Category: Explorations

Explorations are project-based experiences during which students work together in groups to explore a relevant, often complex question, problem or challenge. This project-based learning is almost always enhanced with intensive activities that involve student immersion in real-world experiences outside of the classroom.

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White Building Exploration

This is the first exploration of the 6th year at Liger Leadership Academy. In this exploration, we studied the history of the white building from the past, present and future. In addition we were also learning about the development of Cambodia since it’s one of the major effect to the White Building itself, but also other iconic building in Phnom Penh. The White Building is the work of a Cambodian arcitect, Lu Ban Hap and a Russian engeerer, Vladimir Bodiansky, built in 1963. The building was a part of the Bassac Riverfront complex, an urban development designed by famous Khmer architect Vann Molyvann. This building has survived the genocide and people, specifically the artists has moved in, given the apartment by the Ministry of Culture. Recently, the residents has been evicted from the building because the goverment worried about the safety of the people their since the building is very old and it also touched on the beauty of the city as the building located in the central of Phnom Penh.

 

Besides the studies, our group of nine students worked on individual project that described what we have learned in this exploration. I’ve made a 20 minutes documentary, showing the aftermath of the building since it has knocked down. The video included many interviews with the residents, the goverment and the company, most importantly how the company and the residents agreed upon the compensate.

 

Personal Reflection:

 

After studying about the White Building, I started to understand more about the development of Phnom Penh, both in the past and in the future. I first thought that this exploration will be learning about the architecture of this old building but it’s way more interesting than the expectation. I really enjoyed learning and investigating this topic.


The building itself is not just a building, bricks walls and roofs for building, it’s more full of life. It’s amazing to see how this old, historical building connected to the development of the city of Phnom Penh as a whole. There’s also a lot of stigma about this place but after hearing different perspectives from all parts of people, there is more than one truth to this.

 

When I listen to the company and the government perspective, I think that the residents are happy with their decisions and the compensation. But then I realize I don’t like the idea of knocking down the building. Yes, the building is old but it would be a great place for a historic location so that other people can study about it too. But then I also think that, if the building was still there, it wouldn’t make the city look great too. There are a lot of positive and negative affect to this and it is very hard to make a statement to it.

 

The sad thing about this White Building that always struck me is the separation of the “community”. It is sad to see a whole cheerful, happiness and joyful group of people to be apart from each other, especially the artist’s community. After the war end, artists were brought back together so that they can bring back our cultures, and now they’re all separated. It’s just like the war has started again and our one piece of arts is starting to fade. Even Though it is just one piece, but it can make up a hole and if that one piece is missing, it can’t create a whole anymore.

 

I feel like development these days have been creating a lot of effects and influences to people who are living in the city. People have been evicted from their home so that developments can happen. But where do those people go? Yes, I agree that some building are built for apartments and housing. But still, I can see that apartments in Phnom Penh aren’t really affordable, so how can people find a place to live that they can afford? And since a lot of people want to live in the city? Because most Cambodian people aren’t that rich to have a luxury place to stay. Also, those who are rich are going to be rich, those who are poor will always be poor. It’s fascinating to see development happen in Cambodia, but how can we do business but also make people happy at the same time?

Watch my documentary here: 

Listen to the podcast here:

Posted on

White Building Exploration

This is the first exploration of the 6th year at Liger Leadership Academy. In this exploration, we studied the history of the white building from the past, present, and future. In addition, we were also learning about the development of Cambodia since it’s one of the major effects to the White Building itself, but also other iconic building in Phnom Penh. The White Building is the work of a Cambodian architect, Lu Ban Hap and a Russian engineer, Vladimir Bodiansky, built in 1963. The building was a part of the Bassac Riverfront complex, an urban development designed by famous Khmer architect Vann Molyvann. This building has survived the genocide and people, specifically, the artists has moved in, given the apartment by the Ministry of Culture. Recently, the residents has been evicted from the building because the government worried about the safety of the people there since the building is very old and it also touched on the beauty of the city as the building located in the central of Phnom Penh.

