reflection on 6-7-2011

Reflection on 6-7-2011


Tiffany Yue (4S)

We had another fruitful day! In our chemistry lessons, we learnt the skills of spectroscopy and complex chemistry. In the afternoon, we attended a lecture on the Mathematics of Juggling. It inspired us to learn to see ordinary things at a different angle.

At night, we had a special meal at Grafunkel, a local restaurant. We all ordered pasta and it was delicious. However, we feel a little home-sick when we saw plateful of cheese and bacons for the many dinners we already had. We missed our mother’s vegetables and various delicious Chinese dishes.

We walked to the Hyde Park after dinner. We were all so excited and overwhelmed. We took photos at the Park without noticing the time and our mentor’s instructions. So it ended up everyone waiting for us. When we realized this, we were really sorry. We had learnt our lesson. We must pay full attention to our mentors.

Stephanie Wong (4U)

It is the third day of our chemistry course. In the morning, we learnt the technique of spectroscopy. By analyzing the aspirin we made yesterday, we compared the components of aspirin we made to the pure sample. We had a taste of undergraduate chemistry an this increased our interest in studying chemistry. We have learnt to be careful in handling dangerous chemicals and trained our analytical skills when utilizing IR data read graphs.

On our second part, we used titration to determine the copper content of coins. We learnt to listen closely to instructions in order to complete the complicated procedures and avoid accident. It also amazed us to find out even tedious things such as juggling have hidden mathematical rules behind them. The lecture “The mathematics of Juggling: provoked us to think and see things at different angles.

As for dinner today, we had something different—we went out for dinner at a local restaurant to have a taste of some local cuisines. The meal was really great and we enjoyed the food and experience a lot.

We went for a walk at the Hyde Park after dinner. There we saw the memorial Queen Victoria built for her deceased husband. We really loved the scenes there, especially the extensive lawn. We look forward to another outing next week.

Bhavna (4T)

We continued learning about iterations and fractals from the previous lesson today. However, today we focused on patterns and designs, how repeating a single design infinitely can create beautiful patterns such as Heighway’s Dragon Curve, Koch’s Coastline and the Barnsley Fern. We also learnt how to use the iterative function system where we choose functions to create a particular fractal.

After a pleasant and interesting afternoon, we headed out to London city to have dinner at a Japanese place, Wagamama. The food there was excellent and so was the ambiance. However, it tasted different from what we expected and are used to. We believe that English elements have been added to the Japanese food which made it taste quite unique.

Crystal Choi (4S)

Today we had a deeper understanding of code breaking. As compared to the first lesson we had on the first day, this time we applied more math knowledge. We asked a lot of questions and were more active than our last lesson. Our mentors explained the difficult questions to us patiently; we even sacrificed some of our lunch tome to listen to us. We applied one of the habits of mind to our learning – ‘Questioning and posing problems.’

We went out for dinner and we visited the Hyde Park. The park was full of ancient and grad architecture. The park was extremely big, and we ran on the huge lawn. Some of our classmates even rolled down the slope. We also passed the Albert Memorial as well as the Royal Albert Hall.

We found out that the traffic in London was very busy on our way to the restaurant. There were cars coming from different sides of the road; we needed our mentors to guide us to look at the directions of the cars. Moreover, we needed to pay attention to cars coming out from small roads along the main road. We saw groups of people riding bicycle. They were very environmentally friendly as they choose not to take buses. This can help reduce the carbon emission in their country.

Kelly Lam (4A)

We had a fruitful day today. After breakfast and academic registration, we had our math lesson. The lesson was about code breaking and number theory. During the lesson, we encountered a lot of difficult math problem and we nearly gave up. However, under the encouragement of our mentors, we picked up courage and solved the problems step-by-step and eventually got to the final solution. We learnt that persistence is really important in every aspect of our lives. If we persist, nothing could hinder us. We all had a great sense of satisfaction when we eventually solved the challenging problems. We learnt about the Chinese Remainder Theorem and Fermat’s Little Theorem which can be used to decrypt some code. We enjoyed discussing about the problems in order to stimulate our minds to brainstorm some new ideas.

After lunch, we continued our lesson with Phil in the computer Lab. This time, we were not using Excel. Instead, Phil introduced his new invention to us—a new system called the Iterated Function System. We never knew that functions can turn out to be snowflakes, dragons and even ferns! We were all amazed and we tried out different shapes by altering the functions. It was indeed—learning is fun. Mathematics can be fun!

Cherry Kwok (4L)

In the evening, we attended a lecture on juggling. We learnt that there is a mathematical theory behind juggling. The guest speaker, Dr. Colin Wright, approached the seemingly difficult question in humorous ways rather than just calculating velocities and gravity. He even demonstrated juggling himself! He was able to juggle 5 balls at a time with different fancy ways. This is definitely an enjoyable and fun way to learn!

For something special, we had our evening meal off campus for the first time. We had a chance to visit a local restaurant. Most of us tried out the famous British snack—Fish and Chips. It was very delicious and crispy. Although I personally wouldn’t want to have too much deep-fried food, I really loved the Fish and Chips.

After meal, we visited the Kensington Garden along with the famous Kensington Palace to end our day nicely. The Kensington Garden gave us a good chance to relax. The fresh air and the walk refreshed us a lot after such a busy day. Although its garden was under reconstruction, the Kensington Palace was certainly very beautiful. The architectures were very classical and artistic.

Today has been a busy yet joyful day and all of us look forward to the coming days.

Pasty Lau (4S)

Today is our third day at Imperial College. We are having Chemistry lessons in the past few days. During the first Chemistry section, we studied about the use of spectroscopy in substances, such as salicylic acid, aspirin made by ourselves and the oil of wintergreen. As the apparatus used are very expensive, all of us were really careful while carrying out the Nuclear Magnetic resonance. These extremely expensive machines are all automatic and are used to analyze chemicals. After the Chemistry lessons, we sat for a lecture about the mathematics of juggling. The lecture was really interesting and none of us has ever thought that juggling includes any mathematical elements.

Then, we went for dinner in a Japanese restaurant. Many of us were really happy as we finally have rice for dinner. After dinner, we went for a walk in the Hyde Park with our mentors. There is a piece of huge lawn in the park, which is almost impossible to find in Hong Kong. Some of our teammates rolled down the slope. It was a great moment and we will remember it forever.

Tammy Law (4T)

Today is our third day in Imperial College. We had Chemistry lessons as usual. This time, we went to the Chemistry Department to look at the NMR machines which costs £400,000. We also an experience to use the infra-red machines to analyze the results of the chemicals that we had made. Through this, we had an overview of the daily work that scientists do.

In the afternoon, we had an interesting guest lecture, “The Mathematics of Juggling” by an experienced mathematician, Colin Wright. It was very entertaining. We got to know many interesting facts about the art of juggling.

In the evening, we went to dine in a Japanese restaurant. We were all very excited because it was the first time for us to eat rice since we arrived in the UK. We had a great time dining outside. Today was a fun day and we are pleasantly expecting the next meal out.