Author: portfoliostudent

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Women in STEM – Patricia Bath Life

In physic, we learned so many laws and heard so many names of scientists who created those laws. However, most of them are male, it is not that there are no female scientists but they are just essentially unknown.  So, the project that we have been doing for about two weeks is called Women in STEM.  Every student was given a list of female scientists and we have to choose one of them and research about their profile, invention, achievements, and obstacles they had faced while growing up. 

The female scientist I chose to research about named Patricia Bath, and here is her life’s story and my opinion about women in STEM. 

Patricia Bath

Is it possible to restore sight for those who have blind for 30 years? The answer is yes.

A physician whose specialty is ophthalmology (the study of eyes and their disease) named Patricia Bath, has proved that. But how?

Patricia Bath was born on November 4, 1942, Harlem, New York. As a kid, she wants to be a(n) physician, inventor, and scientist. When Bath gets to try with microscope set, she knew she has a love for math and science. One of Bath’s dream is to become a doctor, not a nurse but doctor even though, becoming a nurse was something her friend wants her to be.

However, at school, Bath was a gifted student, for her teacher, and was purchased to explore her strengths. Bath grew up in a community where “Black were excluded from numerous medical school and medical society. Also, it is still a struggle because “My family did not possess the funds to send me to medical school”. Bath biggest obstacles are sexism, racism, and relative poverty, these are things she faced as a young girl growing up in Harlem.       

At the age of 16, Bath attends a cancer research workshop sponsored by National Science Foundation. Her work got impressed by Dr. Robert Bernard, the program head, and based on the publicity she received, Bath earned the Mademoiselle magazine Merit Award in 1960. Over time, after graduation, Bath went to Hunter College and earned bachelor’s degree in 1964. She then attends Howard University in 1998 and worked as an internship at Harlem Hospital. The following year, Bath began pursuing a fellowship, funding, in ophthalmology at Columbia University. She discovered that Africans Americans were twice as likely to suffer from blindness than other patients and eight times more likely to develop glaucoma (disease of the eye that can cause a person to lose their sight). Bath’s research led her to form a community ophthalmology system, which increases the amount of eye care given to those who were unable to afford treatment.

In 1986, Bath invented Laserphaco Probe, improving treatment for cataract patients. She got her patent, the legal rights to make an invention for particular numbers of years, of the device in 1988 and become the first African American female doctor to receive a medical patent. It took her about five years to complete the research and testing to make it work. Bath was able to restore sight for those who have blind for more than 30 years.

Patricia Bath is a change agent, her invention is a technique and concept for cataract surgery, laserphaco. With the support from family and hard work, Bath was able to achieve her dream.

“Even though there are no women in that field [physician] but that should not be an obstacle to prevent you from achieving that [your goal] ”, she said. “I realize that when I achieve these things [award] it helps what other women and other people of color what black women can do”.

In my opinion, I think that women’s academic opinion was not respected that time, especially if they are people with color. This stereotype keeps repeating, no matter how educated you are if you are a girl or women, things will not work out the way you expect it to be. For Patricia Bath, after she invented the laserphaco, people did get interested in her work until it made her earn the Merit Award. So, from this aspect, it reminds me of a phrase that says, “no one cares, unless you are beautiful, died, rich/famous. However, there are still people who encouraged her throughout her lifetime, such as her teacher, parents, and her mentor, Dr, Robert Bernard. Last but not least, I think it is very important to spotlight female scientist because they are the heart of everything, without them the world will be different. They all are inspirational and role model for everybody. In addition, I would say that the field of science and technology in the future will full of “white men” and women, will no longer get self-confidence in pursuing their dream again if they are interested in science and/or technology.

Works Cited

“Changing the Face of Medicine | Patricia E. Bath.” U.S. National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 3 June 2015, cfmedicine.nlm.nih.gov/physicians/biography_26.html.

“Culture Shifting Pictures & Stories: Dr. Patricia Era Bath.” YouTube, YouTube, 3 Dec. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=L0SRe5mjMQo.

“Patricia Bath.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 19 Jan. 2018, www.biography.com/people/patricia-bath-21038525.

“Patricia Bath.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patricia_Bath.

“Patricia Bath Invented the Laserphaco Probe.” YouTube, YouTube, 26 Oct. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKAhWWIaHtU.

TimeMagazine. “Patricia Bath On Being The First Person To Invent & Demonstrate Laserphaco Cataract Surgery | TIME.” YouTube, YouTube, 30 Oct. 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcE_QMTBNW4.

