Category: Years

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English Literacy: Happiness

In English Literacy, we had happiness as our theme. We read articles about happiness, learned what makes us happy, what doesn’t make us happy, how to be happy, and many other happiness-related things. A lot of poetry was also involved. We learned two new forms of happiness which were the Found poem form and the Golden Shovel poem form. Near the end of the round, we had to write poems. We could choose to write either of the two new poem forms we learned. I chose, or at least tried, to write a golden shovel form. The line I choose is from a song called “falling in reverse” by EDEN. The reason for that is because the song is so much different from any that I’ve listened to. It’s like a message and I really like it. So here’s my golden shovel poem talking about happiness. Enjoy the poem!

Line: “Don’t let the monsters inside your head become your fears.”

“Hollow Oxygen”

Stars fade and become forgotten in a matter of time, they don’t.

For flowers to prosper and flourish, its world had let.

 Every night, they come, the

whisperers of anxiety, you call them monsters.

Come out and sprout, don’t hide inside.

There is nothing that’ll make the sky fall in front of your

very eyes. It’s all in your head.

You come out. And with one deep breath, you look at them. In less than a second, you realize that nothing, but thin, empty spaces of air they’ve become.

It was then that you knew, you can always overcome your

demons. You look at the moon, it tells you, you are not afraid of your fears.

Don’t let the monsters in your head become your fears.

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STEMgineering: A Project for Government School Students – Changing Cambodia (2018-2019)

Cambodia in the past few years, from my perspective, has developed so much. The economy has gotten better, education has improved, and more Cambodians have access to the online world. What I’ve been seeing a lot of and really like is Cambodia and its education involving more STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math). There have been more STEM festivals and events, giving the opportunity to many people and students to not only learn, but also share. It’s basically a chance for people to put up projects related to either any of the STEM categories for other people to see – a fair as I’d call it.

When a STEM fair takes place, schools that are not too far from it sometimes take the opportunity to send their students there when they have available transportation. That’s great, but what about the schools that don’t or can’t afford transportation or schools that are too far? Not a lot of government schools actually send their students to STEM fairs due to multiple reasons like some already mentioned, so their students are missing out on a lot of great opportunities to learn. The majority of Cambodian children go to government schools, but they, especially those in rural areas, don’t get to learn a lot of STEM. Shouldn’t all schools in Cambodia deserve the chance to learn STEM? A step towards solving that problem was taken in the fourth exploration of my second year at Liger. That exploration was STEMgineering.

Credits: Josh Lowry, our school’s photographer.

The goal of this seven-week project was to get students in government schools more involved in STEM, but it was emphasized on engineering in this exploration. The way we decided to work towards that was to create small, fun projects to show to the students. Those projects would have instructions, in both English and Khmer, on how to make something that is engineering-related. There were things we needed to keep in mind however. The main thing was that we needed to make sure the materials needed to make the product of each small project are Cambodian-friendly which means that it should be very easy to find and get anywhere in the country. Our target students were those between 3rd and 7th grade, those who weren’t too young nor old.

The first two weeks of this project, we spent time on learning engineering before we could make small projects about engineering. We learned about the basics, including but not limited to simple machines and the design process. We split into groups for the first time to try out instructions from a website called Instructables, a website made for people to make and share instructions for making different things. Part of our main goal was to upload the instructions we were going to make onto there. Because it’s such a great resource for STEM projects and other things, we wanted Cambodians to use it too, but the only problem was language. There were barely, or even no, Instructables that were in Khmer, thus our instructions were going to be written in both English and Khmer. We then split up into teams, brainstormed on what product to write instructions for, and started making the products. From 15 students into 5 teams of 3.

