Project Finals Results

Alas! The much-anticipated results are finally out! I must say I am very satisfied and happy with my results. I obtained an A with a score of 10/15. It feels extremely good to know that all your hard work has finally paid off. It is also a comfort to know that I have already successfully gotten an A1 for my "Independent Studies" (IS) even before adding in any ACE points to be keyed in for IDS next week. The many hours invested in my project has finally reaped huge rewards.

Of course this would not have been possible without my mentor, Mr. Tan Kai Yuan. Though he is young, he has proved himself to be one of the best mentors and teachers in his field. He is self-sacrificial and spent precious time with my group. There was once we rehearsed our project presentation till 9:30p.m. in school. However, he did not mind at all. He only wanted the best for his students and mentees. The next day, we continued rehearsing at 7a.m. He is also very hardworking. I remember smsing him once at slightly past 2a.m. and he replied me within the next minute. I am sure there are teachers who stay up this late too. These teachers all deserve our admiration and heartfelt thanks!

Mr. Tan is a teacher that I will always have fond memories of. I will always remember the lunch and meals we had together, the trip to Starbucks we made after school as well as the many meals we skipped just to do our project. I have had the pleasure of working with him for the past 2 years for my projects. However, I plan to take a break from Category 1 next year. Firstly, Category 1 is really too exhausting for me. Next year is a very busy and challenging year. I don't think I can put in as much time as I did this year. Secondly, I think I should try my hands on other categories.

In conclusion, this year's project had been a really fruitful one. I have enjoyed everything about it. Thank you Mr. Tan!

End of All Tests and YOG Track Finals on Saturday

Today marked the end of all my tests. For the past 2-3 weeks I have been studying really very hard. I hope I can do well for all my tests. However, as usual, I think I won't do too well for my humanities. I am getting a little nervous as I am getting my Biology test paper back tomorrow. According to my Biology teacher Mr. Tan Kai Yuan, we did not do very well. I hope that I can get at least a B3 but that seems a little impossible as the average in Aphelion is C5. Anyway, wish me luck!

On a brighter note, I am going to watch the YOG track and field finals on Saturday at Bishan stadium. Thank GOD I live near there and not somewhere too far in the East or West. Actually Bishan is only 2 MRT stops from my home in Yio Chu Kang. I am sure it is going to be an exciting and fun-filled day. I would really like to thank the school for buying me this ticket. I am sure the experience gained will prove to be useful in my future competitions.

Project Finals

Project Finals will be held this Friday. Honestly, I am quite nervous. I have worked so hard for this project making many sacrifices. I hope all my efforts will pay off. I will forever remember the many afternoons in the biology labs, the endless research we had to do till late in the night, the script that we wrote only on the morning of the Semi-Finals at 3a.m. and last but not least, the satisfied faces of my group mates when we successfully collected our experiment results.

I must say I have really learnt a lot of things from my project. It is not just the scientific knowledge I have acquired but the values. Yes, the values. Values of what you may ask. It is the values of teamwork, understanding and trust that I have learnt.

I feel that I need to learn to be less demanding. Being the leader of the group, I expect a lot from my group mates. I expect work to be of the highest quality and to be on time. I am trying my best to learn. Maybe I should not be a group leader next year. That way I will be able to understand how it feels like to be under someone else.

I got to go study my Geography. I promise to post something soon. Wish me luck for my project finals!

My Project Update

Well, today I went to the biology labs to check out on my plants and guess what, my plants have grown quite nicely! I bet you must be thinking what is the big deal about my plants but let me tell you something. My plants are grown in MS medium contained in an agar plate. My plants seem quite tall and healthy, all ready for harvesting. I will then conduct some tests on them to determine the difference in Vitamin C and chlorophyll content. So far, I have successfully proved that plants inoculated with plant-beneficial fungi lead to augmented Vitamin C production. However, I have yet to do the same for chlorophyll. Doing so will definitely benefit people in the world with a lack of both Vitamin C and chlorophyll in their diet, both which are essential in our diet.

Here are some pictures of my plants

Sichuan Hosting

On Thursday, a group of 10-12 year old Sichuan students came to our school. We brought them to the heritage centre before taking them around the school.

On Friday, we met up with them again before they joined us for lessons. Luckily, two of our lessons were in Chinese, so they could understand what the teacher was saying. They were very friendly and approachable. Though they were a little shy at first, they soon opened up to us. During recess and lunch, we took them down to the canteen for their meals. My buddy ate hainanese chicken rice for recess and beef steak for lunch.

After lunch, we brought them to take a look at our EP3s. I will see them on Monday again. I guess I will miss my buddy a bit. Maybe I should get her a gift. What do you think?

My first day of Term 3

The "long" holidays which did not seem really like a holiday (since I was going back to school almost every alternate day) has finally ended. The first day of Term 3 was both a mixture of joy and despair for me.

In the morning, I dragged my tired body up the stairs to my classroom where I met some of my classmates. We were delighted at being finally able to see each other after about one month. We had a great time telling each other about our experiences during the holidays. The lucky and rich ones went for holidays while poor old me had to stay in Singapore. I am not complaining. I love Singapore and I am very happy to be here during the June holidays instead of being overseas.

The day started off with Malay. However, the lesson seemed to pass quite quickly as it was relatively fun. We had recess before proceeding to the science lab for our first Biology lesson. Our teacher was Mr. Tan Kai Yuan. To many people in the class, he is a "stranger teacher". However to a small minority of us, he is a familiar face. He is my mentor! He was my mentor last year and I realised that he is quite a fun to be with teacher. He is young and so we can communicate easily with him. He uses some slang and teenage lingo so treat him just like our friend but with the expected respect. Back to the lesson, he gave us a brief introduction of himself. We were amazed at his brilliant powerpoint skills. We have never seen a powerpoint so well done before. As we proceeded on to do the practicals, I accidentally broke a beaker. $4 flew out of my pocket. There goes my "mee pok" for lunch. This is the first unlucky thing that happened.

After Biology, we had two free periods as our Maths teacher Miss. Tong was not able to teach us. We took the time to finish the Biology homework that Mr. Tan had given us to do which had to be handed up to him at the end of the day.

The last two periods were Language Arts. It has been a long time since we have seen Miss. Low and I swear she looks younger! (Ok I am half joking with the intention of getting more ACE points, but seriously Miss. Low looks younger with a full month's rest and free of stress. That is the truth by the way :) ). We went through some poetry and prose before we ended lessons.

I went for a quick bite in the canteen (remember I lost $4 earlier in the morning?). I then went to the staff room to submit my Geography Ace to Miss. Yap, before rushing to the Biology labs in the SRC by 2p.m. to meet my mentor before conducting experiments until six plus.

My experiment is very tedious. I have to count more than 80 seeds which are the size of a full stop! I am not exaggerating. They are seeds of the Arabdopsis thaliana plants. In the process of the experiment I burnt my finger with fire. This is the second unlucky thing that happened to me.

I guess today was not really so enjoyable after all.

Rainbow Death

America did not foresee
Green, pink, purple and other colors death potpourri!
Expecting others to pay a high price.
Now thinking twice?
Toll on the innocent and unborn.

Omnipotent and disregarding who will mourn.
Reflective about all the illness, birth defects and prematurely dead.
All the deceit continues to spread.
Nefariously America led astray -
Generations untold WILL pay -
Execrable effects of agent orange spray!