Tuesday 2 August 2011

Reflection on 28-7-2011


Joey Chu (4S)

It has been another busy day today. Patsy, Katherine and I were further amending our robot so it could carry out its function in “Meltdown”, which is an in-class competition between mentor groups with the help of our mentor, Aimie. Our robot was to cooperate with the two other robots in the group so communication was really important. However, everyone else in our group were boys and were much more skilled than us in building robots. This had made it more difficult for us to join in group discussions as well as coordinating. Luckily, one of our group mates, Ping-Ko was really nice to have helped and led us throughout the preparation for the competition along with Aimie.

In the afternoon, we started to prepare for our presentations tomorrow. We chose to talk about medical robots in addition to introducing our own robot. After the training in the past three weeks, we are now much more skilled and familiar with project making. We quickly did an outline and allocated our work, then search for information online. Within two hours, we have finished our PowerPoint as well as our script! All that was left behind was to practice our script several times and we hope we will do well tomorrow.

We had the STEM world 2011 cabaret at night. Our group was the last to go on stage so we were really nervous all the way when other performances were up. Actually, we considered our performance as the “most embarrassing 11 minutes” ever at first. We would not expect ourselves to be singing Do-Re-Mi and Spongebob Squarepants as well as the translated English version of Guangliang’s “Fairytale” at the age of 16/17. Our mentor, Leonard even dressed up as a woman and pretended to be Maria in the Sound of Music! Luckily, response from audience was quite good and they even sang along. Perhaps we would consider this a really special experience, and a good show!

Patsy Lau (4S)

During today’s lesson, we continued to build a robot to perform the melt down task. In this task, our robot must try to collect as much glow stick as possible within the time limit. As all three of us have not tried to build robots before, we found this task really tough and we needed a lot of help from our mentor. Luckily, our mentor was really kind and helped us a lot in building the robot, so the robot can be built successfully. We have learnt a lot while building the robot. We have learnt to be precise because when one screw is in wrong position the robot may not function properly. Moreover, we have learnt to be persistent and not to give up easily. If we give up easily when a mistake was made, we will never be able to finish the robot.

At night, we had a talent show. Although all the participants only have a few nights to rehearse, the performances are really interesting and wonderful. All of us enjoyed ourselves.
The four weeks trip almost comes to an end. This is a precious experience and I am sure that I will remember this forever!

Reflection on 27-7-2011


Ingrid Lai (4U)

We continued building our car this morning in the Engineering lesson. Cynthia, Seb and I worked as a team. We modified the design of the car since it could not run smoothly. We added some weight to our rear wheels by adding two more wheels on each side. During the process of making our car, we showed our team spirit by specialising the tasks. Seb worked with the rubber band and powered the car; Cynthia dealed with the decoration part; and I was responsible for testing the speed of the car. Finally, we had done it! We made a ‘Pepsi Car’ since the front part of the car was coloured with red and blue. We were all very glad to see our car racing successfully.
After lunch, we visited the Department of Materials. We saw various technological equipments. There was a large water tank testing the patterns of waves which impressed me a lot. We also saw some experiments involving how the properties of materials changes with alteration in temperature. The tour gave me an insight of what studying Engineering was all about in a university. I definitely enjoyed it so much.

reflection on 26-7-2011


Yammie Lam (4S)

Today we had our engineering lessons again. We were told to make a car that is powered by rubber bands and made of wood. We were designing for the whole morning from sketch and started to make it by cutting and drilling all by ourselves. It was the very first experience of us to use these equipments so it was really fantastic. After the lessons, we went to watch Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows. We had been looking forward to watching it since we came here one month ago. We were very excited while we are walking to the cinema. It was really awesome and thrilling. As there was no subtitle, we could focus more on the story and the actors more than when we were in Hong Kong. But still I think I will watch it again after I get back to Hong Kong. It was such a memorable night.

Cynthia Wong (4S)

I am studying Engineering this week. I have learnt more about Engineering, for example, there are about 80 kinds of Engineering in the world and it involves everything.

Yesterday we learned how to build a paper bridge in a most efficient way and today we have learned how to build our own car using different kinds of materials. In the morning, we were demonstrated a model car designed by the professor, then we had to think about the design of our own car and what materials we needed. It took us a long time to design a car that has the least fiction and can travel the longest distance. Although my drawing was not good, it was fun to design our own car.

After we did the paper work on designing, we had to do our design on the computer, using a software called ‘solid work’, which was specialized for engineering and building stuff. We had to divide our draft into different parts and make it in the computer, which is called ‘CAD design’. The software is so complicated that we spent a lot of time on knowing how to use it. But I have gained an experience on what actually engineer is doing every day.

Although our car was not finished, we were looking forward to seeing it. In the process of constructing the car, we had to cut the wood using the machine that an engineer uses, this gave us a chance to experience how Engineering works and let us think about whether we should choose studying Engineering or not.


