From the 1st of February till the 6th of February 2010,we were chosen to attend attend the 2nd APEC Future Scientist Conference at the National Science Museum(NSM), Tecnopolis, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand.
The following is a short review of what we did throughout our stay in Thailand….
DAY 1
We arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport around lunchtime on the 1st of February, a Monday.
We were greeted by a museum official and were brought to the museum. It was a rather tiring journey but we were quickly put to work without any lunch-having to prepare the presentation of our posters- so, by the end of the day, we were practically dozing off during the Welcome Dinner at Function Room of the IT Museum. We had an icebreaking session in which we met people from all over the world including students from Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Brunei Darussalam. We then retired gladly to our dorms where we would be staying throughout our stay there.
DAY 2
After breakfast, at 8 in the morning we were required to register ourselves at the ground floor of the NSM Ofiice Building. We then headed to the conference room for a short conference. The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr.Suchhinda Chotipanich did an opening remark before a special lecture by the President of the National Science Museum, Thailand, Dr.Pitchai Sonchaeng. After a filling lunch, it was time for the much awaited poster presentation. We did a short presentation on green energy and sustainable methods to save our earth. All in all, though our presentation was not on par with some of the students who did experiments on protein molecules and so on, we were happy and contented that we did our best during a 1 week duration in which we prepared the poster. We were then broken up into groups of 5 students each for our next task which is to build our very own eco-friendly house with zero carbon emission. We then toured the Science museum before being treated to an official Reception Party. We had a dose of some beautiful cultural dances from the different parts of Thailand. Our stomachs were also filled to the extreme with scrumptious Thailand food.
DAY 3
The next day, our schedules were packed with the team implementation project. We had to find lots of information with which we had to built a miniature house with the materials provided such as pieces of wood, colour papers, straws, balloons and other materials to bring up a decent miniature house…
That night, we had a science show that was pretty much enjoyed by all participants. We also had a cultural show in which we got to learn about other countries.
DAY 4
The race again time heated up as were rushed to get our project completed. The rooms were filled with the noises of hammers beating against wood as the houses began to take shape. We were also required to do a short power point presentation on our project.
DAY5
The morning was a tense one as the groups got ready to present their projects in front of all the mentors and a few other guests. We were given 2o minutes to do our presentation in which we had 10 minutes to answer questions asked by the audience. It cannot be denied however that we had a great time doing this as some of us came up with witty comments that had all of us laughing. After a carefree lunch, we had a closing ceremony in which awards were given out. We, the representatives of Malaysia were proud that we managed to get 2 medals-a silver medal by Mustaqiim and a gold medal by Deeviya. That evening we finally got to travel out of the museum compound. We were brought to a shopping centre where we had our dinner before going shopping at the night bazaar. By the time we reached the museum at about midnight, we were laden down by bags and bags of souvenirs. However, since it was the last night that we had together, we were reluctant to sleep and ended up having a noisy party in the boys dormitory.
It was a wonderful time we had-something that we would never forget for the rest of our lives.
We retired to bed at about 3.30 in the morning and had an hours sleep before getting up to catch our flight. It was sad to leave our new friends but we were also happy to be once again going back home.
Though our trip to Thailand was so packed with activities that we hardly got more than 5 hours of sleep each night, it was an experience of a lifetime. We still do keep in touch with our friends overseas. We thank the school for giving us a chance and hope that many activities similar to this will be held in years to come.
By:
DEEVIYA MUNIANDY
MUHAMMAD MUSTAQIIM BIN MUHAR
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