Learning Issues and Lab Lessons

Term 1:
Topics- Atomic Structure, Chemical Bonding, Acid & Alkali, Period Table

Being a person who rarely excel in Science and getting merely borderline grades due to the fact that Science was one of my weaker subjects ever since primary school. Nevertheless, I struggled with the daily assignments given by Ms Nada on the respective topics, specifically on equation writing. I personally did some independent learning online by watching ‘YouTube’ videos on how to write equations. However, I was still confused and consulted my siblings and friends instead. Fortunately, they aided me along by asking me to firstly to memorise the different structures of the elements and that helped me tremendously.

Lab lessons were also beneficial. Unlike other teachers, our teacher, Ms Nada, allowed us to do the experiments on ourselves first and there was not a need to have a demonstration. From the very first lesson, we could see that she is very strict and concerned of the safety and behavior we have in the laboratory as accidents can occur very easily if we are fooling around or not alert. This term we experimented on acid and alkalis and also got a special opportunity to mix with chemicals. These lab lessons were important to me as they help me remember key concepts better such as red litmus will turn blue when in contact of acid.

Term 2:
Topics- Cycles, Sexual Reproduction

Even though the topics covered in term 2 though it seemed quite little, there were still many stuff to remember as Sexual reproduction branches out to many different topics such as menstrual cycle, STDs etc. Furthermore, acids and alkali is a very broad topic, thus we crammed all these information in order to be prepared for the tests. In my opinion the hardest were to remember the formulas for the common ionic compounds to be applied during equation writing. Unfortunately, there were no lab lessons in this term as it was mostly focused on sexual reproduction.

Term 3:
Topics- Light, Ecology

In term 3 we focused on Light and Ecology. Ecology was much simple and easier to understand when taught as food web and food chain have already been covered in primary school, so we had some basics at hand. However, the tough part for Ecology is to explain the abiotic factors and how it affects the environment. On the other hand, Light was much more challenging as we are also required to draw ray diagrams. A single mistake like drawing arrows wrongly to indicate the path/direction of light could cost you the entire question. But after much practice using the "shortcut" method, everything seemed easier.

Lab lessons this term were also enriching even though i missed some due to involvement in competitions. Unlike term 1, this term we did not work with chemicals, instead we worked with mirrors and light rays. We had the opportunity to witness how light reflects when come into contact of different shapes and mirrors. My favourite experiment was the one where we get to see total internal reflection. These experiments really aided me in memorising concepts, and to visualise to be able to draw the ray diagram.