Category: Explorations

Exploration name: Recycle Community
EXploration Dates: 06 October 2014– 21 November 2014
Number of students: 12
Course Description: Students will work closely with the community to solve their waste management and how to make use of it. In class, students will learn about the effect of waste to living things on the earth, and find solutions to motivate the community to care more about the environment. In order to achieve this goal, students will do a survey in the community to see what are the real problems in the village which is near our school. Then students will do a field trip to interview people from Ministry of Environment and waste collecting company names CINTRI. Students will do Community Project Based which means they will collaborate with the community to separate their waste into three kinds as in Organic, Recycle, and Others. Through these, a community not only benefits for their environment but also improve their living by making compost.

Exploration Name: Tech Support
Learning Facilitator: Max
Exploration Dates: August 13-Oct 3, 2014
Number of Students: 12

Description: Tech Support was the first Exploration of the second year. In Tech Support we learned about technology and helping other organizations, NGOs, and Liger with their technology problems. On the first day Max, our facilitator taught us a little bit about the ideas that he made this Exploration. On the next day, we started to learn more about technology. We learned about the parts of computers (hardware). On the second week, we had a trip to Singapore! Before that day we prepared our clothes in our backpacks. When we arrived at the airport our parents came to say goodbye to us. We were so sad but we were also happy. On the plane people were talking to each other, some people hurt their ears because it’s hard to hear up there in the sky. When we arrived in Singapore we had to wait for the checker to check our passports. After we finished the check step there was a big surprise for us because Robert (the former head of Liger) came and was waiting for us. He came and said hello to us, we were shocked. About 15 minutes later we went straight to UWCSEA South East Campus. We went there because we want to collaborate with them so we can help NGOs and organizations in Cambodia. There were seven members that worked with us. The first day that we met them we played some games to know and get familiar with each other. Then we found out our host family that we were going to sleep with for two days. Our host families were so friendly and kind. We went there and learned with an IT expert more about the hardware of the computers. On the third day, we camped in UWCSEA. Also, we went to the science museum to learn and have fun. Sadly on Wednesday, we had to leave Singapore. When we came back we went to two organizations to help them. One of them is Tiny Toons. They have problems with their computer. We took five computers to fix at Liger. Luckily we fixed two of them already! The other organization is Green Umbrella, and they have a problem with their website so we helped to fix it.

Exploration Name: Biography

Exploration Dates: August 12-September 26

Essential Questions:

(1) What is a biography? (2) What events have shaped this person’s life?

Number of Students: 13

Description: The first day that we started to learn our Exploration everyone was very excited.Our Exploration studied with teacher Jo, Sambath and Channa. Our Exploration learned about Biography. Biography is studying about the other person’s life. Biography group worked together and shared ideas that we had. For example, we went on a trip and searched the information in a computer. When we interviewed we used the strategy to understand about the other person’s life like listening strategy, asking questions and interviewing. We learned how to interview the people, by writing down the notes, how to be a good photographer and a good questionnaire. When we interviewed the people already we not just write down notes in our book. We also learned to make a documentary in the iMovie program. Some people worked on the information that they got too but they did it in Powerpoint program. The reason we wanted to do like this because in the future if we forget what we have we can look in the documentary of the other people live. The people that we interviewed were: Sophal’s uncle (the older person and now he does not do anything because his leg is hurt), Sophal’s sister-in-law (now she not do anything but she works at her house), Sophal (works in Liger cleaning the school), Simian  (works in Liger cleaning the school) and Houy (also works at cleaning Liger too). We had many different people that we interviewed but we only give example some of the people. We took the trip to go to the pagoda near our school to interview the monks in that pagoda. It was so fun for the Biography group. Our group studied only six weeks. Every day during Exploration time the students worked hard and studied new things a lot. In this Exploration all of the students are not lazy, they are active and helpful. We all were really happy to study about biography and now help us have a knowledge and a lot of the experience that we thought.

Exploration Name: VaPAC

Exploration Dates: Jan 20 to Mar 7

Number of students: 12 students

Description: My group name is VaPAC. It stands for Visual and Performing Arts Cambodia. Our group areas are a trip, sign language, and mask-making. First I want to talk about the trip. Our group trip was going to Kampot Province. We went there to learn about the Cambodian arts and the disabled people. When we went there we knew that the disabled people can communicate by using sign language. Sign language is so important for the disabled people. We also learned some sign language too. The disabled people can do arts too. They do it by using movement. The next area is mask-making. Our group made the own mask. The mask is made of the paper. It took a lot of time to make one mask. When we finished doing the mask-making we designed what it will look like. The design can be used for performing. It also can be used for sale and hang it on the wall. Our goal was to make the story and do it by using the movement. When we do the movement we can’t say anything.

This our Vapac Website: vapac.ligercambodiablog.org

Exploration Name: Forest Ecology

Exploration Dates: Oct 7, 2013 – Nov 19, 2013

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions: (1) What is an ecosystem? (2) What is a natural resource?

Description: An ecosystem is the living things and the non-living things connecting with each other. The one example is algae. Algae take the sunlight for food and fish eat algae and then people eat fish. This is one connection. In Ecosystems class we had a journey book to take notes or write keywords that we don’t know what that word means. In Ecology class the first topic that we learned was a tropical forest. We did not just learn only tropical forests but we also learned a lot of kinds of forests like conifers and others. A tropical forest is a forest that has rain a lot all year. We also learned about ecological relationships. Ecological relationships mean that one organism and another organism connect with each other. Ecological relationships are divided into five parts. They are parasitism, commensalism, predator-prey, mutualism, and competition. Our Ecology group went to Mondulkiri province to study there. We spent six days at  Mondolkiri. We met a lot of people like Bunong people. On Saturday we came back to our school and we shared what we learned.