My team, after a time of thoughtful and fruitful discussion and brainstorming, decided to make a shooter, a simple, little gadget that can shoot things. And the first time we thought about it, safety was one thing we were concerned with, but we still chose it because we prioritized excitement and engagement above all. We wanted the kids to learn while also having fun, so to do that, we needed to make the workshop as exciting as possible, to get engagement, making them want to take part and falling into the trap of learning. After making a few prototypes of our shooter, we started writing instructions and making more shooters. While that was happening, we also came up with new designs for the shooter and that was because we wanted the kids to get creative as well, decide how they wanted their shooter to look while using the ones we made as models. Writing instructions took the longest because we needed to take pictures, translate it into Khmer, upload it onto Instructables, and print them out for workshops. After all of those things, we were ready to present them to kids in government schools.

To present the projects we created, we picked and went to different schools in Phnom Penh. Each workshop took around 2 hours to complete. The first thing we did when we got to a school was split the students into groups according to the number of projects and started the workshop. The five projects our teams had come up with, finally mentioning, were the PVC pipe trash bin, the popsicle bridge, the slingshot car, the shooter and the mini Ferris wheel. Some projects finished earlier than others and some finished way later. During workshops, we answered the students’ questions and taught them little engineering facts, too.

Me helping two of the students at Bambujaya during the workshop. Credits: Josh Lowry

The first trip was to a private school called Bambujaya. Despite it not being a government school, we still did a workshop there because Liger has done many projects with them in the past and we wanted to expose the students there to STEM, too. Our plans ended up differing due to the fact that the students were very young. We did not do the PVC pipe trash bin project because it wasn’t suitable for them and there were times during the workshop when we needed to get them to engage because they got shy. But apart from that, everything went smoothly and was a success. It made me very happy to see them happy, gaining joy from playing with their creations.

Credits: The facilitator of this exploration, Jakub Kukielka.

The second trip was to a government school. We did the workshop with around 60 fifth-graders and it went almost how we wanted it to. Some teams finished too early and some finished a bit too late with their projects, so that was one of the things we could’ve done better; time-management. The other challenges we faced included managing the whole group of students, communicating with them, and making sure everybody learned. It was my first time leading such many people in an activity and it was quite the task for me. My teammates helped students when they got stuck, answered their questions, and took turns deciding and helping them use tools. We had a lot of fun doing leading the workshop. In spite of all the challenges, the smiles they had when they finished their products made us smile. It was a very rewarding experience to introduce and teach them an almost completely new subject to them. Is this the type of joy teachers get at school? To change peoples’ lives? I’d say this trip was another success.

The STEMgineering exploration was one that was very fun to be a part of and one that was very successful. It helped me understand one of the many problems with the current curriculum of Cambodian government schools and made me think in ways I had never done before. Not only that, but it also created change in the lives of the students of the schools that we went to. To hear laughter and see joy in the faces of the students that took part in the workshops created by us Liger students was an experience that I’ll never forget. I hope that I will get the chance to be part of another exploration like this one again in the future because I immensely enjoyed being a change-maker and temporary teacher.

If you want to make a shooter or any of the things the teams did, you can do so here.

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Math: Percentages

You’re walking in the mall and you’re trying to find a thick hoodie because you have a trip to the arctic next week. Some of the shops you’ve passed did sell hoodies, but they didn’t have what you wanted and the price didn’t match the quality either. You look to your right and spot a hoodie you like. It costs $25, but you only have $20. You’re about​ leave, but you see a sign that says “Special Offer: All is 25% Off!”. Now, you actually might be able to afford the jacket and avoid 3 more hours of walking and searching for another hoodie in another store in this gigantic mall. But how much is 25% off? How much is the hoodie now? And how much will you have left?

