Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. Secondary school: Transition
3. Secondary school: Raffles Institution
4. Secondary school: Exploratory Labs
5. Secondary school: Science in Secondary School
6. Foothill College
7. Foothill College: Physics Olympics
8. Foothill College: Science in College
9. Closing Words

Introduction

Hi,
I’m Ronald Tan Kiem Seng, an international student from Indonesia who is currently studying in Foothill College, majoring the Chemical Engineering. I will be transferring to four-year University on Fall, either to UC Berkeley or Purdue University

In this eportfolio, I’ll be presenting my journey through education from secondary school until now and some thoughts that I had while going through them. I choose to focus on my education starting from secondary school because I find that my education starts to get interesting during that period. I would like to put more emphasis on my science learning because I found science subjects to be more interesting than the others. I will showcase some of the works that I have done throughout my school days such as lab reports, assignments and also my report books. I will also showcase some pictures on events that I have take part in such as the recent Physics Olympics in Foothill College.

Hopefully, by creating this eportfolio, I can remember the things I have gone through and accomplished so far in my education. As Steve Jobs put it, “you can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards”. This eportfolio will help me to connect the dots, to see how the past experience help to forge me into who I am right now, through recalling the things I have done before

Ronald Tan Kiem Seng

Secondary school: Transition

After completing primary school education in Indonesia, I was sent to Singapore to have my secondary school education. The transition when I moved from Indonesia to Singapore was not an easy one. I had to overcome the language barrier (Indonesia uses Bahasa Indonesia and Singapore uses primarily English) and also relearn some of the subjects that I had taken such as science and mathematics due to different syllabus. The biggest hurdle in the transition was overcoming the language barrier. I had had English tuition before in Indonesia but it was a very basic English. I had six months before school started and I had to bring my level of English up to par as if I had a primary education in Singapore. I took tuition class during those six months to learn English, science and mathematics before I finally enrolled in a secondary school, Raffles Institution.

Secondary school: Raffles Institution

The first year in the school, I was still struggling with the subjects in the school, notably in the English language and humanities because both required good mastery of English and my English was bad. I wasn’t discouraged but persevered on. I stayed in the school’s Boarding during my time in Raffles Institution. I met many scholars that come from all over South East Asia, India and China. The experience certainly broadened my view of the different cultures and it helped to develop interpersonal communication skills. Furthermore, seeing them very motivated in their studies spur me on to do better on my studies too. My results gradually improve with each year that passed by. At the end of secondary 4, I took the O’Level examination and I managed to get 7A’s and 1B. I’m quite satisfied with my O’Level results. The subject that I get a B on is English and I have never been strong in that subject though I think I have come a long way from the time I had first arrived in Singapore.

Secondary school: Exploratory Labs

During secondary 3, there was a new program being offered in the school called Exploratory Labs. There was 2 programs being offered, one is photonics lab which deals with laser and the other is Life science lab which deals with biotechnology. I have a great deal of interest in science since I was in primary school. I didn’t want to miss those opportunities to explore science beyond the classroom, and I applied to the program. Looking at the program description for the 2 programs being offered, I found that the life science program was more appealing to me, with the focus of the program on plant tissue culture. We will be growing parts of plants from plant cells in laboratory dishes. My group managed to grow only a few “successful” plant tissues, most of them were contaminated with fungi or bacteria. It is very easy for the cultures to become contaminated with fungi or bacteria and they can replicate easily in the laboratory dishes as they are filled with nutrients solution. Eventhough, my group’s tissue culture was mostly a failure; I think the whole experience was very interesting and rewarding.

After taking part in the life science program, we had to come up with a final project which is related to biotechnology. Coincidentally, there was an upcoming competition on biotechnology, “Biotech Fair”, so we were encouraged to submit our project in the competition. My group’ project is to create some sort of detection system for toxic materials that might be present in buildings using plant as the detectors. What we do for the project was obtaining one type of plants which we found by research to be sensitive to changes in the surrounding yet quite resistant. We isolate the plants with different types of chemicals that are commonly present in buildings such as paints and other volatile chemicals. Surprisingly, different chemicals have different effects on the plants. The results that we presented for the competition were the effects of different chemical on the plants and also the threshold of exposure to the chemicals (with varying concentration). Nevertheless, we participated in the competition with no expectation of winning at all but we managed to get third place in the competition.

