A180873 

6th August 2023

As of week 2, I have completed the Advanced Adventure Diver course and obtained my license to dive to a maximum depth of 30 meters! I attended a classroom session followed by in-water trainings and a couple of experience dives this week. This course is a specialty diver’s course where I get to fine-tune and hone my diving skills. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the 5 specialties I took this week:  

Additional training has definitely refined my skills, boosting my confidence in diving. It is rewarding to see improvements. I'm keen to have many more dives in the following weeks and learn as I go. 

 

Engaging in conversations on marine life I come across while diving with other divers. 

Initially, I had difficulties navigating using the compass underwater. I found it hard to focus on the compass while diving, especially when there’s a strong current. I have to keep the arrow head aligned to the North and calculate my bearing accurately. To overcome this, I had several practice dives because nothing beats experience. Additionally, since I have no prior knowledge on identifying marine life (except Nemo), I found it a bit frustrating not knowing their names when I dive. Thus, to overcome this, I brought along my GoPro for each dive and recorded everything I saw. Afterwards, I would google up and ask my instructor more on them.

 

My plan for next week is to complete my First Response Training, which consists of oxygen administration and adult & child emergency care training. Hence, I will be attending classroom sessions, reading emergency manuals and taking tests. 

Muhamad Kamal Hazmi Bin Mohamad Khairi, A173346, 6 August 2023

 

As I entered the second week, I continued to build upon my boxing skills. Now familiar with the individual punches, I focused on stringing them together to create combinations. Learning various punch sequences allowed me to fluidly transition between moves, increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of my attacks.

Additionally, my trainer introduced defensive techniques to the mix. I learned how to slip and roll to avoid incoming punches while keeping my guard up. The drills and shadowboxing sessions intensified, pushing my stamina and endurance to new levels.

 

4. Your feelings & thoughts 

I feel much more confident throwing combos as they are becoming muscle memory at this point. I still think i need to be brave throwing my jabs at the opponents face.

 

Shadow boxing combos

 

My shoulder gets sore after throwing the same punches continuously especially during punching bag drills. I had to cope by giving it a rest in between days of training 

 

To work on my footwork - such as pivoting and moving around the ring

6. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?
I cannot memorize and familiarize all the steps of the yoga poses. I should spend some free time to practice at home.

7. Your plan for next week (Week 3)
I will join moderate classes such as wheel yoga, chair yoga and stick yoga.

Fahmiza Aishah binti Tasripin

A182907

4/8/2023

 

2. How is your progress?

The teaching session were improving from time to time, this is because I have gained more and more experience from my previous classes and also advices from my senior coaches. During the second week of my elective posting, I was able to conduct the class on my own without assistance from fellow coaches. I managed to teach 4 children and they are progressively improving which is really great. 

I also attended the coaches training day where we were further taught about the other technique to teach the children which are swimming strokes and breathing techniques. I attentively follow the guidelines and managed to teach the children these basic techniques in swimming. In order to attract the kids and gain their attention, we were also suggested to implement the usage of toys like ducks and basic swimming tools, like swimming noodles, fin, swimming board and life jackets. This equipment is very important because it aids the children to learn swimming faster. 

 

3. Points to remember from week 2!

 It is really important to pay attention to kids progress in learning, otherwise we would not be able to recognize what was the problem they were facing. In my case, there was one child unable to pull off the breathing technique while others were quickly adapting, this caused her to be left behind and she also felt lethargic and tired easily. I took the chance to check on her and get into the water with her to observe the way she bubbles underwater. I was quick to notice that she was bubbling wrongly. We were supposed to breath in with our mouth and bubbles underwater with our nose. However, she did it the other way around, causing her to swallow a lot amount of water and causing her to pant easily. So once again, I taught her on the correct breathing technique, it took awhile for her to adapt but she was making a good progress.

Moreover, I also learnt that each kids has their own way of learning, some takes only a couple of practices to master the skills while some other takes more time to learn. Thus, as a coach I should not force those who can not master the skill easily, instead I should focused more on them in order to guide them all the way and not lacking interest in the thing they are doing.

