Activities for today
1. The affordable and clean energy panel
The affordable and clean energy panel shared about how people in the industry tackled the problem of creating a sustainable low carbon energy solution and challenges faced in the energy industry.
2. Nuclear energy workshop
We were taught on the physics of nuclear energy (Nuclear Physics) and given the opportunity to do energy calculations.
3. Visit to Invenergy
We visited Invenergy, a company which develops, builds, owns and operates power generation projects in North America and Europe.
4. Culture Night
Culture night involved performances from the students from various countries, where they shared their culture through dances or skits.
Publishing
For the affordable and clean energy panel, it changed my perspective on how to solve the problem of the carbon footprint. Usually, we would think of developing renewable energy and renewable energy efficiency, but we don't apply it back to real-world situations. One industry that I did not think of that uses a lot of energy is actually transportation. Another new thing I come to realise that the root cause of people using non-renewable energy sources instead of renewable sources is actually poverty.
For the nuclear energy workshop, some details I learnt about nuclear physics include nuclear reactions involve a mass of the nucleus of atoms and parts of a nuclear plant like the moderator and lastly about uranium. It was interesting to learn more about this and also some words were familiar to me as I did an infographic on nuclear energy back in Secondary 1.
For the visit to Invenergy, we saw many full-sized windmills and learnt about the dynamics and shape of the windmills. We also went to look at the solar farms, where solar panels stretched over a huge plot of land, unlike anything we've seen in Singapore.
Lastly, for the cultural night, even though SST was selected to perform, we went up on stage multiple times to join in the performances when volunteers were required. For example, we joined our new friends from the Ritsumeikan high school, Japan on stage to perform the traditional Japanese dance called Soran Bushi. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. I observed that the international students, especially from IMSA the host school, the students are very enthusiastic and friendly.
Processing
Today was actually quite insightful even though the itinerary seemed dry, but allowed me to grateful for small things, The trip to Invenergy was almost 2hours and may have seemed to most as a waste of time, but I felt that it was a good opportunity to think on your own and do reflection. So today was a success to me :D
Generalising
I learnt that to solve this issue of using renewable energy starts small on a personal scale, for example by taking public transport and also involves behavioural change. So as researchers and change- makers we should be able to look into both scientific research and behavioural research.
From Invenergy, I learnt about how in the US they can maximise thier resources to produce more energy, while in Singapore we are unable to do the same as them, due to our lack of resources. However, from the affordable and clean energy talk, I did learn on some ways I can bring back to Singapore to make a change in our home to reduce the impact of carbon footprint.
Lastly for the Cultural night, it was most memorable for me because as Singaporeans, we tend to be more embarrassed easily, and for the 3 of us (Matthew, Alya and I), we tend to be on the shy side and shy away from attention. But this gave us the opportunity to take more initiative and be confident to go on stage and have fun. I was really glad we took the first step to go up together, and by doing so, it made the experience really fun where we were not afraid to have fun together and be enthusiastic!
From what I learnt from the visit to Invenergy and the energy talk, I would like to give ideas to my friends on how to reduce the carbon footprint and even use what I learnt and integrate it into my current project, even though on the surface it has very little relation to clean and affordable energy. I hope my project will be able to meet one of the 3 UN Goals.
I also want to continue being enthusiastic and sporty, not being afraid of what people may think. Being shy and embarrassed of what people say holds us back from sharing our ideas or even having fun. I want to bring back the culture of the IMSA students to be enthusiastic in volunteering and being more approachable and friendly. How to do that is to be the first one to take the intitative to volunteer and not be afraid of what people think. It still is hard for me because I am naturally shy, but I am still working on it to have more confidence, and not let fear hold me back from doing what I love. :D
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