Term 1 Blog Post 3: Termly Reflection

Introduction:

In this blog post I will reflect on my personal growth in science and on my performance in the science assessment test for this term(term 1).

How have I has my knowledge and understanding for Science improved and grown?

Well, contrary to last year, this year when I started learning the syllabus, I thought I had lost my "science" touch. I simply did not understand anything, and found it hard to do any worksheets. I panicked really bad, as I did not want it to fall into a "domino" effect when because I had started with a bad start that the rest of the year I would be doing badly. So I sat down for a good 2 hours and thought to myself, what were the things that led me to score so well in my science last year? What were the factors that eventually earned me an exemption?

And then it struck me, I had to read the textbook. Yes, cliched and simple enough, reading the textbook actually improved my science by a huge margin, and it really helps when you don't understand a single thing the teacher says during class. I scrambled for the thick Science textbooks, and started reading on the various topics that I would be learning for term 1. Booyah! It worked. This was during mid-term, and I found myself at ease with the subject for the rest of the term, even coaching my friends on the subject.

But my results really disappoint me, and I will elaborate on it later. So as usual, I had gained all the head knowledge of the syllabus itself, such as chemical equations, periodic table etc., but what I had really found out was that I really had to manage time better. 2 CCAs, 2 Competitions, Organising Team of 17th SLC, ANGLES and 3NGLES, and finally council. Whew, that was a mouthful. With so many things to handle this term, I was really, really overwhelmed with work. I told myself, I would not let all this take control of my life, and as a result, my acadamics suffer. But even then, losing hours and hours of sleep everyday was not an option too, making me feel very sleepy during class and my learning suffers as a result. Either way, I knew that I would not be doing well this term in terms of acadamics. I told myself to just do my best and strive for even better the next term, but it really daunts me to know that I would be EVEN more busy next term.

Putting that aside, last year in my E-Portfolio I stated that the science syllabus was really too easy for me, and I had lost interest in it due to getting straight A1s throughout the term. This year, I still found the science easy, but I found another interest in a field of science - aviation science. I think this is very feasible in terms of my current life, as I am a member of Singapore Youth Flying Club, and one of the competitions I am taking part in is also regarding Aviation Science. This term, I also attended the Aviation Science sabbatical.

So I have begun to see the world in a different way, and after learning the different chemical bonds, I start to intepret things in a different way. Salt is now sodium chloride to me, water is now Hydrogen + Oxygen to me. Science is really fascinating to me, and I plan to keep striving for the best and improving myself in the rest of the year!

My performance in the Science Assessment Test:

For this term's test, I scored a total of 29.5/40, which is actually 73.75/100. This means that barely missed A1, and got an A2!

I have to say, I hate myself, really, for scoring such marks. When I received my paper, I saw a 30.5/40, and I was like, "Thank God!" Then I saw the -1 at the side, and my entire life plunged into darkness. No, I am not exaggerating. If what my science teacher said is true, that if I don't get A1 for all the terms, my exemption is certainly gone. The reason why I am so upset about it, is that Science is one of my strongest subjects, and at the end of the year, I need the exemption time to study for other subjects! Although it's true that exemption does not matter as long as I study hard, and that I will surely get an A1 at the end of year, but this would mean that I would score lesser for other subjects, as time is already such a crucial and precious thing to me now!

I would like to also say, my score was entirely my fault. I got complacent mid-term, thinking that getting an A1 was a sure thing for me, and look what happened. I did not study for my test, thinking that I understood all its concepts, and the worst thing is, when I looked through the test paper, it dawned on me that had I studied, even if just for 1 hour, I could score at least 6 or 7 marks higher! I am not one to dwell on sad things in the past that cannot be changed, but sometimes the strain and stress is really pulling me down. I am all determined that I will never let such a thing happen to me again, but sheer determination needs to be coupled with time and effort.

I did hear from other students that their Science teacher said that as long as after calculating everything; ACE, E-Portfolio, Tests, Assignments, your final score is above 80, then you will get exempted. If truly hope that that is the case, because I am down right determined to score well for my Science, and will not fail my teachers or disappoint them. Right now I am also hoping that my score would be rounded up, which would mean an A1. Now please do not think that I just care about marks, I am very interested in Science, just that how can I learn the things that I enjoy in Science that are not part of the syllabus and curriculum, if I do not score well for my examinations. In such cases, that half mark really makes a difference in my life and my pursuit for knowledge in Science, and many other subjects.