Reflection on 25-7-2011

Debby Chau (4S)

Our last week in Imperial College started today. We met our new academic and pastoral mentors in the morning and we were all in different new mentor groups. I will be studying Haptics this week. We were introduced to the machine – THE NOVINT FALCON haptic device and learnt how to write Java programme.

Next in the evening, we played a team building game and through this we were more familiar with our new group mates. The aim of the game was to build the highest and most stable tower using spaghetti and jellybabies. As we had already played this game on the first week, we could use our past knowledge to assist our group. The mentors didn’t announce which group was the winner, but all of us enjoyed the game.

We are all looking forward to the rest of the week and hope we can meet more friends from different parts of the world. 

Maggie Yam (4S)

Today, we were all separated into different mentor groups since we have chosen different strands of subjects this week.

I am studying engineering and it’s really enjoyable. I understand why engineers study energy and how engineering is applied to the use of energy. Energy is being used everywhere, and we do use a lot of it, such as the telephone charger we use every day, lighting of households, heaters we use in winters, etc. Energy is really very useful to humans, however, the supply of energy can’t satisfy its demand. Therefore, engineers have to think of ways to generate electricity for household, with care of different aspects, which are affordability, sustainability and security. They have to design machines to minimize the cost of production, think of ways which last long, for example the burning of coal, is not sustainable because it will be used up. Lastly, countries have to ensure that their supply is capable to satisfy its demand, so that they won’t spend lots of money on purchasing energy from other countries. Energy saving is not just the job of engineers, but also related to our daily lives, so we have to use energy efficiently, such as switching off the electrical appliances after use, and using energy-saving appliances, etc.

After the lesson, we made paper bridges together with our group members. Paper is soft as we known, so we have to think of ways to make it strong so as to hold heavy objects. It is a challenging task for us and we did enjoy the process, we also made new friends. What an enjoyable day!

Monday 25 July 2011

Reflection on 24-7-2011


Joey Chu (4S)
                
We had a picnic in the Hyde Park today where we had our lunch and enjoyed ourselves playing sports the whole afternoon. We felt so relaxed being with our friends chilling out after a busy academic week. Also, I found this picnic an opportunity for me to do some sports games which I don’t usually get the chance to do in Hong Kong. I liked sitting on a large field of grass, which was really beautiful and I used to see it only in movies. There were different sports equipments provided and I chose to play volleyball with my friends. It reminded me of the times I had with my friends in the volleyball team at school.

When we were tired, we sat on the grass and chatted. We also sang and lay on the grass, enjoying the mild breeze and sunshine. I used to be really afraid of all insects, but when we were in another country following others’ cultures, I just didn’t find these insects really matter.
We will be starting another academic week tomorrow, the picnic we had today has really gave us the chance to refresh ourselves and prepare for the busy week coming. I don’t think I will be having a similar chance to relax myself when I get back to Hong Kong, I have really had a good time and will never forget this picnic we had today.

Patsy Lau (4S)

Today is Sunday, we didn’t have any lesson and went for picnic in Hyde Park. After chilling out a bit in the Queen’s lawn, we walked to the park. Today was a sunny day and it was quite enjoyable to sit on the lawn and have lunch with our friends. Although we have already been there for picnic two weeks ago, I still find this trip fun and interesting as we could have a chance to chat and play with our new friends. After having a sandwich, we started to play different sports games with our mentors, such as volleyball and football. After having some exercise, we played card games and lay on the grass to have a rest. We taught our mentor to play card games that people in UK didn’t know and he also told us more about the UK culture. I think that was a great opportunity for us to learn more about the foreign culture and I really treasure these experiences. Then, we chatted and sang some songs together and all of us enjoyed ourselves so much.

I think today’s experience was quite special as we don’t have many parks in Hong Kong where we can sit for a whole day to relax ourselves. This picnic also allowed us to know more about the living style of the British. People in Hong Kong usually go for shopping during weekends but people here love to go to parks and relax themselves with their families. This is quite different from Hong Kong. I think that having a picnic is really great and enjoyable. Hope that I still have a chance to go for picnic when I get back to Hong Kong!


Reflection on 23-7-2011


Katherine Lam (4A)

Today is Saturday and we did not have lessons. In the morning, we just chilled out in the Queen’s Lawn. After the mentors distributed our lunch at about 12, we set off for our off-campus activities.

We travelled to the London Eye by tube and had our lunch on the lawn beside it. Then we went to the London Aquarium. The aquarium was divided into several parts, such as animals in rainforest and animals in South Pole. We saw many kinds of marine creatures, some of which were rarely seen, such as sharks and penguins. The experience of seeing them was fantastic. It was so interesting to see the different structures and outlooks of the marine creatures and to understand the facts about their lives.
  
After going to the aquarium, we went to Harrods, where we met up with our school teacher for our evening activity. We watched the famous musical, Phantom of the Opera, in Her Majesty Theatre. We have heard about the musicals in theatres in London and have always wanted to watch them so we were very excited to have this chance. The actors and actresses sang very well and the musical was wonderful. We liked it so much that we could not stop singing the songs in the musical after watching it.
  
