SEM had left us with tonnes of memories. Those bitter-sweet memories are definitely staying eventhough the project is through.Positively, we had been going through a lot of challenges and obstacles.. Phewh! (that part, glad its over!) There are some chronological events of our SEM project that i still bear in mind.
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Toothpase from coal, as the coal is possible to whiten the teeth. As the de facto, coal actually scrap every piece of calcium from your teeth in order to bleah it. Scary isn’t it? (rejected),NEXT!
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Chocolate as a food suppliment. adapted from the camping experience where we have to carry a huge knapsack of canned foods. It turned out to be DONE, and even sold in some sundry shop; LOL~
Done laughing? Okay, we move on. So, we checked on crucial global issues and came across the biodiesel problems. That was our key point towards our project (confirmed); ‘seeds of Hevea Brasiliensis as biodiesel’. I saw some eyebrows are arching! Heh, what’s a hevea brasiliensis? check on wiki. heheh~
Day 3>
We discussed with our teacher, Mrs.Nazimah and she gave us the green light. YEAY!
Its raining phonecalls!
Day 4>
Crime scene, waida’s house. Victim, rubber seed (I had ached my fingers spelling its scientific name). Executioners; Nadia, Waida,Nana and Farah. Weapons, pestle and mortar, blender and a hammer. Witnesses statement, ‘the victim was hit with the weapons by the suspects plenty of time.Its a vicious massacre!’ Wow!!! Maybe I’m a Steven Spielberg after all. heh! (Ignore my fantasy~)
Day 5>
Ponderous phonecalls we had to make. ‘Hello, I’m Nadiatul ‘Afifah from MRSM Pengkalan Chepa. May I speak to…’ Its like a banal drama script. I think I had said that more than 30 times! *eyes-rolling*
Day 6>
Letters! That’s all they had been asking for. Its a bit complicated. Excuse my laziness. Surprisingly, this one golden heart (again, excuse me, for my cheesiness), had willing to accept us as mentees! That was Dr. Wan Asmah. (a bouquet of thanx for that, Dr.) A fortuitous miracle!
Day 7>
Forest Research Institute Malaysia. We went through the process filled with anxiousity and excitement. The procedures that we had to go through were (for day 1, I mean)
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Parleying with our mentor, Dr. Wan Asmah and a few officers in charge. Discussed the procedures of the experiment.
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Checked the ‘mc’ (moisture content) of the seed. It turned out to be greater than 15 so, we had to place them in the oven to dry ’em off.
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Then, its back to disscussions and researches.
Day 9>
Smile for the camera, FLASH! We took loads of pictures. Of the oil, grinded rubber seeds and the apparatus. We had stole part of our time there at the waterfall. FUN TIME! hahah! Who said we can’t have fun being young scientists? I don’t know bout the others, but we definitely had the best of time together.Report was completed in a jiffy. There, done! It was hard to say goodbye. But, thanx again to everybody who had been involved directly or indirectly with this project. =))
Fyi, the percentage of oil extracted using the solvent extraction method was 49.9%, close to 50%! Congratulations! We hope that FRIM can develop a sequel of this project. All the best of luck!
p/s: to Dr. Wan Asmah and the other crew project, do inform us on any progress of the coming Jethropa project. Thanks a lot again from all of us. Do keep in touch and HAPPY NEW YEAR!
