TISF

Recently, I went to Thailand for the 1^st Thailand International Science Fair (TISF). I was hoping to gain many new and different ideas for my research module next year. In fact, that was the main reason as to why I agreed to go for the trip. However, I definitely gained many things from the trip, apart from just looking at projects from all over the world.

The Singapore contingent from VJC (3 JC1s, 3 VIPs, Mr Teo and Ms Lui) arrived at Bangkok airport at around 8 in the evening on Wednesday (23 November). However, we were made to wait for about 2 hours before we could make our way to Mahidol Wittayanusorn School. Apparently, we needed to wait for the Australians to arrive as well. So we just hung around in the airport and got onto to bus about an hour later. We slept while waiting for the Australians to arrive. While waiting, we also got to know our buddy better. Each team was allocated to a buddy who was from MWITS itself. Our buddy was Mint. Her real name was Banthita, but Mint was her nickname. All the students in the school also had such nicknames as their real names were really long. Banthita was the shortest real name I saw, just to give you an idea.

At about 2315 hrs everyone had arrived, so we left to the school. It was a 1 hour bus ride to the school. When we arrived there, everyone was really sleepy. We got our suitcases and went to the registration counter to get our keys to our room. There, we met our other buddy. Okay, things may seem a bit confusing here. Let me straighten things out.

Team 1: Yong Jie, Rui Hong and me (The Effectiveness of Chitosan in the Adsorption of Heavy Metal Ions)

Buddy: Kanate Temtrirath

Team 2: Minh Vi, Cleaven and Justin (Solid state Photochemical Dimerization Reactions)

Buddy: Mint

n.b: All the IP students were just observers and had nothing to do with the project.

Actually my group’s buddy was Kanate. He greeted us with garlands (omg) and gave us our supper packages. This was the first of the many meals we were to receive. Anyway, we got our keys and our pocket money (440 baht) and we left for our rooms. The 3 other JC1s and I got the same room. We were really tired, so we fell asleep almost instantly. The next morning was when all the fun was about to start.

HRH Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn was to be the guest of honour at the opening ceremony of the science fair. The royalty are highly regarded in Thailand. It’s hard to encounter such a sight in Singapore. The constant bowing to the Princess was so surreal, it was hard to believe. We had to be in our formal wear for the ceremony. It started at around noon and we waited for so long, some of us fell asleep. Finally, the Princess arrived, gave a few awards and sat, to watch a few presentations from a few schools. These few presentations were from the few top high schools in the world namely the Illinois Maths and Science Academy and the Korean Science Academy. The presentations were really interesting. The presentation by the IMSA, which involved making nanotunnels on a Zirconium Titanate surface, was really interesting. It was by far my favourite.

That was followed by the poster presentations by the various teams. The princess went to each and every booth and looked at each and every project. However, language was definitely a barrier and she found it hard to communicate to students who couldn’t speak Thai. Soon at about 1700 hrs the poster presentation ended and we went back to our rooms. We then waited for the welcome dinner to start. There were many stalls where we could get our food from. So we got our food and watched a concert put up by the Thai students. We also listened to the address by the Principal of the school, Dr Thongchai. After the whole welcome dinner ended, we took a few photos, and had our nightly reflections. After that, we retired for the day.

*From this point forth, I shall just focus on the important parts of the fair to prevent this entry from becoming too long*

The next morning, we got to visit all the various oral presentations of the different groups. I went to 3 different presentations, one which was really interesting. It was about using bacteria to come up with energy. It seemed really fascinating that bacteria could be used to come up with energy, but it was only possible at a very small scale.

Just like there were good presentations, there were presentations that were not too good as well. For example, there was a presentation entitled “High Energy Particles Elsewhere in the Universe”. It sounded really amazing. I thought that the group had come up with some ground breaking research on new particles found in the universe. However, I was proven wrong. It was just a presentation on the particles that exist in the universe and information on them, an example being cosmic rays. It was none of their own research and they had just ripped all their info off the net. They ended off their presentation by stating that the challenge was to find out a way to use the energy from these particles for everyday use. I thought that that should have been their project and that was what they should have researched on.

In the afternoon, we went to different science laboratories to have a look into how Thai scientists worked and what they worked on. I went to the Centre for Vaccine Development and Neuro-Behavioural Bio Labs, Mahidol University. There were 4 different labs in the centre. We first went to the Thalassemia Research Centre. Apparently, thalassemia is a common disease in Thailand; hence, efforts were being made to find a specific vaccine for the disease. It is caused by a defect in the genes. Therefore, this centre works on preventing and controlling the disease. Another interesting lab there was the Neuro-Behavioural lab. They study and research on how the brain works using animals and extrapolate their findings to humans. We got a peek into how they conduct their experiments and the various equipments they use. We also got to see the animals they test on. That was the highlight of the second day.

The next day was the continuation of the oral presentations. First, we went to see this presentation by this team from this particular school that claimed that this group of trees could cure any disease. They backed up their case by using god as evidence to their project. However, their project touched on no scientific aspects and no one seemed convinced by their argument. After that was Yong Jie’s and Rui Hong’s presentation. I thought that it was really good and found their PowerPoint presentation really enriching. Minh Vi’s presentation was equally good. We had lunch after which we got ready for the Math and Science Rally.

My team mates and I really were really reluctant to go for the rally. But we realised we didn’t have much of a choice. We got teamed up with a few other Thais and the rally got under way. After a series of really fun and exciting games, my group won. Yay! Yong Jie, Rui Hong and I never really expected our team to win, but with the help of the Thais, we did. We won a wind chime each.

