Category: Essentials

Core classes in English Literacy, Khmer Literacy, Math, and Science.

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AP Macroeconomics

On the 15th of May 2019, I took the AP Macroeconomics exam with my five other friends. I sat the exam for 2 hours and 30 minutes and it was nerve-racking. The content did not scare me but I’m just not sitting well with tests. I love learning about economics on how people and the country make choices based on the resources that they have. I could say that taking AP classes is fun but not taking the exam itself. 

Throughout the lesson, it had enhanced my understanding of the country decisions in partnering and trading at a global level to boost the economic growth as well as the strategies that economists used to solve the problems of high unemployment and inflation. I struggled to understand t-accounts or bank balance sheet at first but after seeking out my facilitator helps and using online resources such as video by Mr. Jacob Clifford, I was able to grab the content. Before the exam, my class took two practice exams to help us stimulate the whole experience and to get used to the timing. It was one of the fun and challenging time since I was the only girl in the class. 

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Rational Function | Precalculus

This year, after the SAT on Oct 6th, I started my precalculus lesson. One of the sections that we covered in this term is called the Rational Function.  If you didn’t know or forget what it is, it’s a function in the form of r(x) = P(x)/Q(x), where P and Q are both polynomials and have graph that look like the picture at your left.  It was quite difficult for me at first to graph this function but once I noticed the pattern, it was fairly easy and straightforward.

In order to graph this rational function:

  1. Factor the numerator and denominator
  2. Look for intercepts: x-intercept is equal to the zeros of the numerator and y-intercept is equal to C value of numerator divide denominator
  3. Find the vertical asymptotes by determine the zeros of the denominator
  4. Figure out the horizontal asymptote by using the rule below. 
  5. Sketch the graph
r(x)= (x-2)/(x^2-2x-8) 
==> (x-2)/(x-4)(x+2)
x-intercept: 2
y-intercept: 1/4
vertical asymptote: -2, 4
horizontal asymptote: 0
slant asymptote: none

We also learned about slant asymptote, where the degree of the numerator is one greater than the denominator. This also means that there will be no horizontal asymptote. We determined the slant asymptote by divide polynomials with each other and we did not obtain its remainder.  Example below!

r(x)= (x^3+8)/(x^2-x-2) 
==> (x^3+8)/(x-2)(x+1)
x-intercept: -2
y-intercept: -4
vertical asymptote: -1,2
horizontal asymptote: none
slant asymptote: y = x+1
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Lesson Learned

Besides learning about steps that engineers take to identify problems, brainstorm/assess their ideas, evaluate their product requirement, and build their own prototype; we also looked at different fail engineering projects and evaluated them: Titanic, Tacoma bridge, the Hindenburg and etc. 

Tipping of the Titanic

Image result for titanic sink 1942Most of us might have already heard of this elegant ship that got struck by the iceberg and sank into the Atlantic ocean in 1942, which killed more than 1,500 people. The main reason which causes this largest ship to sink is that of its watertight compartments—which engineers believed could never flood ship—didn’t get sealed and had filled up with water; this led the ship to tilt to one side and eventually sink. 

The Toppling of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge

This bridge was built across Puget Sound in Washington. It was a strong, light, narrow, and very flexible. Due to the strong wind (42 mph) on November 7th, 1940, had caused this 2,800-foot (853-m) bridge into a series of torsional oscillations and eventually collapse. 

The Hindenburg Disaster 

The main lesson that we learned from these fail engineering projects is that when we design our product, we have to consider all the possibility that could affect our product and should always test it in the real environment. 

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S’more | Stoichiometry

Have you had s’more before? What was it like? Was it good? 

If you (like me) didn’t know what the heck it is,  it is an amazing campfire snack in North America (according to Google) but as a Cambodian, I had never heard of or taste it before. Yet, last week in my Chemistry class, we did a S’more Lab to further our understanding and knowledge about limiting reactants (and get to taste it for the first time). 

We were given Graham crackers (Gc), marshmallow (M), chocolate piece (Cp) to make our own s’more. During the lab, we were required to balance out the equation and figure out limiting and excess reactants as well as calculate the experimental and theoretical yield. I have such a great time with my team doing the lab, by the way. 

  2Gc + M  + 3CP → Gc2MCp3   

This lab, not only it’s a lot of fun, but it had helped me to better understand about experimental and theoretical yield since I wasn’t sure on how to apply it into real life. Overall, I had such an incredible time do the lab and be able to learn about limiting reactants and make our own s’more. Yum! Yum!

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The Exceptional Trailblazer

My engineering seminar this year was very inspiring since my new facilitator had greatly persuaded me to be interested in the engineering field. One of the things that we had done for this round was researching about an influential engineer to understand their journey and their characteristic as an engineer. Below is my research paper about an exceptional engineer in the past…

Imagine if you were born to be a girl in the early 1900s, where meeting society expectation matter more than your own, what choice will you make? Follow society or yourself?

Historically, women were “confined to the home and expected to uphold traditional roles as a wife and mother.” They did not have the chance to discover or chase their dreams without receiving a reprimand.

Yet, by the start of the 20th century, there were 18.8% of women employed outside of the home as retail clerks, nurses, teachers, and typists—not as electrical engineers.

“I had always wanted to be an engineer, but felt that women were not supposed to be doing things like studying engineering.”

Continue reading “The Exceptional Trailblazer”