GGHS 이호○

2019 Winter Personal Essay

GGHS 2019 Winter - Team 7

Topic : Renewable energy and protection of biodiversity ​

I participated in last summer global camp and I made many unforgettable memories with my team members and foreign teacher. That memories were impressive to me so I want to make more memories just like that again. It was a new experience for me to team up, research and publish on a particular topic. And the fact that there are no guidelines except the given subject of each team was different from the presentation I usually do in other classes. I liked it because it was satisfactory way for both audience and presenter. Presenter could choose the best way to deliver their message or topic such as news, drama and video, and the audience was not bored because they could listen different types of presentations. I remember that I was surprised to see various presentations of my friends and seniors. On the last camp, I could write personal essay about what I did during camp and asked teacher to modify awkward sentences and incorrect grammar. I remember the teacher fixed up the misused prepositions kindly. It could help me to improve my grammar skills especially in using prepositions. Thinking about what I could learn from this camp and having an expectation about foreign teacher of our team, I submitted an application for winter global camp. ​

Frankly speaking, the first time I saw topics of ten teams, I was quite disappointed because there was no topic which is related to medical or pharmacology. As my future dream is becoming a nurse I wanted to study subjects related to medical or pharmacology. But I couldn’t find anything about it. So instead of finding topic about medical and pharmacology, I found subject which is related to science. At first time, I planned to research about military history and of Ganghwa because my friend and I thought we could relate this subject to science by researching what kind of weapons the Joseon people used at that time. We thought we could introduce the technology used in weapons. But other friends in the science course thought it would be better to choose a topic related to natural environment of Ganghwa, so I chose the topic called ‘Natural Environment of Ganghwa’. And we related natural environment of Ganghwa to renewable energy and protection of biodiversity. ​

Our final science exam range was related to renewable energy so we studied a lot of things about new energy and renewable energy. We already knew the principle of many kinds of generator. For example, we even studied about principle of hydrogen battery and hybrid car. Solar generator is composed of many solar cells, and solar cells make electricity by the movement of electrons. Wind energy generator has big wings. And with the wings moving by the wind, generator is running and it converts kinetic energy of wind into electricity. Hydroelectric generator convert the kinetic energy of water into electricity by dropping water from high places. I also studied about biodiversity by learning test range of middle exam. But I couldn’t remember its content and we didn’t learn as much about biodiversity as about renewable energy. The only thing I can remember that the more diverse biodiversity is, the better. ​

Same as last summer camp, we divided our team into two small groups. And each small group studied different subject. Our group studied ‘protection of natural environment and biodiversity’ and among them, I studied about migratory birds living in Ganghwa. Before studying about biodiversity in global camp, I didn’t know anything about creatures living in Ganghwa. However, through data searching, I realized Ganghwa mudflats are one of the largest mudflats in Korea, one of the world's five largest mudflats. I also got to know Ganghwa mudflats are in good condition and they are the place where migrating from Siberia and Alaska to Australia and New Zealand birds can stay and find food provision for themselves. Also I was surprised because many kinds of migratory birds such as black-faced spoonbill, longbill, red-crowned crane and chinese egret visited Ganghwa to take a rest and most of them are endangered animal. Except for migratory birds, many creatures such as manila clam, sand crab, globular ghost crab, surf clam, barnacle and others are living in mudflats of Ganghwa. After finishing data searching, I realized we should protect Ganghwa mudflats and natural environment so that endangered species and biodiversity of Ganghwa can be preserved. Also Except for studying about migratory birds, I wrote the conclusion of our team essay with Yujin and made ppt with Seoyoon. Writing conclusion of team essay was quite difficult thing to do. But thanks to our team members for giving us some guide line and information in writing conclusion, we could done it easily. As writing a conclusion, I learned that reclamation projects have a negative impact on the ecosystem by straightening the coastline. I've been thinking all this time that reclamation projects are work that benefits mankind. But after knowing reclamation projects had a negative impact on biodiversity, I decided not to think positively about it. As I remember there were a lot of funny things while making ppt with Seoyoon. Our concept of presentation was Pokemon Go. So, we tried hard to make ppt look like Pokemon Go. Seoyoon used ppt functions to properly position Pokemon, background and creatures of Ganghwa. She even combined legs of real bird with pokemon’s legs, it was so funny so we couldn’t stop laughing. I put background music of Pokemon Go in each slides of ppt. But honestly it was hard to find background music which is fit each slide of pages and adjust the timing of the songs. Even though it was little bit hard to make ppt, we made it with pleasure.