Later that night was the Astro-Night show. We were supposed to attend this lecture followed by a 3D show and lastly, a star gazing session. The lecture was alright. It focused more on radio astronomy which is an area in astronomy which involves using radio waves to obtain images of outer space. Such different views of the universe lead to new discoveries. Pulsars were also discovered through radio waves. I also learnt that it was possible for a double pulsar system to occur. The lecturer also touched on how curved space works.

The 3D show was alright. It just talked about this supernova explosion and whether it would result in a black hole or a pulsar. After that, we left to the roof of the school for the star gazing session. In my opinion, I thought that the star gazing session was not too good as the skies were cloudy and we couldn’t many stars. We only got to see Mars. After witnessing Mars and an artificial eclipse, we left to our rooms for our reflections.

The next day was our visit to the various scientific and environmental research institutes. Mr Teo, Rui Hong, Yong Jie and I went to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Market situated in Ratchaburi. We just went around the place and bought some souvenirs. I was hoping to save my money. I was aiming for not spending a single cent. There was nothing much I could do there but just look around and watch people bargain. However, it was fun to see people do business on boats. It was something I would have never gotten to see in Singapore.

After that we made our way to the Nature Waste Water Treatment Program which was at Petchaburi. Apparently, the King believed in using nature to cure nature, and as the King’s initiative, this program was started. We saw this DVD on how the plant runs and their different filtration systems work. It was really different, but something like that can’t be done in Singapore, where land is scarce. We were brought for a walk around the plant. After that, we were done at the plant and we were brought to a nearby beach along the gulf of Thailand. There was really nothing much at the beach. We just stood by the shore for awhile. After about a 2 hour drive, we reached MWITS. I had a nice nap on the way back. After I reached school I had dinner and we rehearsed for our cultural night performance together with the other schools from Singapore (HCI, ACJC, YJC and VJC). We were to have a PowerPoint Presentation after which we were supposed to sing Singapore Town. Justin, Cleaven and I thought it would be more interesting if we could add a short skit as well, so the three of us came up with a skit. At about nine, we went back to our respective rooms for our nightly reflections session which was followed by a game of cards.

The next day, rather, the last day was spent visiting cultural sites in Bangkok. Mr Teo, Cleaven and I went to the Wat Pho. It was a temple which had a really large reclining Buddha. I liked the temple a lot, especially the parts where we could sit down and pray. There were 2 such shrines in the temple. The rest were mainly statues and pagodas which the various Kings had built for themselves or their fathers. After spending 2 hours in the temple, we made our way to the MBK shopping centre. Sorry if I don’t sound too enthusiastic.

6 guys really don’t make a good group to go shopping with. We just wandered around aimlessly. Later, Cleaven and I decided to go bowling the rest were looking for a LAN shop. I spent my first Baht at the bowling alley. I spent about 140B there. As it was just my second time bowling, I didn’t bowl that well. I could only hit around 138. After that Cleaven and I decided to play Winning 11 for about half an hour. I was so irritated that I couldn’t score a goal. My balls seemed to go everywhere except into the goal. Argh. After that, it was going to be three, so we left to McDonalds to meet Mr Teo. We reached MWITS at approximately five and played cards till six. We had to go down for the Farwell Dinner then. According to Cleaven, the ‘Eaters’ were ‘unleashed’. Haha. Classic examples would be Justin and Minh Vi and Cleaven. Anyway the Cultural Show started at 7 and we were the 3^rd group to present. When it was our turn, there were some technical glitches but the PowerPoint soon worked. After that was our skit. Cleaven was the Chinese, Justin the Malay and I the Indian. We were supposed to talk in proper English and have a discussion on the type of foods that can be eaten in Singapore. After that the Narrator would say that people don’t talk like that in Singapore and we would do the skit again, just in Singlish. After the skit, we sang Singapore Town and began swaying towards the middle of the song. Even the Thai students began to sway too! After presentations from other countries, there was this disco performance which the 6 of us took no interest in and the night ended by everyone singing Auld Lang Syne and singing the Thai national anthem.

And that was the end of the entire 1^st Thailand International Science Fair. Honestly speaking, certain parts of the Fair weren’t interesting. An example would be the Waste Water Program where I felt that what they did contradicted their main objectives. However, I felt that I have gained much more from the fair than what I thought I would gain, not just in the area of science. Science might have been the main aspect of the fair, but I was also able to understand the cultures of the various people as well, not just the Thais but students from other parts of the region as well. It was indeed an eye opener in the sense that I would have never seen Iranian girls wearing headscarves and playing soccer. I was exposed to such rare sights, and this is in turn made me broad minded. I have learnt to be more perceptive of people. We used to play soccer in the evenings. Our team would comprise of students from Brunei, Malaysia, Indonesia, South Korea, Japan, Thailand and Singapore. People who speak so many different languages playing together, was such a great feeling; that sense of togetherness is something that would be hard to forget.

How can I forget the Thais themselves? They were extremely polite and hospitable, I wondered if we Singaporeans could be like them. I felt that I could learn a lot from them. Such politeness is something I would never have, and something I thought was impossible to have. After seeing it for myself, I realise that I can work on such things, to become a better person on the whole.

As I had said earlier, I never expected to learn so many things apart from science at the fair. This fair has been a really great experience for me and I have definitely become a better person after going for this fair. I would like to thank those who went with me (you 5 guys made this trip as fun as it could ever be) and Mr Teo and Ms Lui, the teachers who accompanied us on this trip. This trip has been something really great, and something I would never forget.

*the photos will be uploaded in the afternoon*