So the price of the hoodie without the discount is 25$. The discount is 25% off, so we need to find 25% of 25$. Then will you be able to figure out how much is left and how much the hoodie costs with the discount. 100% of the hoodie’s price is 25$, so 100/100 = 25$. 25% of 25$ isn’t known yet, but we know that 25% = 25/100 just like the 100%. To find 25% of 25$, just basically take 25$ times 25/100. We also know that 25/100 = 25 ÷ 100. This can be done using many different methods. Here is the one I’m using:

25 (the price) x 25 (the discount %) = 625 ÷ 100 = 6.25$ (25% of 25$)

Now we know that 25% of 25$ is 6.25$. All we need to do now is find the new price and then will we know if we can buy the hoodie or not. 6.25$ is just the discount. The new price is the difference of the normal price subtracted by the discount. So it’s done like: 

25$ - 6.25% = 18.75$

The price of the hoodie now is 18.75$. You have 20$. You have just enough! Well lucky you. How much will you have left after buying the hoodie? I’ll leave that one for you to figure out. Just simple subtraction.

And that about sums up what we did in round 4 of math. We learned about percentages and to write a portfolio about it, I chose to create this short problem! I learned a lot about percentages as well as enjoyed it. It’s really fun to learn about, doing problems like these and it’ll make figuring out discounts (and solve other real life problems) much easier. The next time you visit a place that sells something you like and has a discount, you know how to figure it out! Thanks for reading!

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Physical Science: Red Cabbage Indicator – Lab Report

Directions, the following were done chronologically:

    • We measured 20 milliliters of the following, each in different cups:
      • Lemon juice
      • Vinegar
      • Sprite
      • Water
      • A water-and-toothpaste solution
      • A water-and-baking-soda solution
      • Bleach
    • A small amount of red cabbage indicator was added into each of the cups
    • The lemon juice was poured into the bleach
    • The baking soda solution was mixed with the vinegar
    • The sprite was poured into the toothpaste solution

Report/Response:

*The following image was used as the pH scale for the indicator

Source: https://i1.wp.com/www.compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Making-a-Red-Cabbage-pH-Indicator.png

Using a dropper, my teammate squished and a few drops of red cabbage juice fell into the first cup which contained lemon juice. The color change that took place was what me and my teammates expected. The lemon juice went from yellow to pinkish red – the color of a peach – meaning that it was acidic. We used the pH scale above to identify the acidity of the lemon juice and everyone agreed that the level of acidity was somewhere between 1 and 2, so it was really acidic. This process was repeated for the remaining cups, below are the color changes and pH levels:

  • The vinegar turned pink and had a pH level of 2; acidic.
  • The sprite turned light purple and had a pH level of 3; acidic.
  • The water didn’t really change color, it turned into a very light purple. It had a pH level somewhere around 7; it was balanced.
  • The toothpaste-and-water solution changed from a very light teal into a darker type of teal, so we agreed that it had a pH level of 11; it definitely had base.
  • The baking-soda-and-water solution turned teal similar to the toothpaste-and-water solution, but it slightly lighter. It had a pH of 10; it had base, too.
  • The last one was the cup of bleach. It didn’t change much. It was still transparent, but in terms of color, it got more yellow; it turned into a very light yellow. My team met and discussed. We agreed that the bleach probably had a pH level that was between 11 and 12; it had a lot of base.

After finally identifying the pH levels of all the seven cups, we took the indicated cup of lemon juice and poured it into the cup of indicated bleach. The result was surprising to me, the color of the solution was similar to the bleach’s color, but slightly darker and it became warm. My team didn’t expect it, in any case of acids and bases, to become warm, but it did. The indicated baking-soda-water-and solution was then poured into the cup of indicated vinegar. Again, the reaction was surprising, the solution turned from pink and teal into purple and it exploded a tiny bit. The tiny explosion, or rather burst, was what was surprising. Three cups were left. We took the indicated cup of sprite and poured it into the toothpaste-and-water solution. Because the past two mixes surprised, we expected there to also be something new, but there didn’t seem to be any sort of noticeable and weird reaction. The solution just turned from light purple and teal to pink.