Today was really a happy day. Going to the London Aquarium and seeing the musical was definitely an unforgettable experience.

Ingrid Lai (4U)

It was time to ‘chill out’ after a week of hard work in forensic science. In the morning, we relaxed a bit at Queen’s Lawn. We chatted and played joyfully.

At noon, we took the Underground to Embankment station and went to the lawn beside the London Eye. We had a quick lunch there, then we went to the Aquarium just next to it. We were all very excited because we were going to see many different kinds of sea lives! We stayed there for three hours. In my opinion, I think the aquarium in Ocean Park in Hong Kong is better than that in London. The fish there in Ocean Park are more eye-catching and there are also more types of marine animals, such as seals and jellyfish. However, I still found the penguins in the Aquarium very cute when they were walking.
In the evening, we left the STEM World team and went to Piccadilly Circus with our school teacher. We had a lovely dinner- Korean cuisine. I had a stone pot of rice with beef. It was the most delicious and hottest food I had ever eaten since I was here in London!

Our excitement lifted to its climax when we went to Her Majesty’s Theatre and watched one of the most famous musicals in the world- ‘The Phantom of the Opera’. The performers were all very professional- from their singing skills to their facial expressions; and from their expressions in their voices to their involvement in the performance. I really enjoyed the night very much. This was the second time for me to see a musical in London. After tonight, I have become more interested in musicals and I hope I could have more chances of seeing more in the future!

Reflection on 22-7-2011


Yammie Lam (4S)

Today we were having a presentation. It was the first time that we presented in front of other international students. We were both excited and nervous. Before the presentation, I had the opportunity to go to the science museum to try with the medical simulation. It was about using key-hole to do surgery. Although it was only a 3D game, it was very fun. I learnt that doing a precise key-hole operation without harming the patient needed a lot of practices. It was a precious experience. If we had more time, I would want to have a second chance playing that. After the simulation, we continued to prepare for our presentation. It was the third time doing our presentation in Imperial College, but still, we were very anxious. Luckily, our presentation ran smoothly. We could not answer one of the questions the tutors asked but our mentor said that was okay. What a wonderful presentation day!

Cynthia Wong (4S)

Today was the last day of the academic week. It was the presentation day. Starting from the morning, we have been doing the preparation of our presentation. Our group worked on the topic of Cancer. Although cancer is a common disease among humans, not many people understand it well. When we first chose this topic, we thought that it would be very easy. However, when we continued to work it, we found that we didn’t actually know it well. This project gave us a chance to learn more about cancer.

    We had to do our presentation in front of all the stem-world students. This was a big challenge for us as we did not have any experience to present in front of so many foreigners and professors. On the other hand, it also gave us a chance to view other foreigners’ presentations. It impressed us a lot and increased our global competitiveness.



Friday 22 July 2011

Reflection on 21-7-2011


Debby Chau (4S)

Today in forensic science class, we had to make conclusion for our crime and report what we have found from the evidences given to the ‘court’. More critical evidences were provided, so we were one more step closer to our answer. We continued analyzing our evidences and the results satisfied us and we were surer abo­ut our guess. After organizing our ideas and evidences, we presented it to the ‘court’. Though we did not know the real murderer, we learnt a lot from the process such as the skills of fingerprinting, handwriting analysis and invisible inks test.

For the evening activities, we dressed up our mentors based on the theme – Imaginary Monsters. We were provided with many materials and points were given according to presentation, originality, team work and style. Mentors then catwalk to present our masterpiece and everyone had a lot of fun.

We are going to have our presentation tomorrow and we are all looking forward to it and wish we have a successful one.

Maggie Yam (4S)

On the last few days, we analyzed some of the way of proving evidences such as fingerprinting, crime photo analysis, blood typing, etc. Today, we continued our crime solving with the statements and evidences given. Then, we made up conclusions and presented them to our mentors.

During the progress, I have learnt to communicate with others since our group members are from different countries. We worked as a group and had lots of fun. I have also learnt to handle evidences with care, and not to make assumptions easily. In real cases, if forensic scientists make assumptions and stories with their mind, innocence may have to be in jail. We had to use logic and cold hard facts, and make a timeline, then present what we have found.

On our presentation in the court, we showed our evidences and presented them, I have found that the time management and the order of presenting are very important, so that people would be clear what you are doing, and what has happened in the case.

I did enjoy the forensic science lessons this week, I have learnt many things and knew more about this subject. Although there isn’t the subject of forensic science in Hong Kong’s universities, this course made me think again what I am going to study in the future. The course inspires me a lot and I will definitely miss it.

Thursday 21 July 2011


Reflection on 19-7-2011

Katherine Lam (4A)


Today was the second day of the medical sciences course. Yesterday we had a brief introduction and we had some surgical skills training today.

