Executive summary:
Campus life 2012 was held in Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang .The mission cannot be
materialize just by one night therefore the project took place for three days, 21st, 22nd, and 23rd January 2012. The participants were UPSR students from five different schools ; SJKT Sentul, SJKT Batu Caves, SJKT Serdang, SJKT ST Joseph and SJKT Persiaran Raja Muda Musa, Pelabuhan Klang. Around 100 partcipants attended this event. The theme of Campus Life 2012 was students’s today Leader’s Tomorrow. Campus Life 2012 @UPM has successfully taken place and it reached our mission of exposing and motivating the UPSR students. The goal of our project was to implement and instill life elements in the students apart from those was taught in schools like creativity, innovative, presentation skills, leadership skills and survival skills.
Introduction:For the first time ever, Youth Mc (Pertubuhan Graduan Belia India) have ventured Kuala Lumpur state by launching our project Campus Life 2012. Campus life was the brainchild of Mr. Edwin Anand Raj, The President of Youth Mc. This project had celebrated its 5th anniversary successfully.
The ultimate goal of Campus life is to educate UPSR students about the importance of pursuing their higher studies, to provide sufficient exposure to students with the actual environment and the way of life in University, strengthen the students physically and emotionally using a method called “Activity Based Learning” and instill the drive for success in life by taking examples of facilitators comprise from various higher learning institutions in Malaysia.
Day 1- 21st January 2012The morning started with student’s registration for 100 students from five
different school, namely, SJKT PERSIARAN RAJA MUDA MUSA (KLANG), SJKT BATU CAVES,
SJKT SENTUL, SJKT ST JOSEPH(SENTUL) and SJKT SERDANG arrived at UPM Kolej 13(K13) hall by 9 am. All the facilitators were introduced to the students. The students were warmly welcome and given a short briefing by the Project Director, Siva Malar Ganasen
regarding:
1. Rules and regulation for three days in UPM area
2. Do and Don’ts in UPM
3. Group segregation for students and facilitator
4. Behavior and attitude in hostel for three days
All the students was given t-shirt, name tags, button badge and a file containing stationary items for their use for the three days. For many students, it was their first time attending an outdoor camp like this. Most of them were very excited about all the activity that was about to start. At 9.30 am all the students was gathered at the cafeteria for breakfast. All the meals were only for 30 minutes of duration.
Then the students along with their respective facilitators gathered in K13 hall for the activity to get started. The first activity of the day was Ice breaking session(LDK) where the students have mingle and get to know their teammates and also others. This activity was planned well so that each sub activity in Ice breaking session enables the students to change partner and involve in the game. One of the sub activities in Ice breaking session was ‘Find your group’ game where the students will be given unknown characters in a card and they will find their group by acting out the clue written in the card. Then once all the students found the group, they will play a special teamwork and creative thinking type of activity. This was repeated three times which enables the
students to get to know other students who are from different schools. Despites, the students was grouped back into their original team and have to do a group flag, team name and group cheers within 30 minutes. All the groups performed well and came up with interesting names and cheers. Each time the students encounter any new activity, they have to tell their cheers to the in-charged crew. This shows how much energy and eagerness each team has in them.
After lunch at 1pm, the students were transported to computer lab for the next activity, Multimedia slot. In this slot, the students were introduced to technology, searching information on internet, preparing presentation and ways to present it in a good way. The facilitators only guided the students and make sure the students understands the requirements as each group was given a presentation topic which will be presented by the students later back in the K13 hall. Examples of question which was given are importance of water, animal’s classifications, scientific names of few animals and plants, AIDS, and etc. Once done, all the presentation was taught to save and mailed to the crew in charge.
After Multimedia slot, the students were again brought to the Zoology Museum in UPM.
There they were briefed and explained about preserving animals and the uses.
Many students were very interested and questioned the staff in the museum about
preserving procedures, applications and its importance to the public. Once the museum visit ends, the students was transported back to K13 hall where they were randomly chose and questioned about Multimedia and Zoology Museum visit.
This was done to ensure they really understood and participated well in each activity.
After tea, the students had to present the presentation they prepared in the computer lab along with their team. Many students faced difficulties in talking in English; however, with the help of their facilitators and teammates they were able to present it well. This is where teamwork and presentation skills were incorporated into the students. Then the students were brought to Bukit Ekspo where they faced the next challenge, War Games. In this activity the students required to protect their team leader and the treasure without being hit by water bomb. They need to think fast, creative, work in team and planned their strategy well before launching their attacks to their opponent team. This outdoor activity greatly strengthens the student not only physically but also
mentally.
After freshening up and dinner, the students played I am Superhero where they have to work together in a group to choose and job and design a new uniform for the chosen job by using recycled items. Then, the leader has to wear the costume and his assistant need to explain about their uniforms and the job chosen. Many students came up with creative and innovative ideas and presented well in front of the panel judge and the best team was awarded for their creation.