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Physical Science: Rock Candy Experiment – Lab Report

Directions (What we did):

    • We measured 100 ml of hot liquid water in a beaker.
    • About 350 g of sugar was put in the hot water.
    • We then stirred the water until the sugar dissolved – until the water became a slightly thick solution.
    • A drop of red food coloring was added to the solution, although this was optional.
    • The solution was poured into a cup.
    • A stick was fastened in the middle, not touching the bottom, and was then left to rest and cool.
    • The same process was repeated, but a fleck of Kool Aid powder was incorporated into the solution.

Report/Response:

Question: How does a sugar solution turn into rock candy?

*This is a hypothesis, everything said below is probable to be disproved. 

Homemade Rock Candy - A Delicious Science Experiment :: YummyMummyClub.ca
Source: https://www.yummymummyclub.ca/sites/default/files/Rock_Candy_Finished2.jpg

The supposed result of the Rock Candy experiment is explanatory given its name; candy that’s firm as to be licked rather than broken or masticated. In usual cases of solutions, molecules of the solute disintegrate in the process of dissolving as to be attracted and bonded with molecules of the solvent, comprising the solution. The case of rock candy is probably homogeneous, sugar is the solute and liquid water is the solvent. In the experiment, the solution was slightly thick. It might’ve been caused by caramelization of the sugar, when sugar turns somewhat fluid, due to the hot liquid water when it dissolved. A thought is that when the solution rests and cools, the compounds of water and sugar has a chance of coming into contact with the item fixed in the middle of the cup (stick, string, etc.) and when it does, the compounds get stuck there. Gradually, more compounds run into the stick and the sugar molecules stack up, slowly forming sugar crystals. The probability of this same process happening to the walls of the object containing the solution is not unlikely either. So after a period of time, the surface of the solution – or the whole solution – might be crystallized.

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Technology/Multimedia: Coding (Python)

Coding, a way to communicate to computers, there are many languages of coding – just like there are many human languages. One of all the many different and complicated languages of computer communication is called Python and that’s what we learned about in round 3 of Technology and Multimedia.

A lesson always has some sort of introduction. First thing was the rules. I’ve learnt coding in another a language before – JavaScript, so some of the basic rules of coding in Python were similar and it was easier for me to understand some of the things our facilitator explained. We started learning coding in Python with the basics which included variables and the “print” function. Variables are basically blocks that have value or text. And the print function does what the name says, it tells the computer to print things. We spent most of our first week on Codeacademy, a great website to learn coding in a lot of different languages. Every class would start with a lesson or discussion and we would be off to do practices or exercises.

As most lessons go, they get more advanced or rather ‘head-hurting’. Whenever a new concept is introduced to me in coding, it’s whether or not I understand it even the slightest bit the first time that will determine the level of confusion I would face. I don’t know why or how it works, but it does and that’s one of the things that’s hard about coding. If I don’t understand something the first time, it becomes even more confusing when I try to understand it. For the rest of the round, we kept on learning new and more complicated concepts which included loops, if statements, boolean, comparison, the break function, and the continue function. With more concepts and knowledge of Python coding came more exercises and activities.

Learning about the concepts isn’t as hard as putting them to use when you need to or fixing your code when you get an error you didn’t expect. Sometimes, you might’ve broken a simple syntax rule and sometimes, you might’ve used a function wrong, but hey we learn. One of the things we had to do was write a program that checks whether or not a number is prime and man did that activity take me a lot of brain power. The thing about coding is that there are a lot of ways to make a program work or write a program and when you find a way, you need to make sure that there are absolutely no errors. One error in a program’s code can affect the whole program. Sometimes when you think your program works, you’re really proud of yourself, but then you do another test and find out that it actually doesn’t. But one of the best things about coding is when you try really hard to fix a program with errors and you take a deep breath and run a test to find out that it really works – in the way that it’s supposed to and without any errors. That is what I love about coding. It makes you somewhat happy.

That was coding in Python. All I have to say is that I loved learning about it, doing exercises related to it, becoming frustrated when my code doesn’t work, and becoming really happy when I fix it. This round of technology and multimedia was yet again, another great round. Lastly, I thank you for reading this!

