KeKAS 2009 Ulu Bernam part 1

Kursus Peningkatan Profesionalisme Pegawai/Staf Bahagian Pembangunan Kurikulum - Penghayatan Taman Laut Malaysia 2009

On 30 June till 3 July 2009, I brought a group of officers and support staffs from Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia on a trip to Pulau Redang Marine Park.

The trip was actually a development course conducted to enhance greater profesionalism amongst the participants, especially those whom have responsibilities to infuse environmental issues in their curriculum they have to develop.

We stayed at Pulau Redang Co-curricular Centre, run by the Department of Education Terengganu State. Several activities had been done such as water confident skill, coral species identification, coral fish identification, marine flora and fauna species identifications, jungle trekking, terrestrial flora and fauna species identifications, island hoping, and sea turtle conservation work.

I''ll upload the file of this trip report via www.scribd.com.

Nature Awareness Camp for Facilitators (Coastal Zone Ecosystem)

I had conducted a nature awareness camp for teachers in Terengganu last weekend. Together with my friend En. Ahmad Salihin, we conducted the training of trainers programme as asked by the Terengganu Department of Environment and Terengganu Department of Education . The 3 days two night event took place on 19 June to 21 June 2009 at Dara Inn, Teluk Ketapang, Kuala Terengganu. The participants for the camp were teacher advisors of School Nature Clubs and Environmental Clubs  of Terengganu (Kelab Pencinta Alam and Kelab Alam Sekitar)

We ran several environmental games and talks regarding the coastal ecosystem. We also managed to do the paper recycling activities.

For all participants and organizer staff and volunteers, thanks for the relationship and cooperation.

One year ..............

Today is 16 June 2009. This is a valuable date for me as a year ago, I started my duty as Assistant Director at Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia. Its already one year  since I left Sekolah Kebangsaan Kuala Jengal in Terengganu. 

A lot of new knowledge I gained.... a lot of task I got..... a lot of new experiences I received..... but, SK Kuala Jengal still in my memory. A school that gave me a lot of experiences, knowledges and friendship. A school between two rivers........SK Kuala Jengal, you are always in my mind.

Environmental educator's 'Training of trainers programme'

Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) in collaboration with Malaysian Nature Society (MNS), with support by State Department  of Education of Terengganu, Pahang and Penang, organized a three days two nights 'training of trainers' programme. The event took place at FRIM-MNS-Shell Nature Education Centre located at FRIM.

My article on Carbon Dioxide

Below is the link to a magazine published by the Department of Environment, Putrajaya published last year. There is an article on carbon dioxide and its implication to human and environment written by me inside the magazine.

http://www.doe.gov.my/files/multimedia141/EraHijau-Vol-2-08-Final.pdf

SEAMEO Education Agenda | Issue 04 | March 2009

SEAMEO Education Agenda magazine is a publication of the SEAMEO Secretariat located at Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand. I sent an article to the secretariat on August 2008 regarding Malaysia's experience on environmental education in term of school co-curricular club.

The article is now being published in the magazine, in its issue no 4 on March 2009. The article can be downloaded from  http://www.seameo.org/images/stories/Publications/00-SEAMEO_Education_Agenda/2009_SEA_Issue_04_March_20.pdf  .

The fourth issue gives tribute to the SEAMEO High Officials of the 11 SEAMEO Member Countries. The new Education Ministers and new Centre Directors were also featured in the profile pages. This copy includes stories of new avenues that SEAMEO treads to contribute to the attainment of the Education for All goals in Southeast Asia, such as the "Reaching the Unreached" initiative, use of mother tongue as bridge language of instruction, and providing lifelong learning skills through school and community involvement.

This article can be refered as:

Hashimi, I. (2009). Environmental Education and School Nature Club : Malaysia's Experience. pg. 28. SEAMEO Education Agenda. Issue 4, March 2009. SEAMEO Secretariat, Thailand. 46 pp

Oceans, our treasures

What is an ocean?