The academic leaders set up some stations in the laboratory. They were about suture, key-hole surgical techniques, removing lipoma and surgical knots. We tried on every station and I had lots of fun. The training station of removing lipoma was my favourite. In the training, each of us had the chances to be the patient and the doctor. The patient had to wear a piece of fake skin with lipoma on the arm and the doctor would use the surgical apparatus to remove the lipoma from the skin. The fake skin and wound looked very realistic as there was some fake blood in it. I was the patient first. After observing how to remove the lipoma carefully, I switched the role with my partner. The task was very challenging especially when I had to deal with the tissue facing towards me. I found that dealing with blood was not that scary and it was actually quite interesting.

I think the medical course had trained me to be more patient and careful as it is necessary for all medical procedures. I enjoyed the course very much and looked forward to the remaining days.

Ingid Lai (4U)

Today was my second day studying forensic science. It was so fun! I worked with my partner, Alexansha, during the lesson. She came from Russia and she is fourteen. We learnt about nine different techniques in forensic science today. My favourite one was blood typing. We tested each blood type with different antigens, including A, B, and Rh. Then we observed the blood and checked if the blood gave a positive or negative result. I thought this test was exciting since it was the first time for me to handle blood in a lab!

We had an artistic evening today. We went to the Royal Albert Hall and watched Proms. It was an orchestra performance. The hall was extremely grand. The audience surrounded the musicians, making the atmosphere very engaging. This was my first time to see an orchestra performcance. My favourite part of all was the ending song of the programme. The song was very exciting which lured our attention. When the song ended, the hall was full of applauses. The director was being graced again and again. This made me become more interested in music, and learn more about English culture.

I really enjoyed today. I hope I could be more engaged in the activities in the coming days.

Reflection on 18-7-2011

Yammie Lam (4S)
Today is the start of our new course. In the morning we packed our luggage and said goodbye to our lovely south side hall where we have stayed for 2 weeks. After breakfast, we went to the lecture hall to meet our new academic mentor, Boncica. Then we were told that our course was not medical science but medical impulse. Although it is not what we expected to be, we still found it fun. But still, we wanted to have some surgery practice. After the brief introduction, we visited the Charing Cross Hospital. We saw many models of organs and were given a detail explanation on them. We found it very useful because we could know more about different diseases and the effect of bad living habits have on our bodies. Also we had a talk given by a doctor which was about how we could enter the Medicine School of Imperial College. We have known more about it and found it very useful for our future academic path.

Cynthia Wong (4S)

Today was the first day of the stem world summer school. There were only eight of us staying for the next two weeks course. Four of us were in the medical science course and four forensic science. As we were in different groups, we could have a chance to meet people from foreign countries.
I attended the medical impulse program with Yammie and Patsy. Today, we have been to the Charing Cross Hospital which was one of the hospitals under Imperial College London. There was a museum on pathology, where there were a lot of dead organs displayed with various diseases, such as, cancers and diabetes. Many of the organs looked really scary and horrible, and therefore this was just like a signal to tell us not to have cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and have a balance diet with more vegetables than meat with fats in order to have a healthier body.

After visiting the museum in the hospital, we had an introduction lecture about the subject Medicine. The talk included the criteria to study Medicine in most of the universities as well as in Imperial College. The talk provided us with much information on studying Medicine. We could now surely understand what we would need to achieve in order to study Medicine.

Monday 18 July 2011

Reflection on 17-7-2011

Maggie Yam (4S)


Today, we went sight-seeing in London to relax ourselves before the start of the next course.

Firstly, we went to the Windsor Castle. We had a chance to look at how the lives of the kings and queens were. We were very happy to visit such large and grand castle. After that, we went to a Chinese restaurant nearby and had our lunch. It had been a while since we haven’t eaten Chinese food. The food was very delicious, the decorations of the restaurant were also very nice. We enjoyed our meal very much.

Then, we went to the Tower Bridge. The bridge was unique with its blue pillars. The scenery on the two sides of the bridge was very beautiful and we took lots of pictures there.
After that, we took the bus to the St. Paul’s Cathedral. The buses in London had no big differences to the ones in Hong Kong, but it was a new experience for us to have a ride on the bus. As a Paulinian, it is a must for us to visit the St. Paul’s Cathedral, however, there was not much time left, we just took some group photos and went to the next site, the Millennium Bridge. It was built to celebrate the year of Millennium. After that, we took the underground back to our hall and had our dinner.

Tomorrow will be the start of another two weeks' STEM World summer course. We won’t be studying as a group of 8. Instead, we will be separated into different mentor groups. It is a chance for me to meet different people around the world and to communicate with them. It is also a chance for us to face different challenges and hence gain more experiences.


Debby Chau (4S)

Today we went sightseeing. We first travelled by train to the Windsor Castle which took us about an hour. The castle is magnificent and grand which includes the lower, middle and upper ward. At first, we decided to visit the Queen Mary’s Dolls’ House but due to the long queue and the bad weather, we went straight into the State Apartments. The rooms, portraits and decorations are beautiful and there were huge collections of treasures on display. Through listening to the audio guide, we understood more about the history of the Royal Family.