I wanted to write a good team essay and finish the presentation well. And because there were a few friends on the team that I didn't know, I also wanted to get close to unfamiliar friends. During the three days of camp, I had a lot of opportunities to talk with my team members because we often had a presentation, role sharing, and discussion about topics. So in the last day of global camp, we got much closer than the first day of camp. Since all of our team members are going to take natural science course, we are likely to be in the same class next year. It was meaningful for me to make new friends through the global camp. This time, since we didn't have much time than the global camp in last summer, I was worried if we could do everything in two days. Even though two days was a short time, I think we were able to done many things, including preparation for the presentation, since we shared roles and did each other’s part hard. Also our team teacher, Marianna was great. She listened to us well and she sometimes gave helpful advices to us. And she helped us in every parts of preparing from translation to preparation for the presentation. (Teacher helped me to translate difficult sentence.) She gladly accepted the offer to give presentation with us even though it's hard to check time for turning over the page of ppt. The teacher even stayed late to rehearse with us. I want to say thank you to all team members and teacher for working hard. By participating global camp, I want to learn new information and make new friends just like this time. And I usually avoid to make a presentation or stand in front of others. I want to reduce my fear of making a presentation in front of others by participating in this camp, too.

2018 Summer Personal Essay

Topic : History of Goryeo Medicine

Actually I love to talk with foreigners so I even joined the English club with Rusty teacher during last semester. And I thought it would be a great opportunity not only to research and learn about the topic which is related to my future dream and major but also to raise my English conversation skills. So I participated this summer camp. Actually, attending school on vacation was not good idea that much. Because this summer vacation is surprisingly short. However, because it means learning something, I wanted to participate in the camp even while attending school during vacation. My future dream is to be a nurse so I must acquire lots of medical knowledge. And I’m interested in medicine, especially I’m interested in oriental and western medications. The medical science of Joseon is well known, but the medical science of Goryeo is not so I wondered about medicine of Goryeo. I thought if I chose this topic, I could learn lots of medical knowledge in Goryeo. So I chose the topic ‘History of Goryeo Medicine, the diseases and their treatment’.

I am the member of health club ‘Healing’ in school and our school had an academic seminar just last week. Our club had to make something to display so we investigated about the infectious disease and home remedy of Goryeo. We chose them to be the subject of academic seminar because we needed a topic that caught people's attention. I was quite surprised because the content of home remedies was unreasonable. They contain the content like when you have an eye infection, wash your eyes with a child's urine or with water from your teeth or salt water and when you have a toothache, a latrine can be cured by attaching a living maggots eye to your sick teeth. We laughed a lot while preparing for the presentation because of home remedies.

Unlike I did the club, this time we studied about the official history of medicine and medical books of Goryeo. It was more professional activity than what I did in our club. I learned that Goryeo’s royal court had engaged in charitable medical activities through the state institutions and Goryeo people had the knowledge about Indian and Arabian medicine. It was also possible to find out what herbal medicines the people of Goryeo used. Actually at first, I misunderstood the words ‘향약’ and ‘당재’. I thought that ‘당재’ is the name of a certain herb. But I found ‘당재’ means the medicinal herbs produced in China, and ‘향약’ means the medicinal herbs produced in Korea. And I learned about some kinds of medical herbs, among them I found a medicine that looked interesting. It looks like a rock crystal, its name is Dryobalanops aromatica Gaertner and it is effective for high fever, adult and pediatric convulsion and is used for various inflammation such as sore throat, stomatitis, itching, congestion and inflammation of the ear. In fact, I didn't believe in the efficiency of Chinese medicine because the effects of Chinese medicine rarely show straight as those of Western medicine, and there are side effects such as gaining weight. However, through the research conducted at this summer camp, I realized that oriental medicine has existed for a very long time, and although it is rare to see its effects immediately, if patients take a dose in the long term, it can change their constitution.

We divided our team into small groups. And the small groups did research together. Our group researched about formation and change of Goryeo medicine. We divided what we researched into the beginning, the middle and the last periods according to the time sequence and we translated them. My job was translating the middle part of Goryeo dynasty. I had a hard time translating 초조대장경 (the first edition of Tripitaka Koreana) in English. And the translator translated the text strangely so I had to correct the translated text more than twice. It was a little bit difficult to translate but I thought it would help to improve my writing skills. I also translated script for our presentation with my team members. This is much easier than translating report because we already have translated text.

My goal of this camp was to gain lots of information about the medicine of Goryeo, preparing presentation and writing our report well. I think I achieved my three goals! Now we’re preparing for tomorrow’s presentation. We will have a presentation and do a play. I look forward to having a successful team presentation tomorrow. The camp was a good experience for my future. I had an opportunity to do the group work with our school seniors, friends and foreigner teacher. The teacher was so kind and so were the seniors and friends. Through this summer camp I learned not only about the medicine of Goryeo but also how to cooperate. And this summer camp is more special than any other camp because we took a lecture from professor Kim Hyeon, we had the opportunity to post our research on Wiki, and it was the camp to celebrate the 1,100 anniversary of the founding of Goryeo. It was such a meaningful experience and I want to participate in winter camp, too.