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English Literacy: The Search for Identity

“Round 3, what will we see? What will it be?” Pan said at the end of round 2, excited to finally uncover what round 3 has for all the junior students. “New round, new theme. And that theme is…” said Hannah, the Junior Literacy Facilitator. Pan sat quietly as he waited for the sentence to finish. “The theme for round 3 is The Search for Identity!”.

The Search for Identity talked mainly, considering it’s the theme, about what defines a person’s identity or something along the path of that. Throughout our journey of literacy, we read, we wrote, we listened, we spoke, and we worked as a class. The main things we did, to me, were novel studies and where-I’m-from poems.

The poems came first. A where-I’m-from poem is a type of poem that tells the reader a little bit about the author and where they’re from. In a where-I’m-from poem, there are childhood memories of the author, good and bad, people they miss, details about their past, and feelings of what it’s like to be home. I like to think of them as artistic and ambiguous poems that make you feel farm and cosy as if you’re at home. Everyone in class had to write one and so we did. Click on the link at the end of this post to access my poem in picture form! I really enjoyed looking back at some of my oldest memories while writing the poem and I realized that a lot have changed since when I was younger. Note: I made a mistake saying that the date was 2018. It’s supposed to be 2019.

Halfway through the round, we split into groups and each group was assigned a novel to read about and discuss. There were four possible novels that could be assigned to a group which were The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton, Looking for Alaska by John Green, Wonder by R. J. Palacio and Monster by Walter Dean Myers. My group’s novel was Looking for Alaska, a story about teenage life, love, heartbreak, and friends. One day every week for the rest of the round, we met in groups and discussed while also taking the time outside of class to read the required number of pages in the book. At the end of the round, each team had to put up a presentation for the whole class about the book they read. Looking for Alaska was a book that I will never forget. Ever. I love everything about the book. The plot, the characters, just the entire story. It’s really sad. I didn’t expect the ending at all. That’s all I can give you about the book because I don’t want to spoil anything for those who want to read it

Summing up, this round was another unique and wonderful round. I shall wait for the next round to come and see what secrets it’ll unfold in front of my very eyes. In other words, I look forward to the following rounds and hope that they’ll be as great as, or even greater than, this round. Thank you for reading!

Link for my where-I’m-from poem: http://bit.ly/2JzXj8C

P.S. I made a mistake writing the date at the end. It is supposed to be 16 Jan. 2019, but instead, it says 2018.

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Physical Science: The Black Snake Experiment – Lab Report

Everything set up by my team was the first attempt, we followed the directions given. A type of soft-looking bright gray to dark gray foam-like substance began forming at the edges of the mixture on the sand as the fire made by the match spread over it. It felt cotton-soft and would break into smaller parts when squished, also leaving blackish dust, like charcoal, on the hand. The formation of the substance began slow when the match was lit, but progressed throughout the hour of the experiment nevertheless. At times of the experiment, more alcohol was pumped onto the bowl’s top into the sand and mixture, and that seemed to have affected the substance’s formation speed, so the speed of the formation might’ve depended on the amount of alcohol there was. From my observation and perspective, sugar that was in the mixture might’ve been the leading cause of the formation of the soft substance as the composition of the mixture was mainly comprised of sugar, 20 grams to be exact, and the substance seemed to only form on edges of the sugar. In the first endeavor, the formation of the substance slowed down drastically halfway through the experiment even though alcohol was pumped onto the bowl constantly and soaking the mixture and sand, thus another bowl was set up with the help of our facilitator. My team’s endeavor in the experiment resulted in a short and wide pillar consisted of the substance and was slightly tilted in a direction. The change of speed formation might’ve been because there wasn’t a sufficient or sustainable-enough amount of alcohol soaked inside the sand before the experiment began. The supposed result or outcome other teams got was a serpent-like structure composed of the soft substance. The second endeavor, despite the first one, ended in a success as the formation speed was noticeably faster because there was more alcohol and by the time the hour of the experiment elapsed, there was the serpent-like structure as expected. It was then that I saw why it was called the way it was, “The Black Snake” because of the result.

