reflection on 7-7-2011

Reflection on 7-7-2011


Ivy Young (4T)

Today is the last day that we have our chemistry lesson before the presentation. We made jelly during lesson and it was fun. Through this we learnt about the effects of enzymatic activities on jelly. We also tried to add different types of enzymes into cloudy apple juice to make it clear We started preparing tomorrow’s presentation and we were all working well with our group members. Our academic mentors were nice and they guided us throughout our lessons. We will definitely miss them as we will be having a different academic mentor next week. After dinner, we played games in the park near our dormitory. We went to a cinema for a movie. It was a tiring but great day and we all enjoyed it. We are all looking forward to the presentation day.

Kathy Yu (4P)

We had lots of fun in our chemistry lessons today. We had lots of chances for doing experiments here and through these, we had learnt to cooperate with our laboratory partners. We did experiments on titrations today which we had previously learnt in our school and therefore the experiments were quite easy for us to handle, because some of our classmates had broken laboratory apparatus such as burettes and measuring cylinders during lessons .Luckily, the academic mentors were so nice that they told us not to worry about it. We really need to say thank you to them and all the teachers for their hard work in preparing the lessons and teaching us with patience.

At night, we went to a cinema to watch a movie. It was really a unique experience to have the chance to go to a local cinema. The advertisements before the starting of the movie lasted for a longer time as compared to those in Hong Kong. Although we were very tired after the long distance travelled, we enjoyed the movie very much and we look forward to listening to the presentations of our classmates tomorrow.

Debby Chau (4S)

Today we had our last day of the mathematics course as we have to do a presentation on what we have learnt during our course, therefore Gerard, the Senior Residential Assistant, gave us a lecture on what was expected of us in our presentation. He also reminded us on some basic presentation skills.

After this, we headed off to learn about game theories. We played a game called “Red vs Blue”. We had to anticipate our opponents’ moves, so that we can choose the correct colour to win. The game was very exciting and we hoped that we could play this game again. We also played a game about trading, which was supposed to reflect real business trade. We learnt about how the stock market worked. We are all looking forward to the presentation tomorrow.

Hilda Fung (4S)

This morning, we had a brief introduction on presentation skills given by Mr. Gerard Hughes. He gave us an overall picture of what we should do for our presentations. We started to feel more comfortable about tomorrow’s presentation. We were also impressed by Mr. Hughs because he did not use ant script during his talk, which was different from what we usually do for our presentations at school.

In today’s maths lesson, we played games as an introduction to the topic “Game Theory”. We were very involved in the game and we participated in it actively.

After lunch, we learned about the Taylor Series to solve complex differential equations. Not all of us could fully understand the concept of differentiation, so the professor explained to us in detail.

Today was our last maths lesson. We were thankful for Mr. Nazmus Haq’s teaching and his patience with us.

Isa Hung (4T)

This is our fourth day at Imperial College, attending Mathematics course. We started get used to our daily routine, and the challenging Mathematics lessons. However, it was our last day of having our Math course. We will be swapping to Chemistry next week and will have our presentations on different topics tomorrow.

In the morning, we attended a talk on presentation skills after breakfast. Through the talk, we knew more about our course leaders’ expectations on our projects, and some reminders on presentation skills such as how to interact with the audience and not to read from scripts. We learnt that presentations are not just script-readings, but rather to share with others what we learnt and be familiar with our topics.

After that, we had the Game Theory section. At the beginning of the lesson, we started off with a game called ‘Blue and Red’. Through this game, we found that games are not just for entertainment, they do combine tactics and luck. Mathematics is much more fun than we thought, after all.

After lunch, as usual, we continued our lessons. The topic was mathematical rainbow. This lesson was quite a hard one as this was a brand new topic which we hadn’t learnt before. We learnt that we should ask the course leaders and mentors if we have any doubts on a solution.

The evening programme was fantastic. We walked to the cinema and watched a movie called ‘Larry Crowne’. In the movie, Larry got fired from his company and decided to go back to college to elevate his qualification. He persisted and finally found his ideal goal, and successfully achieved it. In reality, we should learn from Larry. When facing despairing situations, we should be persistent and have a positive attitude to overcome it.

We all returned to our halls late. Though we were extremely tired, we were blissful.

Karen Ho (4T)

In the morning, we went to listen to a talk on presentation skills. It prepared us for tomorrow’s presentation. We learnt that presentations are not just reading from scripts, but rather to have interactions with the audience. We hope that through this presentation, we can share with others things that we have learnt.

After that, we had a lesson on game theory. This was a very interesting section as we learnt the theories through playing games. We found that mathematics is not only a compulsory subject we take in school, but it could also be applied to our daily lives, and it is definitely useful.

After lunch, we continued our mathematics lesson on mathematical rainbow. It was quite a difficult lesson as the contents weren’t covered in school previously. We learnt that when facing challenges, we should take the initiative to approach the course leaders and mentors, so that we could find a way to solve the problem.

Lastly, we went off campus at night to the cinema, to enjoy a movie called ‘ Larry Crowne’. As there was no subtitle, all of us tried our best to listen to the conversations so that we could understand the movie. This improved our English listening skills.

Finally, the day was ended, tired but fruitful.

Natalie So (4T)

Today’s chemistry lesson was about complex ion and titration. This tirtration was very special to us because such titration was not the same as the acid-base titration we normally did at school. The aim of the titration we carried out was to find out the amount of copper in a 2-pence UK coin.

We learned a lot from this experiment. We learned how to strive for accuracy in experiments. Moreover, we learned to cooperate with our team members to carry out the experiment successfully and smoothly. Also, we had the chance to have a hand-on experience on special chemicals and some dangerous reactions.

All in all, today is a very meaningful day and we learned a lot of new knowledge about chemistry.

Rosanna Li (4S)

This is our 4th day at Imperial College. In the morning, all of us attended a lecture about presentation skills. This is vital for us because on Friday, we are going to present our project about the different aspects of chemistry that we have learnt during this eek. We learnt that the three main rules of making a presentation is that firstly, we should tell the audiences what you are about to present. Secondly, we have to present our content in great detail. Thirdly, we need to summarise our presentation. These three steps are really useful because in the future we can use this knowledge learnt when we present our projects on other subjects.

After the lecture, we had our last chemistry lesson where we did some experiments on mixing jellies with fruit juice to test for the effect of different pH on enzymes. We also learnt more about factors affecting the action of enzymes.

We really treasure this day because this was our last lesson with Dr. Melanie and our tutors, Jayne and Barnaby. We had a great time with them and we took some pictures with them, too. In the evening, we all went out to the cinema to watch a really nice movie.

This was a fruitful and enjoyable week. Hope that our presentation tomorrow can run smoothly and successfully.