Community Service Initiatives

Week 1 : Briefing

On the first week, both of the lecturers briefed us on the project and task for this module - which is refurbishing and enhancing a Mini Library in the Orang Asli Kampung of Serendah Sekeping.

There was 7 groups to be seperated and a total of 16 of my peers including me chose Group 5 - Fun learning Aid as our task.

Our mission was to create Fun Learning - Aids, wall installation for kids targeted at the age 5-7. There was Four subject to be done which is :

1. English

2. Matj

3. Science

4. Arts

The installation are required to give the kids basic knowledge and exposition at the level of early years stage.

Hence, below is the proposal we did that was presented on week 4 to the lecturers:

Week 2 - 4 : proposal presentation

I was appointed as the Leader for the group, as well as being responsible for the subject SCIENCE.

At the end of the presentation, my group (Science) was given comments where our proposal is not user friendly and requires monitoring and assistance if the kids wanted to engage in it. Hence, it was not proper.

Both the lecturers gave us input such as to change it to simpler and more straight forward passsive learning aids :

1. Human Anatomy

2. Solar system (Also complementing the murals that the other group decided on in their presentation).

Hence, we have decided to take in these two suggestions, with some interactive elements such as moveble parts and so forth.

The following week will be another meeting to confirm our progress and proposal, and start on building/ assembling the installation.

Week 5 - 6 : Refining & re-propose

After the presentation on Friday, we were given 1 week of time to redesign and repropose our learning Aid according to the feedbacks given.

In that week, me and my teammates discussed and researched on how to actually embark on kids' memory and also intellectual aspects as well as photographic memories. Hence we came out with the idea that we will actually be focusing on this topics:

1. Human Body Anatomy

2. Human 5 Senses

3. Weather wheel

These three sub-topics was planned this week in where there will be puzzles (human anatomy) , infographics (5 senses) and an interactive element which is the weather wheel.

My role here this week was to actually conduct the discussion and also provide my inputs from my researches. My group mates, Jie Ting and Aqilah and I also decided on the colours for our boards to be using mostly bring vibrant colour as it captures chidrens attention easily.

Besides that, I am also responsible as the group leader of whole team to be constantly actively raising question, enquiry and also responding to Ms Norji, our lecturer, on her checking, concern and approval for the project.

at 5pm on Friday, we met Ms Norji and showed her our seocnd proposal, she raised a few concern and also gave a few suggestions to make our boards better before we proceed to the making it.

Week 6 - 10 : detail planning & execution

On week 6, we started planning and executing the boards, after the concept ideas and functions was approved by Ms Norji.

We splitted the tasks into three parts:

1. Colour Scheme & Composition

2, Laser Cutting & Material Sourcing

3. Assembling & Painting

we did not really seperated it solely among three of us as we believ eit would be better if we all engage in the tasks together instead of doing it individually.

We got bookings for the laser cut room on three different days, 14th May, 29th May and 10th June.

For laser cutting, we spent alot of time drawing the pieces to be cut in Autocad, then exporting it to the laser cut files, assigning colours for the machine to know which to be cut which to be marked. It was very time consuming especially on the laser cutting part as we spent 5-6 hours everytime to draw it out and wait for the laser cut as well as dealing with the system.

Next, we also went to get materials and etc such as wooden boards, spray paint, paint and glue. Sourcing for materials wasnt an easy and fast task too as we need to drive here and there to survey for the materials as well as being turned away as there wasnt the right sizing and specs that we wanted.

Working in the budget was not easy as a result my group was a little overbudget but we didnt mind as it was spent for a good and meaningful reason.

Then, it was the composition and colour scheme. My group felt that the colour schemes used in the presentation slides was a very good one to stick to as it shows very cheerful and positive vibes from it. We spend alot of time looking for the right pictures, the right icons and cliparts as well as compositng it in photoshop to get the exact boards before we print and stick it.

Lastly it was the assembling part. We was a little late as there were assignments piling up for Finals. Hence we only starrted assembling it on the last week and it was hecting and intensed. We spent almost whole days on campus just to do it for few days that we dont have classes. It was all for the benefits of the kids thata ctually tied our minds together. Fortunately, everything was done before the submission date.

week 11: submission & bringing on site

The day 15th June was the day we need to visit the site to install the boards. We were on our own transportation, hence we car pooled and i was the driver to send the boards to the site. Fortunately the SUV successfull fitted the A0 boards with the 4 passengers in the car comfortably. We started Journey at 12pm from Taylors University, a little jam on the way near Serendah. Reached at 1:30 pm. Not gonna lie it was quite far and fuel, tol consuming. After all the hassle drilling and installing (we relied on one drill for all the 4 subjects), we finished everything by 7pm and headed back.

Overall, this CSI module looked easy from the outside, but the inside comprises alot of efforts and sweat as well as brain juices from the students that are so busy with their design core modules. The outcome and purpose was what actually giving me as well as others to do it with full force, to actually educated the kids in their village, to let them have a good base in learning, before stepping out to the outer cities and elevate the village's life standards as well as exposure.