Explanation:

For the past few weeks in Physical Science, we learned about Carbon and then we decided to do an experiment called the Black Snake! Below are some more details of the experiment if you are wondering. The paragraph above is a report from my perspective when doing the experiment.

Directions: From what I remember, the following was done chronologically:

    • We first measured a 25-gram mixture of 20 grams of sugar and 5 grams of baking soda (sodium carbonate).
    • Sand was poured into an aluminum-foil-covered bowl and on top of the sand, in the middle, came the mixture.
    • The sand was then soaked thoroughly with alcohol.
    • A match was then lighted and put in the middle of the mixture in the bowl.
    • From there, the experiment began.

Thank you for reading! Oh, here are some more photos from the experiment:

The start of the first experiment, it didn’t go that far, but it was an attempt.

 

The start of the second experiment. The picture at the start of the post was what this became.
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Outdoor Leadership

I thought that I’d camped in the wild before, but that had occurred to me as false when this exploration came to be in round 3. The students from this exploration last round had talked about their trips repeatedly after they ended, about how amazing they were. And that made everyone else want to be in this exploration.

I, too, was excited for my turn to be in the exploration. What I had expected was lots and lots of trips, but there was more to it than that, than just going on trips and having fun. There was more. And that all changed and became clearer when I took part in the exploration of Outdoor Leadership.

The first week of exploration, we went over the guidelines. One of the guidelines said “Play hard, play well, play fair, and play safe,” and that was one thing I kept in mind throughout the exploration. Then we got an introduction to Outdoor Leadership, the exploration, and started on lessons.

Two out of three main goals of the exploration as said by our facilitators were “We want you to involve yourselves more with nature and just appreciate what it has to offer,” (reworded by me). I was particularly happy about those two goals because I did love nature and two out of three goals being ones that aimed for us to love it even more made me – put in the simplest way – happy or happier. The other goal was to learn how to survive in nature or rather, how to become an outdoor leader, which is why this exploration is called “Outdoor Leadership”.

At times in the exploration, we did an activity called “Sit n’ Spot” which is almost exactly what the name says: you sit, you spot, you think, and you write. This was basically an opportunity to observe and sort of appreciate nature and write about it.

The lessons in class started off with simple things about walking outdoors and camping, then got longer and more informational as the exploration went on which I was very thankful for but, not too keen about, and I did acknowledge that they played important and essential roles in camping trips.

Some lessons talked about the three basic needs when going outdoors which were food, shelter, water, and some lessons talked about being cautious when trekking out in the wild and some others taught us how to build a fire. We covered a lot. At the end of the second week was when we talked about our first trip which would happen on Wednesday the week after.

A beautiful park in Kampong Speu called Kirirom was where we were headed on our first trip. We spent two days of learning there with an additional one of sitting on the bus, traveling. One of the things we learned before the trip really started was how to ‘go to the bathroom’ when camping. The goal for that trip, I think, was just for us to get used to walking long distances and practice some of the skills we learned in class. And that’s what we did, we walked, or more precisely, trekked, a total of about 30 kilometers, which is about 30,000 steps; 20 kilometers on the first day and 10 on the second.

The first day, we went to a place called “The Heaven Cliff”. It was a cliff high up the mountain and was known for its view. On the way up there, we got lost a few times, but we did our best to bear with each other and I was proud of that. The mountain was covered with trees, nature, and it was just beautiful.

The cliff was beautiful and the view was amazing and we saw lots of cool birds, too, mostly hornbills. We camped at the cliff for the night and left the morning after. We also did a Sit n’ Spot there before we left.