The day ends with drama briefing to facilitators, followed by students. The drama was a silent
one where the students are not allowed to talk but only act and bring out the emotions. They were trained by facilitators however the ideas about the storyline belong to the students themselves. The students only practiced for 1 hour each day and presented it in front of the VIP and parents who attended the closing ceremony. The drama captured many hearts and it succeeds to make the audience to understand the flow of the story.
Day 2: 22nd January 2012
The morning started with morning jog and exercise. We believe the saying that healthy mind comes from a healthy body. Therefore every morning we bring the students along with the facilitator to jog around Bukit Ekspo. After breakfast, the students ventured the first activity of the day, ENGITEX: An Engineer’s Dream. The students was briefed and given task to do with the help of facilitators. Certain group has to build a runaway track and others must build electronic circuit. At the end of the session, the activity leader will compile all the built bases and circuit together forming a floating airplane landing carrier. The plan was to launch the project at night on the lake, however, due to unexpected rain, the plan was cancelled and the students were not able to watch the launching. The launching of the airplane on the built floating track was recorded and played during the closing ceremony for the students and parents who present there.
The next aspiring activity was Future Scientist where the students have to run various experiments and explain the science behind the results. Many students could not explain the basic principle of science properly. This shows how much of science knowledge they lack in them. However, the crew in charge helped and explained well to the students.
After lunch, the students were brought to Bukit Ekspo for Wipe Out slot. In this slot, there were many stations with various challenges to be faced by the students. Each time they solve one challenge, a clue will be given to them to unlock the answer to the questions given to them. In each station, the student need to use elements like creativeness, think out of the box, innovative and use their knowledge. This activity was a hard level where the objective was to make the students to give up in each station. However, the students never gave up and continued their journey throughout the whole three hours. This type of motivation and skills are necessary for students to overcome stresses of life in future.
At 5pm the students was brought back to cafeteria for tea and transported to the hall. Our aim was to keep on motivating and instill the drive to succeed in the students. Therefore, our next activity was Young Businessman where the students have to create a product and market it to the panel judges. The aim of this activity is no more to test their creativeness; however, it is to teach them how to uphold one’s rights and ways to present to public. The panel judges criticize all the models to make the students to uphold their product even though was being stepped on. We achieved our goal in making the students to question and upholding their rights.
After having dinner, the students were back in the hall to practice drama. We did not execute any activity to the students because it was a long tiring day and they need to rest. However, the students gave us surprise by asking what the next activity is and refused to sleep early. Therefore, we continued our plan and had a relaxing activity that is Talk to us session where the crew and
facilitators have to randomly pick few students and share their university life experiences to the students. Many students were asking guidelines on how to study smart and perform well in exams. The crews and facilitators handled and answered all the questions that were asked by students.
Day 3: 23rd January 2012
The bright morning started with morning jog then followed by breakfast. Then the students build a water rocket model to launch with a handmade launcher build by our crew members. Due to technical problem, the launcher did not give desired results however; we manage to launch the built water rockets by the students.
Meanwhile, the students also prepared handmade souvenirs for our chief guest who will attend the closing ceremony. After the launching, the students rehearsed their drama for the last time as they have to perform it later in closing ceremony. The students packed their luggage to be transported to Veterinarian auditorium. However, due to some miscommunication the bus arrived late and this caused the students to be transported to the auditorium half an hour late. Things were in control as the buses manage to transport all the students safely and fast to the auditorium. The students was given lunch and brought into auditorium. They were placed accordingly in the auditorium.
Parents arrived and the Campus Life Closing Ceremony: YOUTH MC Convocation 2012 begins
around 2.30pm. The function begins with speech by two of our chief guest, Mr. Ellamaran and Ms. Sujithra, followed by the President of Youth Mc, Mr. Edwin Anand Raj and the Project Director of Campus life 2012, Ms. Siva Malar. Then, we identified three talented students in overall 100 participants and allowed them to show their talent to parents and chief guest that are present. The students also performed the drama which was practiced by them in front of chief
guest, parents and other students. This was followed by speech of randomly chosen six students about their experience and opinion about Campus Life. The comments given were very good indeed which in turn motivated us, the organizing committee to keep on launching our project. This was followed by souvenirs giving ceremony to the participants and also to crews and facilitators who helped us during ups and downs for the three days. At the end of the ceremony,
a video presentation was played regarding the activities for the past 3 days in UPM. Before concluding the day, a token of appreciation was given to Mr. Ellamaran from Yayasan MyNadi, Mr. Maganathan and Ms. Sujithra from Vijayaratnam Foundation who was enlightened to see the handmade souvenirs which had notes from all the students who attended Campus Life 2012.
