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Ecology Description

Exploration Name: Forest Ecology

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

Number of students: 12

Essential Questions: (1) What is an ecosystem mean? (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, commercialism, 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 and they played their music to us.   Also they teach us how to play the song too.

bunong music

Bunoung people played their traditionalist music. 

teach

Teach Liger students how to play the music

On Saturday we came back to our school and we shared what we learned.

http://forestecology.ligercambodiablog.org/

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Microfinance Description

Exploration Name: Social Business

Exploration Dates: Nov 20 – Dec 17

Number of Students: 12

Essential Questions: How does social business alleviate poverty? What is the role of women in microcredit systems?

In Social Business class we learned about microfinance, Tong Tin and saving money. Microfinance is the bank that is for the poor people to loan the money. We learned about microfinance in Cambodia. We went on a trip to interview community people about microfinance. They microfinance is good for them because they can loan the money to make the business. We learned about Tong Tin. Tong Tin is very common at Cambodia. At Cambodia people like to play Tong Tin because they can win money on it but it might take a long time like maybe one year or more. Tong Tin can be bad and can be good. The bad thing about that game is we need to pay a lot of interest. The good thing is we can win the money. One day we learned how to play Tong Tin. We also learned about saving money. We went to Phnom Penh to visit the Kok Tha. Kok Tha is the manager of a savings group. We had a lot of trips and it was very helpful for our team.

Here is our blog that our group make to share to other people in the world.

http://savingsandmicrofinance.ligercambodiablog.org/

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Renewable Energy Description

Exploration Name: Renewable Energy in Cambodia (Poo)

Exploration Dates: Oct 7 to Nov 19

Number of students: 13 students

Essential Questions:

1. Are biogas and solar energy sources practical and cost effective in Cambodia?

2. What are the benefits and drawbacks to using biogas and solar energy in Cambodia?

Description:

In our Exploration class we had three things to work on. The first area was the solar system. The solar system is a resource that can create the energy from the sun. Solar has four types: solar panel, solar cooker, solar water heater and solar lamp. A solar panel is the solar thing that creates the energy to run the electricity. A solar cooker is the solar thing that creates the energy for cooking. A solar water heater is the solar thing the creates the energy to turn the normal water to the hot water. A solar lamp is the solar thing that creates the energy to light the house if that house doesn’t have the electricity. The next thing that we learned about was the biodigester. A biodigester is a natural system that can create biogas by using poo from the animals. Cow poo is the best. It has a lot of benefits. Example: (1) saving the money, (2) healthier than using firewood, (3) save a tree. The last thing that we learned was about hydroelectricity. Hydroelectricity is a thing that creates the energy by using water. It usually is built over the river. The biggest dam in the world is in China. Our goal was to make Cambodians know that all of these things can create energy. Also we wanted them to use these three things because they are good and can save a lot of money. We also had a trip too. The trip was to go to Kampong Speu. Our target was to install two biodigesters. We install them in Camkids and the orphanage called HAP because we wanted to make them easy instead of using the firewood. Both of the biodigesters cost $1100. When we went to to Kampong Speu we also taught some students too. We also slept at Kampong Speu too. We had good days when we were in Kampong Speu province.

 

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Water Description

Liger Water System

Exploration Dates: August 12 – September 26

Number of Students: 12

Description: In our water group we learned about the pH of water. The full words of pH is Percent Hydrogen. That is the kind of scale that people use to measure the acids and bases. The scale of pH is 0-14. From 0-7 is acidic, 7-14 is basic and 7 is neutral. The hydrogen (H+) is acid and hydroxide (OH-) is base. When we learned about pH we did the experiment with 13 liquid things. For ex: the coca-cola and pond water. The coca-cola was 2.0 so it means acidic. If we drink it a lot like every day we would get sick but if we drink in 1 week only 1 it will be good. The pond was 10.0 so it means basic and if it has a lot of basic like this it also not good for our health either. So we can eat or drink only higher than 7 to 9 or lower than 7 to 5, so it not really have many bases or acids. In this class we also studied about algae. Algae is the kind of plants that live in water and it uses the sun as it food. When this plant lives in water it will make water become basic. We studied our own pond at Liger to learn about this. One other thing that we learned was the water cycle. We learned when the sun rises then it does the evaporation with water. When water goes up it is not yet become the clouds but when the temperature is cool then it makes condensation so it becomes the cloud. When the cloud in the sky catches the cool temperature it will become the rain again. To learn about water we went on the trip to RDI. RDI is the place that makes the water filters to sell. One thing that we learned from there is why they made this RDI place because they saw that some people here don’t have the clean water to drink so they can buy it to get the filter and clean for them. Another reason is when they sell the water filter they sell as cheaply as they can to help the people in Cambodia.

Here is our blog that we create to share to other people in the world.

– http://ligerwater.wordpress.com/