Our second campsite for the second day was a big lake all the way back down the mountain. The area was surrounded with big tall pine trees and it looked more beautiful than the last campsite in my opinion. We woke up with a beautiful sunrise at the lake and then we left. This was a great first trip and I had lots of fun and learned a lot, too. Two weeks later, we would go on another trip which was harder and really tested the knowledge and skills we learned in class.

In class two weeks before our second trip started, we learned about the more complicated lessons and things about being outdoors which included scary medical scenarios and how to save a person’s life. We were headed to Mondulkiri and we would spend 2 days of learning there and two additional days on the bus. Our one and only campsite, the one we would sleep at every night, was located at Resource Development International (RDI), a non-profit organization.

The first day, we trekked to two waterfalls and walked through a grassland which took us about 25 kilometers and it was extremely harder than last trip because of the steep and rocky terrain. We were going up and down mountains and in forests.

The second day, we went to another waterfall and it was just as hard as the last two. There, we learned how to make a soup made by the Pnong (indigenous) people of Mondulkiri. It was called the “Proung” soup and it was made entirely out of vegetables, hence very healthy. The way it was cooked was interesting, too; it was cooked over a fire in bamboo.

Lunch was amazing. And even though the soup didn’t look appealing, it tasted really good. We had the soup along with fish and pork cooked over the same fire.

We had Sit n’ Spots and activities throughout the trip. The activities included saving a person’s life and building a shelter. That second day, we walked about 15 kilometers. So we walked about 40 kilometers in total. The moment this trip started, I knew it was going to be my favorite because our walks were longer and the nature there was just beautiful, despite the difficulties and terrain.

Before this exploration started, I had thought that I knew what it was like to camp in the wild, but really, it had been false until this exploration. Even though we didn’t really camp at the waterfalls we went to or in the forests, I could tell how hard it was just by trekking through them which was extremely hard.

Throughout the exploration, I feel like I’ve changed a lot in terms of being an outdoor leader. Even though I didn’t enjoy the long lessons in class, I was grateful that they were taught to me because they were very important and could probably save a person’s life one day, if I ever decide to go out trekking with friend. Those lessons made the trips we went on way much easier than it would’ve been without them. At times when we, including me, were eating on trips, people changed from “I haven’t gotten food yet” to “Have you gotten food yet?” which is, to me, a big change. Being an outdoor leader is about sticking and working together in the wild, making sure everyone is okay, thinking about others first, and bearing with each other when we got lost or faced a problem. It’s also about knowing how to survive in the wild.

I was a bit sad when we went on the two trips because sometimes, I saw trash everywhere which was harming the environment and no one was doing anything about it. But we aren’t like those people who just walk over them without doing anything, we picked up the trash and made the place better, saving the place.

To all those out there, please, be careful of where you throw your trash because it can have some serious effects on the environment. Well, that’s it from me about this exploration. I had lots of fun as well as learned a lot and I loved being in Outdoor Leadership. Also being an outdoor leader. Lastly, I wish the people of Outdoor Leadership good luck, it’ll be fun and exciting!

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Traditional Foods

Cuisine Wat Damnak, Siem Reap. Credits to our lovely facilitator, Cindy Liu.

Second round, second exploration and that exploration is Traditional Foods. I’ve always loved food. To me, it is one of the best things in life. There have been times where I loved food so much to the point where I wanted to become a chef, so this exploration was really exciting for me. Evidently enough, the goal of this exploration was to learn about Khmer Traditional Food. But the main focus of learning about it was to find stories and specialties.

In first few weeks, we discussed and identified what traditional food is, looked at restaurants in Cambodia that cooks Khmer traditional food, and split into groups to send those restaurants an email about a visit, so that we can learn from them. There were many restaurants, about 6, but the restaurant I sent an email to was called Malis. Not all of the restaurants replied to everyone’s emails, but the restaurants that did were Mahob, Cuisine Wat Damnak, and The Sugar Palm. These restaurants were all in Siem Reap and they all cooked Cambodian/Traditional Khmer Food which was, as mentioned, our focus. Later on in the exploration, we would go on a four-day trip to Siem Reap to go to those restaurants.

