Mole Day

Firstly, what is Mole Day? Mole Day is a day celebrated by many chemists and scientists across the world on October 23, from 6.02 AM to 6.02 PM. These dates and times came from the number 6.02x10^23 which is Avogadro's number of particles in one mole of any substance.
During mole day we aided our chemistry teacher  in organizing activities for the day. We formed groups and a younger class was allocated to each group where we taught them the basics about moles and made them have fun learning. My group consisted of three people and we cut out certain elements from the periodic table and challenged the students to make a mole of each substance as quickly as they can, with the winner being awarded a candy each time. They thoroughly enjoyed the work and receiving and the activity was a success. In this I focused on the outcome of planning and initiating activities as well as developing new skill. In the process of planing the activity, I spent an entire night cutting out hundreds of pieces of elements such as oxygen and carbon. Also I usually dont teach so teaching was a new skill I began developing. Overall, the response from the students was satisfying and I met the outcome i was aiming for.

Wobulenzi Trip

In KISU, we as a class go on trips to parts of Uganda as our Outdoor Educational Week. This year we went to Wobulenzi to participate in various activities and take action to learn and help improve the Wobulezi Town Academy campus. Over our stay I chose four outcomes i would focus on and these are the reflections for each.

Outcome: Show perseverance and commitment in their activities.

In Wobulenzi, during the morning sessions, each person carried out a service activity. I took part in building a goat shelter continuously up until I was able to see the final product. I participated by helping in digging, clearing the shrubs to create space for the shelter, and hammering  in the nails to hold the shelter in place. From this activity I learnt that that using a hammer as well as carrying wood is a rather demanding task that requires a lot of hard work. Despite the difficulties and the pain, I stayed in the activity and chose not to quit and I slowly began to tire out. However, I held on and thoroughly enjoyed my self overcome the pain to see the result, which was seeing the goats in the shelter for breeding. This activity evoked mainly positive feelings such as joy and pride after seeing the family of goat in the shelter safe and sound.

Outcome: Work collaboratively with others.

At Wobulenzi Town Academy, different groups ran different workshops as the creativity part of our trip. In the group that i was in, we decided to run ICT and break dancing workshops for three days. In particular, we taught the students of Wobulenzi how to search the internet for educational materials and due to their high interest, how to make a certificate. In order for the work shop to run successfully we had to work together and understand each other. I worked hand in hand with my other group mates to overcome the obstacle of teaching. From this experience, I learned that teaching someone something or a subject is very difficult and requires a lot of experience to get to the level of teaching of our teachers. When someone in my group did not know how to answer a question from the students, I offered help and when i did not know how to answer a question, my group helped. The group work was key in making our work shop a success. 

Outcome: Planned and initiated activities.

In our workshop at Wobulenzi Town Academy, as mentioned before, we ran an ICT workshop. I personally helped in teaching students how to search on Google and how to make certificates using Microsoft Word. In order to ensure that the activity went successfully without a glitch, we had to sit down and plan and initiate the activity. As normal, we also planned a back up activity in case our workshop did not have the same impact or was not successful. However, from this experience I learned that even after a lot of planning, once the activity is initiated it takes a lot of effort to control. Our plan was tested as on Thursday there was no power and we were prepared to teach French yet the students of Wobulenzi opted not to do french. For the future, i have learned that when planning an activity, it is better to plan more than one back up.

Outcome: Develop new skills.

As part of our workshop, it was required for me to teach students of roughly my age how to operate basic things on the computer. I have never taught anything to anyone let alone kids my own age and it was very difficult but fun. Being able to stand up in front of them and telling them what to do was a new skill to me as i am mostly a reserved person and this required me to go out of my shell to teach them successfully. I plan to develop this new skill further over the course of the next year so I can be able to teach confidently without shying out. Despite the hardship, I felt positive that i was able to explain what i was supposed to teach the students and it gave me a positive morale boost. 

Pretending we are are older: Model United Nations

Over the past 11 weeks, I have been taking part in the Model United Nations club at Kisu. Model United Nations aims to highlight the similar structure of the real United Nations, requiring us to carry out actions as a responsible body. We have been discussing world issues such as the Syrian Crisis/civil war, economic crisis in the European Union and LGBT rights around the world. Since the topics were looked at from different perspectives, I believe MUN has greatly helped my tolerance towards others with different opinions as we were forced to listen to each other and argue with valid arguments. At first I was reluctant to join MUN, however now I really appreciate the fact that I am in the club. I have been selected as one of the 6 students that will represent our school at the MUN conference in Qatar. I believe this a great opportunity for me to integrate and discuss world and ethical issues with the international world and I am looking forward to represent my school with joy and honour. All in all, I belive MUN has taught me to collaborate with others in order to achieve a common goal and also help me develop new skills as I am not used to arguing to get my point across. I am greatly looking forward to the the conference to be held in Qatar.

Engaging Rotary with Interact

Despite not being a full-on member of the Interact Club at my school KISU, I have taken part in some of the activities carried out by the Club. On Saturday 12th of October, I enlisted as one of the Interactors and we went to Kasangati, an area under Rotary Club of Kasangati (the mother club of Interact in Kisu). Our particular job as soon as we arrived at the destination was to separate a bunch of second hand clothes and shoes, which we progressed to sell, in an effort  to raise money for the community needs. Simultaneously, there was a health drive running and we administered vaccinations to children and mothers. It was a long and tiring day as I bargained with buyers for the price of items and the towering sun did not improve the conditions, however at the end of the day I felt satisfied that I was able to have a little impact in the community through the funds we raised. It was a new experience to work and see the results so clearly, and since I was also given responsibility to count the money and it was a good experience to understand how the money would impact the community and their health. Overall, I was pleased with the long day of hard work and starting the second term I will be fully committed to the Interact Club and carry out more activities.