Theme of MICSS Science Camp 2009 – 天工开悟
Attending to MICSS Science Camp 2009 in Foon Yew High School, Kulai as a counsellor was a great pleasure. I can focus more on making friends instead of striving hard for prizes. Most importantly, it was a great chance to widen our perspective on science and to realise what we have in mind is just a fraction of the whole puzzles.
From left to right: Chia-Wei Li, Robin Lee and Wei-Hsin Sun
The main program of the science camp was the lectures by renowned professors. They were Prof. Wei-Hsin Sun, Prof. Chia-Wei Lee and Prof. Shun-Fen Tzeng. Their talks covered topics ranging from astronomy to life science. It was a pity that they were not given enough time to go deep into their exciting stories. However, I think their talks were impressive enough to encourage us to dig into them ourselves.
The second night of the camp, I joined Dr.Chong from USM for the “Night talk”. I was really amazed that he is so energetic and passionate. I can hardly find anybody else on par with him. He gave us a talk on the topic – The Search for More Extra-solar Planets – E.T. Where Are You? Wow! Interesting huh? Yeah, jia bueh liao! (Hokkien).
Dr.Chong pointed us the Alpha Centauri. Wow!
Right after that was stargazing party. It was even more fun with the present of Dr.Chong. He was like a boy running on the field with endless energy. He distributed lots of star charts and almanac to us and showed us the constellations by green laser. He also showed us the Meade MySKY which functioned as an electronic starchart. I was his assistant but I went away to take Prof. Sun’s autograph. Haha… Sorry about that Dr.Chong. Back to the stargazing party, the telescopes were not as many and powerful as last year. The weather was not very nice though. In fact, it was not a failure but it was not great enough to allure people to pursue astronomy as a hobby.
Dr.Chong said, “Fuiyoh… Don’t underestimate this cheap-looking water rocket. It can fly up to 150 meters high! No joke!”
Earlier the day, I also joined Dr.Chong for the mini water rocket DIY session. I loved to learn from him. He was such a high spirit, energetic and humorous professor. I can’t help laughing throughout the workshop. He is a real funny guy. The water rocket can be made under RM5. We just need plasticine, masking tape, wood made chopsticks and 2 7-up bottles. The launcher can be done with RM20. The designs of the water rocket and launcher are proven to be effective. I will ask for Dr.Chong permission if I can upload the guide of making water rocket.
The Universe movies were visually nice. However, most of us were not happy with the Bahasa Malaysia dub. The movies would be more interesting if they were played in English.
I have a little complain here. The food was considered below average. It was oily and boring. The breakfast, snack and supper were almost the same for the whole week. Some said that it’s not green to use paper plate (Yes, we had our food with use-and-throw tableware). Do you think it will be greener if we use reusable tableware? Save trees and petroleum or water? Discuss, please.
Congratulations! You guys did a great job! I am really proud of being the counsellor of Team 7.
I will have a gallery working later which shows all the photos I took. Stay tuned!
Light pollution, we hate it but some of us have to live with it especially those who live in suburban and urban areas. If you want to know how severe it is, try to look at the photos above. These are for those who live in South-East Asia and Malaysia, you may refer to 
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