Having said that, the mistakes that I made in the Science Test were actually 90% careless mistakes due to not refreshing my memory by revising and forgetting a certain concept, and 10% not understanding the question itself. That minute 10% can actually be solved by studying deeper into the topic itself, nothing major, but that 90%, that heart killing 90% was unnecessary marks wasted. Things like, "Hydrogen + Oxygen = Hydroxide", boy I really hate myself. I am going to study hard and do well next term, and hope that in my next Termly Reflection, I would be rejoicing instead of mourning.

Term 1 Blog Post 2: Aviation Science Sabbatical

Introduction:

Ahh, Aviation Science. When I came to Hwa Chong and found out that I could take Singapore Youth Flying Club as a CCA, I was simply elated. I guess I have to say I was born into such an environment; my dad is a lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic, teaching the course on avionics. Then again, avionics isn't aviation, avionics is a portmanteau of "aviation" and "electronics". It comprises electronic systems for use on aircraft, artificial satellites and spacecraft, comprising communications, navigation and the display and management of multiple systems.

Then again, his constant fascination with helicopters, planes and jets naturally led me in his path. He would bring back radio-controlled helicopters or planes from those stores and let me take a try at controlling them. That was when my passion for aviation started.

Into the Sabbatical itself:

Now you might ask me, why did I only take this sabbatical this year when I am secondary 2, and not last year? Well my answer was simple, I wanted to concentrate more on the 'flying' activities in my 2nd CCA, Youth Flying Club, before going into the theory itself. Last year the course was conducted in 2 Sabbatical weeks, a basic course, which was a pre-requisite for the advanced course.

This year, however, they decided to mash both together, which can be a good and bad thing, one of the pros being that the students save a lot more money, as each course cost $100.

So moving on to the details of the course itself, the content was spilt up among the week; the basic section will be conducted on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while the advanced section will be conducted on Thursday and tomorrow(Friday). Throughout the entire Sabbatical though, I found the time not enough - the instructor had to skip a lot of content in order to make sure we had enough time to experience the 'hands-on' part ourselves. He also said that last year, he would go through the acadamic part first, which is the things we learn in science class(Energy, Rate, Speed, Density etc.) and then showing us how it linked and how we could apply to flying and aviation science. This term he just went straight into the application part, which meant it was very taxing on our brains throughout the whole sabbatical. I have to say something though, the instructor was superb, he could make those dreaded and boring science theories interesting, and his lessons were conducted with personal experiences, stories, interesting slides and all sorts. This is simply an excellent sabbatical, and I strongly recommend this to anyone who has a passion for aviation.

What have I learnt?

I will now split this into the basic module and the advanced module:

Basic Module - Basic Pilot Course

Major Aircraft Parts:

So on the first day, we were introduced to the parts and components that made up a plane. Of course it would vary from different models of the plane, but the components we learnt were the standard parts that every plane should have.

Fuselage - The fuselage or body of the airplane, is the component of he plane that holds all the other pieces of the plane together. The pilots sit in the cockpit at the front of the fuselage. Passengers and cargo are carried in the rear of the fuselage. Some aircraft carry fuel in the fuselage; others carry the fuel in the wings.

Wings - Well, need anything else be said? The wings are the part of the plane that actually allows to it fly! Due to the shape and the way the wings are designed and built, they generate most of the lift to hold the plane in the air.

Empennage - The empennage is a term used in aviation for the tail section of the plane. The empennage's purpose is mainly to control and maneuver the aircraft, as smaller wings are located at the tail of the plane. The tail usually has a fixed horizontal piece, called the horizontal stabilizer, and a fixed vertical piece, called the vertical stabilizer. The stabilizers' job is to provide stability for the aircraft, to keep it flying straight. The vertical stabilizer keeps the nose of the plane from swinging from side to side, which is called yaw. The horizontal stabilizer prevents an up-and-down motion of the nose, which is called pitch. (On the Wright brother's first aircraft, the horizontal stabilizer was placed in front of the wings. Such a configuration is called a canard after the French word for "duck").