We then visited the Tower Bridge. We had a spectacular view of London when we were walking along the bridge and we took a lot pictures. Next, we went to the St. Paul’s Cathedral and its ruins from the big fire were clearly seen.

Tomorrow, we will be meeting our new mentors, friends and teachers and we are looking forward to a new week.

Sunday 17 July 2011

Reflection on 16-7-2011

Joey Chu (4S)

Today is our first day without a mentor and we followed our school teachers to do some sightseeing as well as shopping in central London. We went to the Portobello Market, there were lots of characteristic London products and the buildings there were also very beautiful. Despite the wet weather, we all enjoyed ourselves. Then we went to the British Museum, one of the biggest museums in the world. We saw a lot of great exhibits from different countries like Egypt, Britain and China. We even saw mummies there! We had learnt a lot more about the characteristics and history of these countries and have had a great time. What a pity we couldn’t visit every part of the museum due to the lacking of time. We then did some shopping in Oxford Circus. Although we can find most of the brands in Hong Kong, we were still happy to be staying together and shop in these extremely big shops. We had Chinese meals for both lunch and dinner. We were all so excited to have rice and other iconic Chinese dishes that we haven’t had for the past two weeks. It had been a really enjoyable day. After one more day of relax and leisure, we will be beginning another academic week!

Saturday 16 July 2011

Reflection on 15-7-2011

Katherine Lam (4A)


Today is the last day of our mathematics course. It is also our presentation day. We prepared for our presentations in the morning. Everything had to be done in a rush as we only got two hours for preparation. Luckily, our group managed to finish our script and PowerPoint just before lunch. However, we did not have enough time to practise. It made us very nervous.

After lunch, we went to the lecture theatre. Unlike what we did last week, this time, we had to present our project in front of the chemistry groups, mathematics groups, all academic leaders, mentors and school teachers. Our group was the first to present. Although we did not practise much the presentation ran smoothly and we could answer the question raised by Phil, our maths teacher. We got a certificate of participation and a badge after the presentation, symbolizing we had graduated from the course. We were so excited about having finished the course successfully but at the same time, it was sad for us to say goodbye to our mentors, who had always been so kind to us, helped us in our studies in the past two weeks.

In the afternoon, most of our schoolmates had to leave as the two-week summer course had come to an end. The campus became so quiet when all the STEM World students had left.

In the last two weeks, I learnt to manage time well as we got so many things to do everyday like having lessons and lectures, having evening activities and preparing for presentations. The experience of doing presentation was the most impressive. We used to have weeks or months to prepare for project presentations in Hong Kong and still felt that time was not enough. However, the experience of preparing a presentation in just two hours proved that we could manage our time better. In the following two weeks we will study different subjects. I will work hard to learn new knowledge and I believe we will have great time.

Ingrid Lai (4U)

Today is our presentation day again! This week, we studied Chemistry and our topic was ‘enzymes with apple juice and jelly’. Time was very limited, so we had to rush our work. After breakfast, Ella brought us to the computer lab and we started to work on our Powerpoint at once. Then, Barnaby brought us to the Reach Out Lab to see our jellies which have been left in the lab for a night. We then analysed the jellies to see if our hypothesis made earlier could stand or not.


The presentation began at 2pm. I was very nervous since we were the last group to present. Moreover, I had not practiced my script yet as I was copying my script onto my cue card during lunchtime. I felt I was ill-prepared for this presentation. Luckily, our presentation ran quite smoothly despite the fact that I sometimes spoke too fast and I read my script too much.

We then received certificates from Alan. I felt very honoured and emotional. I was proud of myself having completed the course, but at the same time, my friends from SPCS were going to leave in less than half an hour…

Still, we had to say ‘goodbye’ to our friends. We farewelled them one by one. It was really a touching moment.

At 6pm, we went to JCR for dinner. Yet, the staff said we could not have dinner there since the STEM World programme had already finished. As a result, we had to dine in the Eastside Cafe. The food there was quite delicious!

At night, we went to Harrods to do some shopping. We were amazed by its huge size! Everyone bought some souvenirs and Cynthia even became a member of Harrods!

In these two weeks, I thought I had changed a lot. The most significant change was I became more outgoing and eager in making new friends. This course was really fantastic as I could learn various aspects of Maths and Chemistry, have a taste of English life (for example, having traditional English breakfast every morning), as well as make friends from around the world.

Friday 15 July 2011

Reflection on 14-7-2011

2011.07.14

Sharon Leung   (4S)

Today we had Mathematics lessons and we played games on game theory. Through the games, we negotiated all the time. We took part in several exciting and fast paced team challenges involving strategic decision making.

Game theory is commonly used to end wars, cut carbon emissions on making decisions. We learnt how to trust friends in order to achieve success and not to betray others because of short-term benefits.

