issue the school has with regards to their aquaponic system.
- Indirectly prepare the students for a STEM competition in the future.
A few things worry me straight away. One of which is the ability of my team members in teaching and engaging the students throughout a process of teaching. Next, Not having enough knowledge ourselves, to be able to teach the students. Lastly, being able to communicate the solution to their issue and translate the solution via their students.
Blog Entry #9 (8 May 2021)
I am now able to contact the teacher representing the school; Pn Norsilawati, a RBT teacher of the school. She will be in charge of helping my group in accumulating a group of students which are interested in involving themselves with our project and also coordinating the meetings between us as UM students and also the SMK Seksyen 4 Bandar Kinrara community.
She has been able to communicate to me the strength of their school and their aquaponic system. From which, I have tasked my group to understand their system and start thinking of how to solve their issue. The issue source being random blackouts in the area of the school.
Blog Entry #10 (9 May 2021)
Our group began discussions to brainstorm how to solve the issue of the school. sketching ideas and beginning a syllabus and schedule of teaching the students.
Once we've all been able to understand the issues and components of the program, I have found that this is the best method of solid groupwork which is thorough understanding of the issue for each group member and everyone being able to explain the issue themselves. Thus, in the end, teamwork will be much smoother and cohesive.
Blog Entry #11 (20 May 2021)
Now, we must be able to complete our syllabus and our schedule of teaching the students. I have been able to distribute the work our team members are to complete their own section of teaching. Then, I've formatted a schedule that will work for 32 hours of engagement via fulfillment of 2 objectives for the community (14 hours per objective), interacting and communicating via WhatsApp (4 hours).
Blog Entry #12 (30 May 2021)
Pn. Norsilawati has been able to form a group of 15 students whom of which will sacrifice their time and energy to learn from us and of which I am truly grateful for.
Blog Entry #13 (2 June 2021)
A WhatsApp group has been created solely for the purposes of our program and has our group, the students and the teachers that are involved;
This has kickstarted the hours of engagement and the completion of 4 hours of WhatsApp interaction starting then on.
Our first initiative was forming a sound schedule for the student and ourselves, to do so, we must send out a survey for the students to answer for the time that they are free. The survey was tasked to Hazmie Faiz to whom I am especially grateful to be working with due to his work ethic and ability to very reliable.
The survey was sent to the students and the final schedule is as follows;
Blog Entry #14 (4 June 2021)
Final preparations are on going by this time and our final meeting has us meeting with Dr. Norhafizan in order to discuss the objectives of the school, our objectives and whether or not our schedule has met 32 hours of engagement.
The lecturer, in the meeting seemed to have been happy with our objectives and our engagement hours. Greenlighting the project further, he has reminded us to ensure that what we teach is in line with the school's syllabus by sharing links to the schools Form 2 and 3 RBT text books.
The inclusion and assimilation of the schools syllabus with that of our own has us on the brink of slight dismemberment and delusion, though we have been able to persevere and complete a seemingly cohesive, concise and thorough syllabus.
Blog Entry #15 (7 June 2021)
This was the last day. Preparations have been completed. All's left is a run through of the program and simulation of what might go wrong or what might happen differently. All of which we have discussed and played through our last meeting.
I've recapped the duties of everyone before, during and after each day's session and with the multiple mistakes that we have made. Our corrections and notice of such mistakes were best done before the actual program so that we aren't embarrassed of our own carelessness on the day of the program. Better to make mistakes now, feel embarrassed now, then to blunder, fail and embarrass ourselves during the 4 days of the activities.
Now, all's left is to wait and pray. lol.
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