An ocean (from Greek Ωκεανός, Okeanos (Oceanus)) is a major body of saline water, and a principal component of the hydrosphere. Approximately 72% of the Earth's surface (an area of some 361 million square kilometers) is covered by ocean, a continuous body of water that is customarily divided into several principal oceans and smaller seas. More than half of this area is over 3,000 meters (9,800 ft) deep. Average oceanic salinity is around 35 parts per thousand (ppt) (3.5%), and nearly all seawater has a salinity in the range of 30 to 38 ppt. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean)

• Oceans provide us with fish and shellfish, the world’s greatest sources of dietary protein. 
• Ocean flora and fauna provide life-saving pharmaceuticals such as anti-cancer drugs. 
• The oceans’ algae absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen on a massive scale . These tiny species contribute directly to the air we need to breathe. 
• Oceans and their creatures connect us to our rich cultural heritage though history, music, and stories.
• Ocean shores provide opportunities for recreation, relaxation, and spiritual renewal.

Oceans Day

Oceans Day, June 8, was declared in 1992 at the United Nations Earth Summit. The purpose of Oceans Day is to raise awareness about the life-sustaining role of oceans and to inspire people to take better care of them.

Our responsibility

• Oceans are essential to life. 
• Watersheds—streams, lakes, rivers, and wetlands—empty into oceans, forming vital transportation links.  
• Oceans influence our social, economic, historical, international, and political development.
• Oceans are threatened by pollution, particularly from the land.
• Protecting and promoting oceans is our global and civic responsibility.
  
  

• 
  

Old newspapers selling experiences

I just sold a bundle of old newspapers to a Chinese couple few minutes ago. I'm feel very lucky to sell the old newpapers as my daughters helped me to carry the newspapers to the lorry. As reward, they received RM3 from the old newpapers man.

By selling the old newspapers, I hope my daughters will learn that recycle is one of the green activities they can do to help mother nature. As they are only 6 and 4 years old, I'm trying to teach them to recycle things such as old newspapers, eggs carton, plastic bottles etc. They also practise to reuse the used papers for scatching, calculating, writing and so on. At least, by doing that, they can upgrade their psychomotor skills.

Biodiversity Day 2009

Today, 22 Mei 2009, is declared as Biodiversity Day. What is meant by biodiversity? Biodiversity is defined as the variety of life on Earth at all its levels, from genes to ecosystems, and the ecological and evolutionary processes that sustain it.

Due to her diverse species of living things, Malaysia has been considered as one of the twelve megadiversity countries. One of the ecosystems that contribute to the high number of species in Malaysia is the coral reef ecosystem. 

To enhance awareness on coral reefs among the officers and staf of Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, I had been asked to conduct a trip to Pulau Redang Marine Park in Terengganu. This trip will take place on 30 June to 3 July 2009.

 

An experience in Sarawak

I'm am now at Kuching International Airport on the way to Bintulu. Arrived in Sarawak last Monday and will leave Sarawak tomorrow evening.

Together with my colleague from Curriculum Development Division, Ministry of Education Malaysia, we are now on a trip to observe the pilot school which conduct pilot test on the new curriculum under the Curriculum Transformation scheme. We had visited 4 schools starting with SK Serian (in Serian), followed by SK Betong (in Betong), SJKC Min Syn in Saratok and this morning we went to SJKC Chung Hwa Engkilili. Tomorrow morning we will visit SK Sebauh in Bintulu before we depart back to Putrajaya.

I'll like to express my sincere thankfulness to Mr. Sapuan Piee of Sarawak Department of Education for his kindness and hardwork during our journey for this three-day-trip. Thanks also to him for teaching us several Ibanese words.

International Consultative Workshop

I found a website regarding an international workshop that I attent in 2001. I attent the workshop as representative for WWF Malaysia (as Scientific Officer).

The information about the workshop is as follows:

International Consultative Workshop for Economic Valuation and Policy Priorities for Sustainable Management of Coral Reefs.

Worldfish Centre Headquarters, Penang, Malaysia.

8 - 10 December 2001

For details, please surf this website : http://www.worldfishcenter.org/resource_centre/CoralReef_14March2006_low%20res.pdf   and/or http://worldfish.catalog.cgiar.org/dbtw-wpd/exec/dbtwpub.dll   and http://www.worldfishcenter.org/pubs/coral_reef/pdf/appendix1.pdf  for the list of the participants.