Bunong words                                Khmer words                                       English

1. តើមឆី                                                      1.ព្រៃឈើ                                    1, Forest

2. កុនឆែលរៀន                                         2.កូនសិស្ស                               2, Student

3. កុនឆែលរៀនតាហៃ                            3.កូនសិស្សម្នាក់់                      3, One student

4. កុនឆែល                                                  4.កូនក្មេង                                    4, Child

5. តាហៃ                                                       5.ម្នាក់                                            5, Person

6. ឆ                                                               6.ឆ្កែ                                                 6, Dog

7. អាចម៍ ឆ                                                 7. អាចម៍ឆ្កែ                                   7, Dog poo

8. ផិខាប់                                                      8.ប៉ាខ្ញុំ                                            8, My Dad

9. មិខាប់                                                      9.ម៉ាក់ខ្ញុំ                                        9, My  Mom

10. ពែក                                                       10.ពស់                                          10, Snake

This is our Forest Ecology Website:  http://ligerforestecology.wordpress.com

Exploration 6

❏ Exploration Name: Food Systems

❏ Exploration Dates: March 10 – May 2

❏ Number of Students: 15

A food system is a cyclical process of growing, transforming, packaging, transporting, cooking, eating, and recycling food. Sometimes we can skip some of these steps. For example, if we eat a mango that grows from a tree at our house we are skipping packaging, transporting, cooking, and transforming. This is an example of a local food system. An example of a global food system is chips that have ingredients from different parts of the world and are packaged, transformed and transported all over the world.In our class, we learned the difference between all three kinds of soil. They are sand, silt, and clay. We started to grow the seeds. The seeds have grown, but we have not taken it to grow in our raised beds yet. In one day we have to give the water to the plants 3 – 4 times. We learned the six steps to grow the seeds, from laying the toilet paper to moving them in the tray. We have learned the part of the seeds. There are seed coat, embryo, and cotyledons. We learned about the fruits and vegetables. We also learned about global and local food systems. Global is the food that is all around the world. Local is the food that is near. Ex: If we are Cambodian and buy the food in Cambodia that food is local because it is near where we live. Ex: If we are Cambodian and buy the food from Malaysia that food is global because it is far away from where we live. Also, we learn about the pros and the cons about local and global food systems. We took four trips to learn about Food Systems. The first trip we went on an Organic farm. The owner showed us how to grow the seeds. In his farm, there are ten different types of seeds: lettuce, fruit plants and herbs. Also, he told us that insects and the weeds destroy his farm. Weeds are the things that you don’t want. EX: In the farm have the grass that grows, the weeds are the grass because the farmer doesn’t  want that to grow on their farm. New technology is that they cover the soil with the plastic because when we put the compost and the water will not go away. Compost is made out of the animals poo mixed with soil and rice husks. The second trip we went to the Natural garden store. In that shop sell vegetables, snacks, wine, and ingredients. The owner had taught us how to find where the food came from. The owner said that some of his fruits, vegetable, and cookies are bought from France, America, Thailand, North America, Singapore, Germany and local. He has own farm in Kampong Speu and at Kampong Som. The third trip we went to University Agriculture. In there we learned about hydroponics. The guide told us that hydroponic is the new technology in Cambodia. Hydroponics means growing on the water. At there we saw lots of lettuce that grows on the water. The last trip we went to Rice Mill. We learned about the different rice in Cambodia. Also, we learned the difference between brown rice and white rice and how both of this rice is good for us.

This is our website:  http://foodsystems.ligercambodiablog.org/

Exploration Name: Khmer Architecture

Exploration Date: November 20-January 17

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions/areas:

(1) What is the meaning of architecture?

(2) What information should I know about architecture?

(3) What does Khmer architecture look like?

(4) What are the differences between ancient and modern architecture?

(5) How do we create architecture?

Description:       Architecture is the process of planning, designing and constructing. When we work on architecture with these three things we have to think about durability, utility, and beauty. So in our Exploration, we learned about architecture in Cambodia. For example: in Cambodia, there are many houses, buildings and also the temples. The Khmer architecture was different than the other countries because like the Angkor  Wat is made from the big rocks and the foundation that they built is layers of rocks and sand. But in the other countries, like in the U.S.A, there are not really the buildings that have the foundation like that. Before, the buildings in Cambodia were not that big. The houses were also not that big and were not made from cement-like right now. Now when they make the houses, they put many colors and many styles that they want. But at the past, the Khmer buildings were not too big and did not have many styles like now. Just the temples had many styles that Khmer ancestors made by hand with the big rocks. On the big rocks, they made the big sculptures that showed about Khmer history. To do the architecture we have to follow the theory of architecture and do it step by step. In this group, we went on the trip to Siem Reap to learn how did the Khmer ancestors build the temples. Other than that we also went to some places in Phnom Penh. We went to Central Market, Olympic Stadium, and PPIT.  That is the school that teaches about the architecture.

This is our website: http://angkorarchitecture.ligercambodiablog.org/