Besides, we had an activity on iteration and chaos. We used excel to calculate some equations that we cannot solve ourselves. It was very useful in our study. I gained interest in Mathematics after the lessons.

In addition, we were preparing for the Cabaret on Thursday evening. Our group had a long discussion on what to perform. We co-operated with each other. We sincerely hope that we will have a good show on that day.

Isa Hung  (4T)

It is hard to believe that there are three more days left for us to be in Imperial College and London. We will be leaving for a night flight back to Hong Kong on Friday. We would surely miss our days here!

In the morning, we had lesson on the use of spectroscopy in Chemistry. We used aspirin produced from yesterday’s lesson to analyse the molecules contained through doing spectroscopy. The Chemistry building was huge and the laboratory was professional, with lots of equipment we had never seen. Through this lesson, we learnt more on the skill and use of spectroscopy. Technology really helps a lot in development of science.

After lunch, we attended another lesson on complex chemistry. Through various reactions and the process of titration, we could find the amount of copper in coins. We had to pay full attention during the experiment as the solution used was corrosive and the reaction would produce toxic gas. Part of the experiment had to be taken place in a fumed cupboard. However, one group from our class carelessly forgot to do so and accidentally dropped the coin into the beaker of reactant. Vigorous toxic gases were produced in the laboratory and the whole laboratory had to be evacuated. This was the most unforgettable experience we have ever had. We learnt the importance of listening and following strictly to instructions. We have to be very careful whenever we are working in the laboratory. 

For dinner, we went off campus to a traditional British restaurant. We had an abundant meal and felt very contented for such a treat.
     
Throughout the course at Imperial College, we do really enjoy the course and we like the experience of being a “two-week university student”. Through the two-weeks’ summer school is about to end ,it will definitely be a memorable experience!

Karen Ho (4T)

Time flies, we will be leaving Imperial College two days after. I am sure I will miss the learning and fun we have had here so much!

As usual, we went for lessons after breakfast. Today we were doing spectroscopy. We were very honoured to have the opportunity to use some advanced machines to analyse the composition of certain compounds. We never had such an opportunity to use these machines and this was definitely a very good experience.
    
In the afternoon, we had our lesson on complex chemistry. During the lesson, we had to perform an experiment which would produce some poisonous gas. We were supposed to carry out the experiment in a fumed cupboard. However, one group did not follow the instructions and handled the reactants outside the fumed  cupboard causing the toxic gas to accumulate. We all had to evacuate until the toxic gas had been ventilated. Luckily, no one was affected in the accident. We learnt a lesson from this experience that we should always follow instructions given by teachers when doing experiments so as to ensure our safety. 

In the evening, we went out for dinner. Although we have all been to that restaurant last week, we still enjoyed the food. After dinner, we practiced for our talent show. I am really looking forward to the performances of other groups and I hope our performance would be a success!


Tiffany To (4A)

These past two weeks have been an amazing experience for us. W have learnt a great deal. We learnt more about university life and we now have a better understanding on what we would encounter when we take up science and mathematics in the future.

The courses were very informative as we definitely learnt things we never learnt before. We were exposed to different learning Mathematics which involves more interactions during classes. We certainly became more active in class and more willing to pose questions to our professors. We even experienced the use of different equations in Chemistry. It was such a great experience. Mathematics was a great challenge for most of us but we learnt to persist and never give up.

All in all, these two weeks has been an unforgettable learning experience for us all. We will really miss this place and hope to come back again.

Mary Suarez (4T)

It’s nearly the end of our stay here. There will be a lot of things we will miss. Apart from the classes, we ill definitely miss our beloved professors and mentors. The have helped us through all our hard times. We real thank them for everything and we will greatly miss them.

We will also miss the beautiful campus and the fun and the interesting lectures and activities we had. Many amazing memories have been made and they will remain in our hearts forever.
We have also made new friends and hope that we will see each other again. Our group has become great friends and we learnt a lot from each other. We learnt how to work well as a team and learnt how to cooperate and listen to each other’s opinion.

Moreover, we learnt how to be more independent and we will never forget these two weeks, we will miss Imperial College! 

Thursday 14 July 2011

        

Reflection on 13-7-2011

Lizette Chua (4S)

In our chemistry lesson today, we used spectroscopy to analyze some aspirin we made yesterday. The specialized machinery was used to produce graphs showing different aspects of the aspirin, which were then compared to other graphs and information. It was fascinating to understand more about what we made, and we were once again struck by the depth and power of Chemistry. Our mentors and teacher then led us to explore more about these chemical substances.
In the afternoon, the topic was “Complex Chemistry”. This was a very interesting lesson which involved several experiments. We found the percentage of copper in a coin through a series of complicated procedures. This showed us how Chemistry can be applied in real-life situations.
Throughout the day and at night, we made final preparations for our talent show performance on Thursday. We rehearsed our poem and tried our best to keep up with the fast pace of the Element Song.. It was great fun and we hoped that the performance will go well tomorrow.