Kekuatan Akidah Menjana Ummah Gemilang

Satu ceramah agama telah diadakan oleh Bahagian Pendidikan Islam, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia pada jam 9 hingga 11.30 pagi 17 April 2009 bertempat di Dewan Serbaguna Aras 9, Blok E12, Kementerian Pelajaran Malaysia. Ceramah ini bertajuk "Kekuatan Akidah Menjana Ummah Gemilang' dan disampaikan oleh Al-Fadhil Ustaz Nidzamuddin Zakaria, Timbalan Dekan Fakulti Pengajian  Al-Quran dan Sunnah, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM).

Woodball Game

This evening, at 5.30 p.m., Tn. Hj. Kahadin, the Science Officer of Pahang State Education Department introduced the woodball game. To play the game, a player needs the game equipments consist of a mallet and a ball. The game is played in the woodball course and players have to hit the ball with the mallet. A player is considered finish when he managed to hit the ball to go through the gate. 

We were very lucky as not far from our hotel (the WaWa Inn, next to Mara Junior Science College / MRSM Muadzam Shah), there is a woodball course with 24  gates.  We took the chances to play the game. A staff of Muadzam Shah municipal council, En. Murad joined us in this game. We managed to play till 17 gates out of 24 gates.  

*****BRIEF WOODBALL HISTORY

Woodball as a recreational game first started in the early 1990s by a person named Mr. Weng Meng Hui, a Taiwanese. Together with a colleague, he invented this game of woodball and introduced some basic rules for its conduct during playing.


The first woodball course in the world is the Grand Garden Woodball Course in Taiwan. And since then woodball has expanded and is now played in more than 25 countries worldwide. Woodball has also been recognized as a sporting event by the Asian Olympic Council in 1999.

In Malaysia, woodball was first introduced in 1995 and the first woodball course is the OUG Woodball Garden Course in Kuala Lumpur. It was built in 1996 and later upgraded in year 2002. It is a championship course and many local, regional and international tournaments are regularly held here. The Malaysian Woodball Association is located in Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia, having been acknowledged as having the most international standard woodball courses, and perhaps the best in the world, has been appointed to organize and host the 2nd World Cup Woodball Championship in year 2006. The 1st World Cup Woodball Championship was held in Chinese Taipei in 2004.

*******WOODBALL IN BRIEF 

The International Woodball Federation ("IWbF") is the governing world body for the game of woodball, with members from the woodball associations and bodies from different countries.

The IWbF establishes the rules and regulations governing the conduct of the game and also holds regular regional and World Cup Woodball Championships.


Woodball is similar to golf with all the excitement and thrill, although this game is far less complicated to learn. It is said that the woodball game is actually a cross between golf and the game of croquette. It is a lawn game but can still be played indoors or on any open spaces.

Like golf, competitive woodball is played on a course, with a tee area, fairway and putting area. For championship courses, there is normally a stipulation that the course should have at least four curving courses (two left and two right), to add extra challenges and excitement to the game.

Woodball is played with a swinging tee-shot and putting strokes. And just like golf, the player who completes the course (known as "gate" in woodball) with the fewest strokes wins the game. The length of a gate, from the starting area to the gate, ranges from 30 yards (par 3) to over 100 yards (par 5) or from 20 meters to 100 meters.

But unlike golf, which uses a number of driving clubs and a putter, a player uses only one club called a "mallet" which is made of wood (what else) for teeing off, fairway playing and putting.

And the ball for the woodball game is larger (3 ¾ inch in diameter) and heavier than a golf ball. Of course it is made of wood (hence the name of the game) and spherical in shape. As a result, the ball doesn’t fly when driving, as in golf, but instead it only bounces and rolls on the grass or ground. 

Instead of a hole to complete the strokes as in golf, woodball uses a gate, which is like a tiny soccer goalpost. The gate is formed with two wooden bottle-shaped stumps, which are fixed apart on the ground and it is crossed with a swinging gatekeeper, when the ball rolls in between the two stumps.

In a woodball game, each team consists of 2 to 4 players. In some international tournaments, 6 players are allowed in a team, but the results of only the 4 best players in the team are used when tallying the strokes.

When playing on the woodball course, the objective is to complete 12 gates, or some other designated number of gates. In international competitions 24 gates or more are normally played.

Depending upon the number of players, it normally takes about 90 minutes to complete 12 gates.