Friday, November 11, 2016

REFLECTIONS ON MY VIRTUAL MICROBE PROJECT

Hello, everyone! Hope you have an amazing day.




So, how do I start this? I should start this somewhere, shouldn't I? As from the title, you must've probably guessed the things I would be talking about (or is it writing about?). Anyway, today I would like to share with you the overall reflections on my virtual microbe project that I had worked on recently. There are loads of things that I've learned either directly or indirectly throughout this whole project. I might have to warn you that this might be a long reflective essay, so go get some popcorn and let's get reading.




From this project, I have gained so much knowledge about the microbe that my group had chosen which is the one and only Histoplasma capsulatum which frankly, I have never even heard of it before. The first time I heard the name of this microbe, my brain just shrugged. It's amazing to know that this pathogenic fungus grows in soils that are contaminated with bat and bird droppings and that such a small fungus can lead to a serious lung disease that can sometimes be fatal especially for those who have weakened immune system.

I have always been a thinker (maybe because sometimes I tend to have an influx of curiosity striking my mind) and throughout this project, I have greatly increased my knowledge and view on how the microbes world works. It never fails to amaze me every time I discover or learn something from it. Moreover, instead of just focusing on weekly lectures, I find it really fun to have different methods of learning microbiology as proposed by the virtual microbe project where we have to do some sort of online mind map, scrapbook and videos which indirectly, increase our understanding and knowledge about the microbe but in a fun way that makes us barely realize that we have learned quite a lot of things since it is not a direct teaching and learning process.

Next, since we have to make most of the tasks online, I could say that now I have greatly sharpened my skills on the use of various applications provided by the internet because let's just be honest, previously, I didn't even know that there are so many exciting applications I can use. So yeah, that's a new thing for me! (and a very useful one too!)

Last but not least, which is also the main thing that I want to highlight is about teamwork. From this project, I have made new peers, some of them are from my class but most of them are from other universities! That is just something that I have never experienced before, where I need to work together in group with the people that I don't have to meet in real life to have a "real" discussion since our discussions were only based on video discussions through Zoom, an application similar to Skype and Whatsapp as the other medium. The shocking fact is that it seemed to be working just fine although we did have quite some problems here and there. But at the end of the day, we still managed to solve and finish our tasks on time. I know for sure that it is the teamwork spirit inside each one of us that drove our project smoothly and that teamwork spirit shown by each member is something that I am really grateful and thankful for.


GOOD JOB GUYS!

I think I have said enough (or maybe too much then I'm sorry about that) so let me just finish this by thanking everyone who's involved in this virtual microbe project with me. Firstly, I would like to thank the lecturers who are in charge, Dr. Wan and my professor, Dr. Kalaivani, both have guided us a lot by giving information and explanations. Also a huge thank you to Choy for helping me and my group so much throughout this project till the end.Thank you for making all the things much easier for us to work on. Not to be forgotten, my family for the endless support and lastly but surely, all of my group members, each one of you, I just want to say thank you for such a great cooperation and commitment that you had given throughout this project that we worked on together for months. It was nice knowing you guys. A massive thank you again to all of you and much love.

                                                                                                                                     -Intan-