Buxani Bhavna (4T)

Today was our 3rd day doing the Chemistry course. In the morning, we finished up the synthesis of our aspirin and weighed it to do some calculating concerning the number of moles of the materials, such as the Oil of Wintergreen, the Salicylic Acid and the product, the aspirin. Next, we took samples of our aspirin and made our way to the Chemistry laboratory to look at our synthesized aspirin in greater detail using spectroscopy with Dr Melanie Bottrill. It was very interesting comparing the aspirin we made to the industrial aspirin.
After lunch, we did a bit of complex chemistry and continued to use spectroscopy techniques. We learnt about the complex compounds formed by transition metals and their structures and therefore why they are called complexes.

For Wednesday off campus dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant called “Garfunkel’s”, we had all sorts of pasta, burgers and pizzas. The Italian food we received here was much more flavoursome than what we get in Hong Kong and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.


Kathy Yu (4P)

We are having Mathematics lessons this week. The areas that we have learnt are quite difficult for us. We learnt about code breaking and we think that it is very challenging. We tried to break codes to figure out the clues, and used the decoded clues to tour around the campus to find out the answers to the questions. We also learnt about zero to infinity. We drew graphs to help further understanding and learnt many new formulae. We found the Mathematical Rainbow very interesting. Although it was difficult to understand everything taught during our lessons, we tried to be persisting and finished all the questions that we knew. We learnt about the Taylor series and we really do appreciate the beauty of numbers. We asked lots of questions during class to ensure that we understand the topic. The teachers and mentors were willing to teach us and they handled our questions with lots of patience. This enhanced the friendship between us and our new mentors. We surely gained a lot from the lessons and we want to say thank you to our mentors.

Ivy Young (4T)

Today is the third day of our mathematics course. We have been taught about the Game theory in Mathematics. In the previous days we learnt about topics that we have never came across, such as code breaking and the Mathematical Rainbow. They were difficult for us but we still managed to sole the Mathematical problems. However, the Game theory was very easy to understand. We took part in several exciting and fast paced team challenges which involved negotiations and strategic decision making. We think that the Game theory is probably the most interesting topic for us as we understand it the most. We also learnt about the theory of Loops and Lynxes in the afternoon session. Although this topic is difficult, we were still able to overcome it through questioning and peer teaching. We now have more ideas about many new areas in Mathematics and we enjoyed the lessons a lot.

In the evening, we had our meal off campus. The food there was special and delicious. We discussed about the topics we have learnt during lessons and shared our ideas among ourselves. We enjoy the day very much and we are certainly ready for the challenges ahead.

Tuesday 12 July 2011



reflection on 12-7-2011

Reflection on 12-7-2011


Stephanie Wong (4U)

Today is the second day of our mathematics course. We have approached code-breaking—the concept of modulus and different remainder theorems. Through this morning’s session we have learnt to think flexibly as we tried to use different methods to crack each code! Through these code-breaking activities, we knew more about the job of FBI and we found this very interesting.

The real challenge came in the afternoon session. Most of us were confused with the mathematical rainbow which was a new concept we had never heard of. But we were glad that all for us persisted to solve the problems. During the process and our discussion, we have developed our friendship further and were able to apply previous knowledge to new situations. We dearly enjoyed the sense of self-satisfaction brought about by challenging ourselves.

Tiffany Yue (4S)

After dinner, we prepared for the talent show on Thursday excitedly. There was a controversy on what to perform. Moreover, we can still reach a consensus. Through our discussion, we learnt to listen to other’s opinions with empathy and learnt to compromise through patient communication.

We had a lot of fun in preparing the show. Although there were quarrels, we felt the sparks from cooperating with new friends. Besides, we fully made use of everyone’s talents. For instance, the ones who are good at singing will do the solo and the ones who are good at drawing will be responsible for making the props.

After tonight, we get to know more about our teammates. With all of our efforts, we believe we will definitely put on a good show on Thursday!

Janice Chan (4S)

Today right after breakfast, we headed off to the Reach Out Lab to start our second day of the Chemistry Course. We studied and experimented with different rates of reactions and plotted our results. We then controlled our rates of reaction to produce our products in a certain amount of time. We carried out our experiments along with a video of 1812 Overture with Canons and synchronized our reactions with the canons in the video which was quite challenging.

After lunch, we carried out an experiment involving the synthesis of aspirin with salicylic acid. We also learnt a bit more about organic chemistry and the materials we were going to use such as the oil of wintergreen and salicylic acid. We first carried out the hydrolysis of oil of wintergreen to form salicylic acid and then synthesized the salicylic acid into aspirin. Overall, it was an interesting yet challenging afternoon.

After dinner, we discussed amongst our group mates on what to do for the Talent Show on Thursday night. We decided on doing one of our poem recited from the Speech Festival, namely “Write A Rap Rap”! We practiced and rehearsed and we hope we will put on a good performance!

