Category: 2013 – 2014

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.

Exploration Name: Life on Border

Exploration Dates: March 10 – May 2

Number of Students: 15

Essential Questions/Areas:

1. What do students know about planning and running Exploration projects?

2. What are the steps of running Exploration project?

3. How to keep track of working process?

4. How to use resources efficiently and transparently?

5. How is the situation of people living along the border such as: education, health, economic and immigration?

6. Why do people move there?

7. What are the advantages and disadvantages of living there?

Description: In our Life On Border group we learned a lot of  things about border. Students know how to run the Exploration very well. Students know the goal to run their project. The first step that we can run our project is we learn about our goal. Our goal is Project Summary, Project Outcome, Project Mentors, Field Experiences, 21st Century Learning Skills and Core Curriculum Areas. After we learned about our goal we planned and thought. The situation of the people that live along the border is normal. Some people don’t have money so they don’t have work. Some people go to find work at Thailand so when the people go already some of the people can’t come back. People’s health is not so good at the border because they don’t have money to buy their food. They move to the border because if the people have the money they come to border to sell something because the border have a lot of people came from Russia to the Cambodia. So that why people want to make their business there. The advantage to live there is there are not a lot of bad people at there so it safe for people. The disadvantage to live there is if people don’t have money and they don’t have work they will not be safe for their life. We went to the border to learn and we saw some people have a work and some people don’t have work. Some people have a work but it like cart worker it is not easy to get the money. We interview the cart worker and the sellers. We went to casino to visit, but we didn’t get a chance to go in.

Exploration Name: TV Broadcasting

Exploration Dates: January 20th – March 7th

Number of Students: 8

Description: In the TV Broadcasting group we learned about how to be a good emcee, film, and about the different jobs. We divided into four jobs such as producer, editor, cameraman, and emcee. A producer has to make a script for emcee. Also they have to make a storyboard and tell the cameraman what plot they want for the video. After all of this, they have to sit with the editor to tell what we want the video about. A editor also has a hard work to do. They have to make sure that the video is right and what they want. A cameraman has to go to take a video with the producer. Before the emcee talks in the real show they have to understand what the script is about. In our class we made one documentary about Liger. Before we made a documentary we took some trips to some TV stations and met with the producer. We went to the CTN channel station and Apsara channel station. We got a lot of experience from the emcee and the producer. It helped us a lot when we made our documentary.

Exploration Name: Bag Business

Exploration  Dates: October 7th-November 19th

Number of students: 13

Essential Questions:

1. Why do we use bags – the purpose of bags?

2. What is the purpose of creating a prototype?

3. What processes are needed to create a small profitable business?

Description: When we started this project we thought about Ready-Set-Go, which is a website that helped us get ideas about starting our business. In Ready we thought about our logo, what business and our goals. Then we divided all the students in our group into three different departments. There were Research + Development, Account + Finance and Sales and Marketing. In R+D they worked on how to make our design unique. In A+C they worked on Project balance sheet. Project balance sheet is the sheet that we just think of but it is not happen yet. But S + M is very important because they need to prepare the attitude and be friendly to the buyers who come. After that we took trips to RUFA, Art Gallery, A.N.D, Royal Boutique, Smateria and Wattan. Wattan is a place which made bags for us to paint. At first we decided to make 52 tote bags but then we wanted another 13 ipad bags. In our last day we all painted the bags already and we opened the shop for the students, staff and visitors to buy bags from our business. On that day we also used a mannequin to make up and put the bags on it’s hand. At that day we sold nearly all the bags. We also had 2 bags to raffle. This was very fun. We had the promotion about the tickets and one ticket for the adult costs 1$ and for the kids costs 2000៛. From that day each of us got $5 from when we sold.

Exploration Name: Simple Machines (Toys)

Exploration Dates: August 12 – September 26

Number of students: 13

Essential Questions:

1. What are simple machines?

2. What is mechanical advantage?

3. How can simple machines be used to create engaging interactive toys and why is toy creation a powerful form of learning?

Description: In our Exploration class we learned about simple machines and how to make toys using cams (it is like a circle, like wheel and axle) + simple machines. Simple machines can make some jobs easier to do. We learned about wedges, levers, pulleys, inclined planes, gears, screws, wheels and axles. Each of these things have different advantages and disadvantages. Levers are the most used in real life. Levers can be anything you hold. Ex. sword handle, computer lid, all of those things are levers. When we started we learned about how to use simple machines in our toys. We watched a lot of videos to understand and to get new ideas. We first built toys for testing our project. It worked but it was too small and not good enough. We researched more and then we got more ideas from books, computers and videos. When we had enough knowledge and enough information, we got an idea and we worked in teams. We thought that to make our toy more interactive, we have to get some paint to make it colorful. When we finished the toy we planned a trip with our teacher to Takeo province. Our trip was not long just half a day travel and half a day at NFO to teach the students there about simple machines and how to make toys. We came back to set up for our presentation in the big area. All of Liger students came to see us and learn from each other.