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7th Human Rights Soccer Competition

On December, 10th 2017, Liger was a part of 7th Human Rights Soccer Competition healed in Phnom Penh. There were many competitions between Liger and many other schools around Cambodia. There are both girls and boys teams from Liger, who participated in the game. I was in team B, for Liger’s senior girls, U19. It was a tough game for us. That was because we got less time to practice as a who group and the team from other school looks a lot bigger than us. However, two out of our four games were tied and the other two we lost. Furthermore, our Liger’s senior girls team A was amazing. They got 2nd place for U19 girls.

I felt really great that I was part of this competition even though, my team’s result was not what we want. Everyone did an incredible job out there; we support, we cheer and look after each other very well. 

 

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The Jungle Book ISPP

On December, 1st  2017, most Ligers’ students went to ISPP (International School of Phnom Penh) to watch a play called “The Jungle Book”, acted by ISPP  students. The play was incredible.  As I enter the theater, I felt a little cold and loud noise of the guests that were there. The preparation of the play was like a real jungle. After I found my seat, a few minutes later the MC explained, “The Jungle Book” is the story about an abandoned boy named Mowgli, who got raised by a black panther called Bagheera. Mowgli was brought to one wolves’ family to look after. Nine years later, when Mowgli is ten, the wolves’ family decided to send Mowgli back to the man village because of they afraid that he will be in danger because of a jungle tiger. Mowgli wants to stay in the Jungle, but for his safety, he must leave. Bagheera was the one who brings Mowgli back and along the way, they faced many challenges, but at the end, Mowgli understood why he needed to leave the jungle and was back to the village safely.

I really love the play, it was one of the best play I have watched so far. I wish I could see it again.

Here is a short clip that I made about my highlight of The Jungle Book.    

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Meditation and Yoga – Vagabond Temple

On November, 16th 2017 there are four students from Liger who went to a four days meditation and yoga retreat program at Vagabond Temple, Kep. I was one of those students as well. The place was fabulous, tranquil, is the word I would describe it.   Everyday everyone followed the daily schedule of the program, but on the weekend it was more like a relaxing day. At Vagabond Temple the food is vegetarian, but I am fine with that.

For my experience, I learned a lot in those four days. I would never know that meditation is that hard. It required pretty much for the individual. Closing our eyes with legs crossed is not what it is about and it doesn’t matter that much. What’s essential in doing meditation is our mind. It is very hard for me to keep things that are always in my brain aside. But from one day to another, I got so much better. I would say that meditation is more difficult than yoga, for me, because yoga works a lot with our physical. But meditation, which works a lot more internal and the feeling is harder. It is very difficult to manipulate yourself to try not to think about anything and just relax your brain. It took me a while to focus and try to meditate. However, we also have a lot of fun. The people at Vagabond Temple are very amiable, even though they never know us before but they treated us like we’ve known each other for years. In addition, many classes of the program had to make our connection close and closer. One of the activity was us, Cambodian, teaching those foreigners some Khmer words and Khmer traditional dance. The smiles on their faces really make us want to stay there longer.

Anyways, those days were amazing. We got to talk to different people around the world, try new food, and know more about the program for how it important to our life. What has surprised us was that we are the only Cambodians who decided to takes those classes and we did not expect that at all.

Link to Vagabond Temple website: http://www.vagabondtemple.com/

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Investigation

Do ants eat only sweets? The answer is no. One of my expertise class is called investigation. We can do an experiment about anything that we want to know more about, it can be about science or other things. My experiment this year was about ants. I want to know that do ants only got attracted to only sweets stuff or also other things. 

So,  for my experiment, I have put many different types of food at the ant’s place and then come and check them 2-3 times per day. 

This is my investigation report on my experiment.

Link:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Pf9-Hr5S5nSvPNSNNfM1k6RxG745j8zLK1Ina3b7Xi8/edit

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My One and Only Night | Halloween Creative Story

Short clip below. 

Something in the closet was making a strange noise, so I opened the door and I saw a black cat was jumping out of the closet and to my face. “Ahhhhh!”, I yelled as loud as I can. My body are shaking from the toes to my head. The evil cat try to bite my neck but luckily I grab it out. After the cat was out of my face, I ran as fast as I can no matter what. I heard the pounding footstep following me as I ran down the stair. The wicked “meow” grew louder and louder. The hideous cat kept chasing me. As I open the door to the yard, I realized….I was trapped. There weren’t just a cat, but villainous looking cats, almost 100 of them. They were looking at me with their creepy eyes. I was panicking. Their “meows” was so bloodcurdling enough to make my brain explode. I started to “meow” back, louder, more high pitched than them.