Secondary school: Science in secondary school

In secondary 1-2, there was only 1 science class which is general science. From secondary 3-4, I took chemistry, biology and physics. Out of the three science subjects, I find chemistry to be the most interesting. I think the things that can make students more interested in science are the labs and demonstration. In my secondary school, I find chemistry labs to be the most interesting. For example, there was one lab where we make several esters which have fruity scents from carboxylic acids and alcohols with acid catalyst. One of the chemicals used, butanoic acid, has a really foul smell of sewage. However through the chemical reaction, the butanoic acid is transformed to the sweet smelling esters and it is very fascinating to see that happening. Furthermore, the demonstrations that I have seen and find interesting is mostly related to chemistry. Some examples of the demonstrations were “elephant toothpaste” and thermite reaction which produce molten iron and the “money burning” which I found to be very interesting. A paper bill is soaked in an alcohol-water solution and then set on fire. After the fire has died, the bill is found to be unscathed. I think the most effective way of learning science for me is through doing experiments or seeing demonstrations with the concepts being explained afterwards. This will make the learning much more interesting. Simple demonstration such as the money burning can be easily done in class. The interest that I have in chemistry is what led me to decide taking Chemical Engineering as my major. I know that chemical engineering doesn’t involve a lot of chemistry, however, I like engineering as well so I decided to take chemical engineering.

Foothill College

After finishing my secondary school education, I know that I want to continue my study in U.S. I don’t know the exact reason for me wanting to go to U.S. to study but I’ve wanted to study here in U.S. since I was a child. And so, I enrolled in Foothill College. This time the transition from Singapore to U.S. is easy for me. The experience that I have living independently without my parents in Singapore certainly helps in making the transition. And I have learnt to quickly adapt to new surroundings.

College is very different from secondary school. The instructors in college don’t really care whether you do your homework or come to class and this is very different from secondary school where the teachers care about the students’ studies. We are treated as an adult in college and so we have to be more responsible with our school work. Furthermore, we have the freedom of choosing our own class, schedule and instructors to take and I like that freedom given to the students.

I join the engineering club and the Honors program in Foothill College. I join the engineering club because the club is in line with my interest. I join the Honors program because it will be a mentally stimulating experience through the class offered, such as this one. And of course, enrolling in the Honors program would increase the likelihood of being accepted into good universities which is what students like to have.

Foothill College: Physics Olympic

On 10 March 2006, the engineering club held physic Olympics and I participated in it. My group participated in the laser maze and block stacking events. We got 1^st place in the laser maze event and 3^rd place in the block stacking events. I think participating in the physic olympics bring out the competitive spirit inside of me. I was at first skeptical about the physics Olympics, thinking that it would be boring. However participating in it turned out to be a very fun experience and turned on the competitive spirit for a lot of people.

Foothill College: Science in college

The way science is taught in Foothill College is very different from the way it is taught in my secondary school. The science classes that I have in secondary school are much more interesting than the ones I have here. I find that none of the labs so far is interesting. I think this is because in college, they want to prepare students more for research and working life and do practical experiments instead of flashy experiments. We have to keep a lab notebook which is where we write the procedures and data that we get during an experiment. I think this practice is useful because it will make students more organized and it will be a good habit to train because later on in the future, the students might be doing research and have to keep a log on what they are doing.

I find that the lab here is all about following the procedures from the book and writing down the results. Even if we don’t get the expected results, the instructors will sometimes give us the expected data. I think the purpose is to train us the techniques that might be used later on in research. Things like using and reading NMR (Nuclear Magnetic Resonance) and IR (Infrared Spectroscopy).

Click Here for the links to a sample of my lab report

Closing words

I will be transferring to university on Fall 2006 and this will bring me to another new environment. I am still waiting for an answer from UC Berkeley and this makes me quite anxious. However, I am excited too that soon I’ll be entering a new phase in my education, the senior year in university. Nevertheless, I know that it won’t be a smooth journey but I will strive to do my best and hope for the best.

Auspicium Melioris Aevi

Raffles Institution school motto