Jointly reported by:
Goh Yu Xin Sr1ScD
Lee Hong Qing Sr1ScD
On June 18th of 2022, a talk regarding microbes was held by Year 2 University Malaya Biomedical Science students. Senior Middle One students from Kuen Cheng High School were invited to participate. Students from Sr1ScD and Sr1ScE joined the Talk via the Zoom video platform on this particular day.
At the beginning, the emcees, Richard and Sofea greeted us with a warm welcome. They proceeded to introduce microbes, also known as microorganisms. After the introduction, the UM students played a video regarding an experiment of how to differentiate gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria.
Students were divided into 5 different groups and sorted into Zoom breakout rooms accordingly. We played a game of identifying the cause of outbreaks in various countries as medical microbiology scientists. The cases studied were Typhoid Mary, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia Coli, and mycobacterium.
The second activity was explaining how microbes are involved in climate change. Terrestrial microbes like rhizobium, form symbiotic relationships with roots of a plant for nitrogen fixation. Marine microbes, for example dinoflagellates, are an important group of phytoplankton that produce oxygen in marine environments. On the contrary, microbes that are harmful to the environment include vicicitus globulus, which increases CO2 levels, and microcystis, a freshwater cyanobacteria that adapts to elevated CO2 levels.
Furthermore, the third activity was the introduction of potential microbial products. For instance, shewanella and geobacter generate electricity, they transport electrons from microbes to nearby objects. Moreover, saccharomyces cerevisiae, also known as yeast, serves as one of the leavening agents in the process of fermentation.
After the Talk, students were invited to participate in a Kahoot quiz competition. The questions prepared by the organisers were all revising the knowledge delivered by the UM students. The students were competing fiercely to be the champion of the game. At last, Elvin Chin Yen Koon from Sr1ScE took the game, first runner-up was Tham Jia Huey from Sr1ScD, and the third place was Ti Jia Min from Sr1ScE. The game was really inspiring as it gave a reinforcement to students.
The lucky draw session was followed by the quiz, it was the most exciting moment throughout the whole workshop. Three lucky students got extraordinary prizes from organisers.
Last but not least, there was also a Q&A session. The students were asking questions about education, pathway and future vision of biomedicals. Well, the UM students went through them patiently and answered each of them with humour.
At the end of the Talk, the professor of UM biomedical gave a brief speech. After that, Mr Ooi Hun Huang, Assistant Head of the School Academic Department, delivered a speech as well to thank the organisers and UM students.
Our students were full-filled with this Talk and looking forward to having another opportunity to attend Talk on similar scientific subjects.