Landing Gear - Consist of three wheels in most cases of a plane for landing.

Powerplant - This is basically the part of the plant that helps it generate thrust, which in most cases of planes are turbojets, propeller engines, or turbofans.

Flight Control and Basic Maneuvers:

Instead of having a 5-day long course of just teaching and lecturing, we also used flying simulation software, such as the Microsoft Flight Simulator software, to train on flying and learn on aviation. So in this part of the sabbatical, we basically learnt what was the longitudinal axis, the lateral axis, vertical axis, and the techniques of flying. I have to say that the simulator is really realistic, such as that real professional pilots train on it too!

Basic Flight Aerodynamics:

For most people attending this sabbatical, this has got to be the most 'brain-juice' intensive part of the programme, though I found it quite a breeze as I already had some background knowledge of aerodynamics.

So, why do planes even fly? ow comes to the question, how does our glider fly? First we have to know the four forces that are present before flight can take place. Thrust, lift, drag and weight. Thrust being a propeller or engine that generates the energy for the plane to move forward. Lift is produced because the airflow above the wing is faster than the airflow below the wing, and because of Bernoulli's Principle(Don't really want to elaborate on theories), the pressure and velocity changes, and thus creating lift according to Newton's third law of motion. Drag is incurred mainly because of air resistance. Weight basically consists of the components of the plane.

We were also taught on Center of Gravity, Weight and Balance and why the plane is designed in a certain way and how it helps to improve the overall flying performance

Basic Navigation / Navigation Aids:

Alttitude Indicator, Altimeter, Turn Coordinator, Heading Indicator, Airspeed Indicator, Vertical Speed Indicator and a simple clock. These are only some of the instruments that a pilot uses to navigate around. Without these instruments, pilots would most probably find it hard to fly, as a risk of stalling or crashing into a mountain could be the cause of such instruments failing. We also learn what were the the different ways a pilot could try to hover above terrain, such as VOF and IFR. We also learnt about certain terms such as Dead Reckoning, which is in contrast to flight by pilotage. This refers to flying a course solely by relying on calculations of time, speed, distance and direction. Scary what technology huh?

Instrument Charts

I would say this was basicallya geography lesson on how to read and see the different information and charts or maps that pilots use to fly. Boring? No, the superb instructor I talked about managed to put in stories of how errors in a simple map could cause disaster to the pilot, co-pilot and passenges.

Advanced Module - Fighter Course

When I received the booklet for the advanced module today, I gave an incredulous look at the teacher - literally. It was thicker, with much more information as compared to the Basic Module, and we only had 2 days(including today) left to cover the content. We ended skipping a lot, and it was a pity as the title itself pique my interest. We did have a lot of 'hands-on' time though, to try different flight combat simulators such as Falcon 4.0: Allied Force. Don't be mistaken, we did not have a gaming course during this time, these simulators were very realistic, and if you play it like you would play a game, you would die before you even got into battle during take-off.

There was one thing that really got my interest in this area, which is a term called "G-Force". "The g-force (with g from gravitational) associated with an object is its acceleration relative to free-fall. This acceleration experienced by an object is due to the vector sum of non-gravitational forces acting on an object free to move. The accelerations that are not produced by gravity are termed proper accelerations, and it is only these that are measured in g-force units. They cause stresses and strains on objects, which are felt as weight (any g-force can thus be simply described, and measured, as a "weight per unit mass"). Because of these strains (weight forces), large proper accelerations (large g-forces), may be destructive." - quote from wikipedia(I couldn't find a better explanation for it, and using my own words would just be twisting its meaning.

Check this video here to find out how a pilot experiences 9G: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V9d_PK6pWNo&feature=related

With that, I would really like to say that I thoroughly enjoyed this course. I cannot wait for tomorrow, which is the last day of the course, where we all get to pit our skills against each other in the combat flight simulator. I might yet be a budding pilot, with a flying dream: "For once you have tasted flight, You will walk the Earth with your eyes turned skyward; For there you have been, And there you long to return." - Leonardo Da Vinci, On Flight of Birds.