Joey Chu (4S)

We had a lot of new experiences on the second day of our Chemistry lesson. It was the first time I felt so professional in the laboratory, wearing safety spectacles, laboratory coat and gloves performing experiments. I was really amazed when I saw the aspirin that I was holding in my hands, made by me and my partner in the lesson. We used many new equipments for our experiment which we haven’t seen before, like a vacuum filter. It was really interesting to see how it works. This could be a new method for me to anhydrate a substance next time! In our experiments, we even used some dangerous substances like concentrated acids which we had to handle with extra care and under supervision. We had truly learned a lot of new things and had acquired new skills in doing Chemistry experiments.

Besides, we had started preparing for the talent show on Thursday. We had a lot of ideas at first but finally decided on doing choral speaking. In the few hours staying together, we had already prepared a lot of things. We hope that our show will be a success and we can show everyone the best of us.

Cherry Kwok (4L)

Today is the second day of our Chemistry week and we started to do some interesting experiments. Instead of watching chemical reactions which demonstrated simple chemistry principles, we looked into deeper knowledge on rate of reaction and organic chemistry today.

The morning section was about rate of reaction through observing a reaction of a mixture of chemicals. The solution would turn blue-black after some time as iodine and starch reacted. We examined the time taken to change the colour of the solution. We learnt that precision is very important and small incautiousness could cause big problems. In the experiments, one of the groups forgot to add enough distilled water in the first reactions, making their results much smaller than the others.

After lunch we tried to make Aspirin, a common painkiller, in the laboratory. We used many chemicals that we have never seen or heard before. They were comparatively more complex than what we usually see. Instead of simple hydrocarbons like methane, CH4, we met chemicals like salicyclic acid. It was important for us to understand and apply our knowledge rather than simply memorizing everything. We also learnt to deal with different unexpected circumstances such as reactions that didn’t work and problematic reactants. Luckily, we were able to sort out everything calmly.

In the evening, we practices for our talent show on the day after tomorrow. We came up with a lot of creative ideas to be used on our show. We hope to make the funniest show among all groups.

We were all exhausted when we got back to our dormitories. We all hoped that we would learn more in the future and would give a good, entertaining show on Thursday.

Cordelia Hau (4P)

Today is the third day that we’re having chemistry lessons and the task for the day is to make aspirin-a drug that is often used to relieve minor aches and pains and to reduce fever. We have our chemistry lessons in the Reach Out Laboratory where there is some high standard equipment to help us carry out the experiments. Right at the the entrance of the laboratory there are some lockers with the names of the elements printed. When we saw them, we were so excited and astonished. They are all very beautiful indeed. During the day, we had to perform and carry out a few experiments with complex procedures, which require chemicals that we had never come across before. These chemicals are extremely reactive and corrosive. Special care and attention were needed or else we may hurt ourselves as a result. We had to listen to Alan and our course leaders’ instructions attentively and follow them accordingly and accurately. And eventually, after the long day, we could produce our aspirin samples successfully. We are so satisfied and delighted. From our experience of the day, we learnt that although the pathway to success is always very difficult and full of obstacles or impediments, we must not give up in the middle and waste our effort and time. We must always persist till ht eend in order to achieve our goals.

Claudia Law (4T)

This was the second day of the week learning Mathematics. At first, I found it very challenging. When I sought for help on some of the questions, I asked my mentor when we would learn this kind of Mathematics. The answer really stunned us all! It is a Year 3 University Mathematics problem. From then onwards, I was amazed whenever I could solve any of the questions. This was an invaluable experience in which every one of us could strive for our best. At the same time, we still had to strive for accuracy other than understanding the calculation method. Although this course was generally challenging, it indeed deepened my interest in Chemistry and Mathematics.

In the evening, we were told that a talent quest would be held on Thursday evening in which all of us must participate. Our group had finally decided to sing and dance on the stage after a long discussion. I hope that this performance could mark up our success.

Natalie So (4T)

Today, we had a very challenging and yet fruitful lesson about number theory and the mathematical rainbow.

During today’s lesson, we were exposed to many new mathematical terms, theorems and equations. Though the mathematics was quite hard to understand, it was really a very fun and interesting process to learn new things that we never came across before.

Through the lesson, we learned that whenever we come across with new things or challenges, we should face it and explore it but not running away from it. By doing so, we can learn and find the solution of such challenges. This sense of achievement is very rewarding! Although the path of finding solution might seems to be hard, efforts should be paid to reach the outcome, as the old saying says ‘no pain, no gain!’ Moreover, this lesson taught us to be persistent when facing challenges. For example, when we have a mathematical problem to solve, we may not be able to solve it at once, we should try for several more times to succeed.

Also, through today’s lesson, we learned that we should never be afraid to ask or raise questions. By doing so, we can understand more and get to know different approaches to problems.

All in all, today’s mathematics lesson not only gave us an outlook on mathematics in university, it also taught us lots of useful knowledge for us to apply in our daily life.