One by one they all started to explode with brains and stuff coming out. Right now, the dead body of the cats are everywhere, it smells gross and I can’t even think about anything to do. My eyes opened wide, all I see was many black cats exploding their brains. I try to find something to defend myself as some of them have not die yet, coming toward me. I grabbed a bunch of rocks that was inside a flower pot right next to me and throw at them but nothing is worth it, “Nooooo!!!”, I yelled, but I still keep throwing. It has turned out that those rocks are coming back to me and even into my mouth whenever I screamed. Unfortunately, I have swallowed one rock into my stomach. But that is good thing because all of the sudden,those evil cats has turned to fairies and fly out of my house, and the floor that was full of brains was also cleaned. I got a big smile on my face after everything ended. I looked at the clock and it was 6:00am, I was shocked and can’t believe that those cats has ruin my whole night.

Finally, my parents and my sibling came down stair. I felt strange because everyone was smiling. As I about to walk up to them to explain what had happened to me, my dad said “EVERYTHING WAS A PRANK BABY. It is not real, I made everything up and also it just that you got problem with your eyes and your ears!”. “And even this whole Halloween story was not real.” If you get what I mean, readers!       

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To Spray or Not to Spray

What do you do when insects are disturbing you? At Liger we use insecticides to spray at our campus, once every two weeks. However, this year there is an exploration called To Spray Or Not To Spray. Basically, what we want to know for Liger is that should we continue to spray or stop, and what we have found out is that, Liger will be continue to use insecticide but with cautions and regulations, because those substances gives a harmful effect to organism and Environment, but if we don’t use them those insects will irk the students and we could get diseases from them as well. Until we have come up with this conclusion the 12 of us in the exploration did a lot of research by going out to field trips such as, agrochemicals shops, farmers farm, CEDAC, which is an organization that work with farmer to help them to become an organic farmers, and Kratie, to learn more about pesticide, as well as the chemicals that is commonly used and its effects.

Coming up with a conclusion about spraying chemicals in the campus is not only our final products. We have decided to create a magazine for people, and our target audiences are Ligers’ students. Each of has wrote an article about something that we have learned in class and that they are passion about. My article is called Banned or Band, it talks about the banned chemicals that have been banned in Cambodia and also in the other countries.

Here is the link to our magazine.

https://www.lucidpress.com/documents/edit/21b9160d-68f3-4d87-b558-2aefefa7a134 

 

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SAT Preparation

In this expertise what we are doing is to prepare ourselves for the SAT that we will be taking in the future for college. Now it is not the time where we have to be rush at everything because most of the students at Liger still have about one year and a half more to get themselves ready. However, it is the time where we need to know what are the things that we need more time to practice, both math and English, so that we know what exactly what our goals are so that we could focus on those stuff more than others. For practicing SAT we do it online, by using one program called Khan Academy. This program got everything that we needed into to do well when the SAT comes. We are not only learn and practice everything by ourselves, we also have our math and literacy facilitator that could help us with anything that we want them to. In addition, every senior had already took the practice SAT, just to see what it looks like. The score that they got from it means nothing at all, it just to show how much that could improve from their score and also the stuff that they need more time to work on. Next year on Mach they all will take the practice SAT once again just to see how much improvement have they made as well as some more things to work on.

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Body weight exercise

This year one of my favorite After School Extension (ASE) is called body weight. Basically, what we are doing is working out our body with many different types of exercise, for example: crunches, plank, mountain climbing, push up, launches, burpie and more. The reason I join this is because of my schedule during the week. I didn’t get to play any sport until weekend and sometimes I don’t even get to. So for the whole week at least I should workout some time because it is good for my health as well as helping me and my muscle to get stronger so that I can play many sports well. All of those exercises was hard for me at first and the next day after I did them my body hurt everywhere, but as I do it many times I have used to it and not really get that much pain anymore. I am still keep joining this activity because I always have a sense I will get the result that I want by doing it.

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Khmer Literacy

Most of the lesson in Khmer class this year are pretty big, meaning that it require students to work in small teams more than individual. Those lesson are: how to write a book, Pchum Ben ceremony, how to do research, and how to write a speech.

Personally, Khmer literacy and English literacy got so many similarities as well as connections, because they are both literacy so many lessons are the same it just that sometimes we could understand them in different ways.