4. Your feelings & thoughts 

I was feeling excited and looking forward for more activities with these kids, as we will be having an assessment to evaluate their water surviving skills. I think they did well in their swim courses. I also think that I have done my best to teach them, this is because they are doing well despite different way of learning. 

5. ONE good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

One good thing that I gained is that we should become more flexible in teaching kids, this is because not all children can properly follow the guideline provided, thus we should be more creative during teaching sessions so that every each one of them can gain the same knowledge being provided and making a good progress.

 

6. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

I find a bit difficult to deal with situations where the children felt demotivated because they were unable to strive like their other friends. They usually exhibit the feeling of giving up and unwilling to continue the courses and decided to stay silent and isolated. It took me awhile to figure out the situation, and I did persuade them and tried to motivate them by asking them to play with me while at the same time learning the basic swimming techniques.

 

7. Your plan for next week (Week 3)

After the assessment of water surviving skills, we will proceed with swimming strokes which includes backstroke, freestyle, butterfly stroke, breast sroke.

Kevin Thir, A182101, 6 August 2023

 

2.      How is your progress?

I learnt that different capabilities such as macro lens, telephoto, shutter speed, ISO of any camera are essential to capture different type of images. For instances, a camera that has a very fast shutter speed is needed to capture a person kicking a ball. I also learnt the difference between capabilities of Point & Shoot camera, Compact camera and Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera.

 

3.      Points to remember from week 2!

-For shutter speed, what is the longest that the camera capable of? Some digital cameras can go up to 12k of a second.

-For aperture settings, what are the ranges? The smaller the number of f stop (f.), the widest the opening, and vice versa.

-For exposure modes, what are the modes available to the camera? For least expensive digital cameras may only have automatic mode, while for the most expensive may have options such as automatic, program, manual, aperture priority, etc. The more options for exposure modes, the more control over the camera.

-For ISO, what are the ranges? The higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor is and the less light it takes to properly expose it, and vice versa.

-A JPEG file is a photograph which the camera only uses a small portion of the digital information that's captured by the sensor during that exposure and it is immediately ready to be use. A RAW file is a record of the complete information about the light in the scene that was recorded by the sensor and it is the biggest file the camera can record.

-For sensor size, it determines the size of the file produced. Two other things about sensor other than size are CCD or CMOS sensor. CCD sensor means all the pixels on the sensor are exposed at the same time in any given line while CMOS means the pixels are exposed one at a time.

-For metering capabilities, such as point and shoot is a averaging meter where it's going to take account of all the light that's in the scene while more advanced such as spot meter is going to meter a very tiny spot on your subject, center weighted is going to face most of the exposure in the central area of the picture or evaluative meter where it meters all the different spots in the scene.

-For white balance, the ability to adjust is important so the final image can be cooler or warmer.

-For built-in flash location, the farther the flash is from the lens, the less likely for red eye effect.

4.      Your feelings & thoughts 

For the learning of this week, it is quite overwhelming as there is so much new term to digest in a camera’s capabilities. But the good thing is I know that I will understand how to use the different setting options in a camera by knowing each of its function.

 

5.      ONE good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

I can slowly understand how to use the pro section in my smartphone camera and adjust the settings according to different scenes.

 

6.      Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

So far, my main and most concern is trying to adapt on how different settings works in order to meet my expectation on the image’s outcome. It is not something that can be learnt easily as it seems in a short duration because it can be very complicated, but I believe that nothing is impossible as I practice along and live out the photography skills on my journey. 

 

7.      Your plan for next week (Week 3)

I will learn setting up the camera and ready to go to take photograph with my smartphone like a professional, practicing and skill myself up with the photography knowledge that I gained from the past 2 weeks.

