Forest Ecology Description

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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 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 the 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 in 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.

Food Systems Description

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  • Exploration Name: Food Systems
  • Exploration Dates: March 10 – May 2
  • Number of Students: 15

A food system is the 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 grew, but we have not taken its 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 the local because it is near where we live. Ex: If we are Cambodian and buy the food from Malaysia that food is the 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 Organic farm. The owner shown us how to grow the seeds. In his farm there are ten different typesof 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 is the grass because the farmer doesn’t want that to grow in their farm. New technology is that they cover the soil by 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 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.

Crisis Management Description

Exploration Name: Crisis Management

Exploration Dates: November 20th-January 17th

Number of students: 11

Essential Questions/Areas: 1. What is a crisis?

2. How do people, especially  in Cambodia, manage crises?

3. What are natural disasters and how are they related to  crises?

Description: In our crisis Exploration we learned a lot of things that happen outside in the environment. Crisis is the bad thing that happens to people and is unsafe to people. Example: the cars are crashing or the train is falling. We learned about what is a natural disaster. Natural disasters are caused by nature. Natural disasters are: earthquakes, avalanches, and storms, for example. Then we talked about a volcano. A volcano is the mountain that has magma inside. When it is erupting out, the magma will turn to lava. Lava can make islands when it touches the cold place and it turns to the rock. Crisis management is how the aid workers help people when there is a crisis. One way they help is by evacuating people away. Example: when it has a flood, aid workers evacuate people out to the safe place. We also took a trip to share with the students at the government school at Takhmao City. We chose this school because this is the old school that two Liger students have learned at before. We taught the students who were in grades 5 and 6. We shared some things that we learned like floods, storms, earthquakes, and avalanches. The students werevery smart to answer the questions and understand the information.