First of all, I would like to
express my sincerest gratitude to Ms Sophia for giving me a chance to improve
my skills in speaking.
Finally,
the forum has ended successfully. Every group has put in all their hearts in
the preparation for the forum. Despite the competition, I am glad because this
is where we can learn from each other and to improve on our weak points too. I
enjoyed the whole process of the preparation for this forum, starting from our
selection of the topic for the forum till our actual assessment day of the
forum. I have gained precious knowledge and irreplaceable experiences through
this forum.
We
started our preparation with deciding the topic of our forum. We first
researched online to decide on the topic that we would like to talk about.
After the research, the topic of plastic surgery and cloning were shortlisted
as the two most appealing topics for us. We then voted for the final topic that
we would like to have a deeper understanding of. We finally selected the topic
of genetic cloning for it is more controversial. The public reaction toward the
idea of cloning is polarised into two extreme, where it can be clearly seen
through the quotes by two professionals, first by Kass (1997), which expresses
his disagreement towards cloning where he says that, “A society that allows
cloning has, whether it knows it or not, tacitly said yes to converting
procreation into manufacture and to treating our children as pure projects of
our will." While on the opposing side, Coupland (1991), remains optimistic
towards the idea of cloning, “Cloning is great. If God made the original, then
making copies should be fine.”
I
love this topic very much for it is very current despite being slightly
unrelated to the context of Malaysia. Being a child I have always enjoyed
watching informative channels such as Discovery Channel or Animal Planets,
where I was being exposed to many of the topics related to Science. I
remembered I was deeply intrigued by the idea of cloning when they documented
on this topic. This is because they have compared human cloning to twins saying
that human cloning is creating two identical person and they claimed twins as
natural cloning (Discovery News). I, being a twin myself, was attracted to this
theory. What is human cloning actually? I asked myself. However, this question
mark that popped in my head was never answered as I soon forgot about it. Many
years later, in this teaching course, I realised the need for this question to
be answered. However, sadly, due to the complicity of the human cloning, we
have decided not to zoom into that topic.
We
later outlined the things we wanted to discuss during our forum because this
topic is very wide and it can be discussed from different perspectives. We
finally agreed to zoom into the section of food cloning because it is closer to
our daily lives and we can relate to it for America and some of the European
country has already legalised the production of cloned meat. Subsequently, we
divided ourselves into different roles according to our interest in different
fields related to the topic. I picked up the role as a nutritionist who has
studied the pros and cons of the cloned meat.
After
deciding everyone’s role, we worked by ourselves to find information suitable
for each of our roles. Our first draft was soon completed and the next thing we
did is to edit our script. Ting Ngiik Ying, being elected as our chairperson,
was the one who has responsibility to create the flow of our forum and to add
dynamics into it. Our script has gone through several times of editing before
coming into a final piece. At last, we have sat down to discuss on our turn to
present our ideas and argument so that our forum flows nicely.
A
few days before the forum, we have allocated some time to make sure our forum a
success. We rehearsed on our forum and corrected our own pronunciation for
certain words. Besides, we have also spent some time to also discuss about a
nice outfit for each of our roles and in the end we have achieved a satisfying
result. I believed that all of us have dressed appropriately according to our
roles.
Through
this forum, I have learnt that one must sow to reap the harvest of success.
Every group has worked hard, but apparently there are always some groups who
have appeared to achieve a higher standard at the end. I believed that we have
given our best. However, some must have worked harder than anyone else could
and that is why they can excel in their forum. I admired their passion and
persistency, and looked up to them as my role model and also an alarm to remind
myself to work harder in the future. I would like to share a quote from the
Bible, in 2 Corinthians 9:6, saying that, “Remember this: Whoever sows
sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap
generously.” This has warned humans to be persistent in doing their work, and
to give their fullest to everything that happens in their life.
After the forum, our course lecturer, which is
Ms Sophia, gave a brief session with each of the group to tell us the strength
and weaknesses in our group. Right after the forum, I have looked through our
video for the forum as I received critiques and comments from my friends that
our voice projection is very weak throughout the forum. Besides, I was also
worried that I might not have good sitting or speaking posture. After watching
through the video, I have found out that indeed my voice modulation is poor.
However, I think that my posture has improved compared to last semester. After
receiving the comments from Ms Sophia, I agreed with what she had said, and I
will try to improve on it in the future.
Despite
the moderate marks we get for our forum, I was very happy for my group member
Sze Miin for she has improved compared to last semester. She has tried her best
this time, I believed. Not only that, we are also very proud of ourselves for
we have actually presented a topic with such high difficulties which required
us to think critically in order to understand it fully. We have gone through
gruelling hours during the preparation for our script and understanding the
concept of cloning and the information we have gained is truly beneficial to
us. I wish to thank my group members for their encouragement and I felt that
our relationship has improved since our first collaboration.
In
conclusion, this coursework has not only encouraged me to become a more humble
learner, it has also brought our group members together. Together we have
learnt and shared the joy and grief in completing a great task. We have learnt
from each other’s strength and also corrected on each other’s weaknesses.
Lastly, I would like to share a quote from Henry Ford, symbolising the ending
of our assignment and also beginning of our better future assignments, “Coming
together is the beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is
success.” It is my pleasure to have this chance for improvement towards a
better me.
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