Splitting into three groups that were based off photography, videography, and journalism was what we did after. I was in the journalism team with 3 other students and the rest were either in the photo team or the video team. The duty of each team is already told in their name; the photo team is responsible for photos, video team’s the same, but with videos, and the journalism team’s responsible for writing down information we gather. After splitting into groups, we needed to learn about photography and videography to prepare for the trip that we would go on two weeks after. Then the journalism team decided to set up a blog for our exploration. Then came the trip.

A stall in Skun, Kampong Cham. Credits: Leza Sorn

Four days to spend in Siem Reap. What would we do? Go to the restaurants and gather stories and information related Cambodian or Traditional Khmer Food of course. The first day, on our way to Siem Reap, we stopped at two places, A famous market in Kampong Cham, Skun and a shop on the side of the road that sold bamboo sticky rice. Stopping at those places gave us the chance to collect information and interview people. When we finally got to Siem Reap, we spent the evening going to a market near our hotel, Psar Krom. We split into groups and went to different parts of the market. My team interviewed a steamed pork bun seller and a porridge seller, both of the sellers each had their own uniqueness.

Mahob Restaurant. Credits: Wathna Sao

The next day, we went to a place that made rice noodles, a famous dish in Cambodia. Then we went to our first restaurant, Mahob. The name “Mahob” translates into food in Khmer which to me, indicates that it cooks Khmer food. We met with the owner who is also the head chef, got a tour of the kitchen and restaurant and interviewed the sous chef. The restaurant was quite nice and I could see its adaptation of Cambodian tradition.

In front of Cuisine Wat Damnak. Credits: Phearum Sorn

Second to last day, third day, we spent our morning going to our second restaurant, Cuisine Wat Damnak. This restaurant is really different from the many restaurants that cook Cambodian/ Traditional Khmer Food because it’s run by a French Chef! And I was inspired because the way they cooked their food was really unique and cool. Since I was in the journalism team, I was responsible for writing about the places we went to and at the end of this blog, you can find the link to our blog which contains our products! Like the previous restaurant, we got a tour of the restaurant as well as the kitchen and we interviewed the chef. We spent the other half of the day at the hotel completing our duties, organizing our photos, videos, notes, and work on our products.

Inside of The Sugar Palm. Credits: Dyna Chhem

Our last day, fourth day, we went to our last restaurant, The Sugar Palm. This restaurant was also unique and different. It was run by a Cambodian woman who spent most of her life in New Zealand. When she came back to Cambodia, she found her love for Cambodian/Traditional Khmer Food and opened a restaurant. She used her family recipe for the food that they cooked which the public likes. She showed us the restaurant, kitchen, how to make one of their famous dishes, Amok and we got to interview her. Then we spent the half of the day traveling back to school.

The last few weeks of the exploration was spent finishing up our products. I really enjoyed being a part of this exploration because it taught me things that I didn’t know before, exposed me to a different part of the world, made me love my country’s food, and just inspired me. My perspective of one thing changed, too and that one thing is that Cambodian food and Traditional Khmer Food is two separate things, not one. What’s the difference you may ask? If you want to find out, then go visit our exploration’s blog and find the article about Cuisine Wat Damnak written by me! I included that in the Cuisine Wat Damnak article because the chef, specifically, was the one that changed my perspective and inspired me! Summing up, this was a great exploration and I had a lot of fun being in it and I also hope to be in another like this one again.

Exploration Blog: http://khmercuisine.ligeracademyblog.org

Note: The articles I wrote are titled “A Market of Diversity and Significance” (It’s about Skun) and “There aren’t 1000 ways to breathe, but there are 1000 ways to eat.” (It’s about Cuisine Wat Damnak). Thank you!