 Mohammad Haiqal Hazieq Bin Mohd Nazarie (A181439) 30 July 2023

2. How is your progress?

 At this point, fixing common printer problems such as printer running out of ink, clogged ink catridge had become an easy task. Throughout the week, I have been given such tasks multiple times and eventually it became easy to do

3. Points to remember from week 2!

 As of week 2, the technician Mr Sulaiman, had shown me more advanced fixes for other types of printers. In the picture, Mr Sulaiman is currently disassembling the printer inner parts to show me exactly how the printer works. Following that, he taught me how fix a broken wiring system in the printer, simply by cutting it off and making a new one yourself by scraping off the rubber off the copper end.

4. Your feelings & thoughts 

 Honestly, I am surprised on how some of the fixes are really simple and all it requires is a bit of knowledge and a little bit of time to fix it. In the long run, it can probably save me some money especially since I use printers to print out some of the study materials I get (therefore I see this as a win!!)

5. ONE good thing from what you did that you can practice now!

 I could probably try and fix my printer at home all by myself 

6. Any difficulties/concerns? How did you cope?

 There were not a lot of things to be concerned about, but having to do this for 8 hours daily is exhausting, and I had to take a break few times to keep myself productive and to keep learning new things.

7. Your plan for next week (Week 3)

Apart from printer fixing, I would like to start learning more about laptop and computer fixes as we use it more often than a printer.

 How is my progress?

Originally I planned to master freestyle this week, but I still can’t. I find it difficult to do side-breathing for freestyle stroke as my head is quite submerged in the water, hence i inhaled water when trying to do side-breathing. My kicking isn’t that powerful to support myself too.

 

 

I was a bit disappointed as I couldn’t stick to my original plan. However, I think I gained something else: perseverance and extra practice to ensure my swimming is efficient. When life gives you lemon, make lemonade 🫶🏻

 

Taking things slowly but surely.

 

The coordination between the head, arms and legs is technically really difficult for me. I find it hard to do all things simultaneously and effectively. When i need to continuously kick, i stopped in the middle because i was focused on the arm movement so the swimming is interrupted. As mentioned above, my kicking is not powerful enough to keep me float. My coach said I need to keep practicing. As time goes by, it will be easier. 

Ho Xiang

A181576

2 August 2023
 
 

Same as the previous week, I helped the workers carrying stuff and watering plants. But this week, I started to try planting with the help of my supervisor. Starting from soil, I needed to prepare the soil that was suitable for the plant growing. The plant that I wanted to grow was Katsura, it required well-drained soil that was rich in humus and slightly acidic. Could use soil mixture, like Akadama mixed with Pumice and lava rock. Choose a small pot with the size of a small teacup and pour the prepared soil inside. Flattened the soil. Place the Katsura seed under a quarter inch (0.5cm max) of the soil. Water the soil until moist but do not let the water overflow and accumulate on the soil’s surface. After that, put the pot in a germination tray or cover with clear plastic to retain moisture. Next, place the pot in a luminous place but not in direct sunlight because it would dry the soil too fast. The seeds should sprout within 8 to 12 days. I should wait patiently until it sprouted out the surface. 

- good things take time. Just be patient after putting in maximum effort. Time will prove it worth it.  

- during the seed, seedling, and young plant phase, Katsura needs intensive care, especially needing to water several times a day depending on observation and not on a fixed schedule. The soil should never dry out completely to avoid a withered and slowing growing process. 

At first, I thought gardening and planting were easy jobs, just physical energy. But it actually needed a bit of knowledge in the aspect of preparing soil and watering. Other than that, it might be boring in the context of not gaining the result immediately. 

Gardening and planting can be practiced as a hobby to train my patience. It benefits me more than playing video games. Besides, I also can grow some edible plants, vegetables, and fruits, at my house area so that I no need to buy it when I want to eat it. 

The most difficulty thing at that time was preparing the soil. I needed to know the soil types and  soil mixture ratios for the planting purpose. To cope with it, I decided to search on the internet and ask my supervisor for help. 

To further take good care of the plants, I would like to learn about pests and its solution and identify common problems that may arise in plant care.