 

Besides the studies, our group of nine students worked on an individual project that described what we have learned in this exploration. I’ve made a 20 minutes documentary, showing the aftermath of the building since it has knocked down. The video included many interviews with the residents, the government and the company, most importantly how the company and the residents agreed upon the compensate.

 

Personal Reflection:

 

After studying about the White Building, I started to understand more about the development of Phnom Penh, both in the past and in the future. I first thought that this exploration will be learning about the architecture of this old building but it’s way more interesting than the expectation. I really enjoyed learning and investigating this topic.


The building itself is not just a building, bricks walls and roofs for building, it’s more full of life. It’s amazing to see how this old, historical building connected to the development of the city of Phnom Penh as a whole. There’s also a lot of stigma about this place but after hearing different perspectives from all parts of people, there is more than one truth to this.

 

When I listen to the company and the government perspective, I think that the residents are happy with their decisions and the compensation. But then I realize I don’t like the idea of knocking down the building. Yes, the building is old but it would be a great place for a historic location so that other people can study about it too. But then I also think that, if the building was still there, it wouldn’t make the city look great too. There are a lot of positive and negative affect to this and it is very hard to make a statement to it.

 

The sad thing about this White Building that always struck me is the separation of the “community”. It is sad to see a whole cheerful, happiness and joyful group of people to be apart from each other, especially the artist’s community. After the war ended, artists were brought back together so that they can bring back our cultures, and now they’re all separated. It’s just like the war has started again and our one piece of arts is starting to fade. Even Though it is just one piece, but it can make up a hole and if that one piece is missing, it can’t create a whole anymore.

 

I feel like development these days have been creating a lot of effects and influences to people who are living in the city. People have been evicted from their home so that developments can happen. But where do those people go? Yes, I agree that some building are built for apartments and housing. But still, I can see that apartments in Phnom Penh aren’t really affordable, so how can people find a place to live that they can afford? And since a lot of people want to live in the city? Because most Cambodian people aren’t that rich to have a luxury place to stay. Also, those who are rich are going to be rich, those who are poor will always be poor. It’s fascinating to see development happen in Cambodia, but how can we do business but also make people happy at the same time?

Here is the link to my video

Here is the link to the podcast

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Khmer Rouge Exploration Description

This is the second exploration of the school year which I found a really interesting topic to investigate about. We took this exploration to learn about our history which is Khmer Rouge or Khmer Red as we call.

For me, it was a little bit difficult and painful to learn about this history because whenever I’ve heard new information or learn new things, I always wish I hadn’t hear that. This class took a lot of my imagination about the past. My mother has experienced that time and I never had the courage to ask her what happen because I knew that it would hurt her even more when she think about it.

Khmer Rouge was formed in 1968 by the leader Salot Sor aka Pol Pot. Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh in 17th April, 1975. It ends on the 7th January 1979 from the help of Vietnam soldiers. People in the city were evacuated and forbidden to move out from their city to the rural area. A few days after Khmer Rouge enter Phnom Penh, the city became quiet and no one live in the city. At that period, the city was called a “ghost city”. People were forced to do hard working and some people die because of illness and starvation from not receiving enough nutrients.

There are loads of information that I’m sure you’ll be surprised when you hear it but there’s too much to describe how awful it was.

We also went to Siem Reap and Odor Meanchey province in order to explore more about the history back then. We went to Anlong Veng mountain and that’s where Khmer Rouge soldiers were hidden after the period ends. We get to interview some people back there about their experience and perspective and there were also some new information to compare to when we learn in class. While we were in Siem Reap, we also explore many different museum that relates to Khmer Rouge like, War Museum and Landmine Museum. It’s really interesting to see all of those big tanks, bombs, mines, and others dangerous weapons that they use in Khmer Rouge.

I also create a documentary about Khmer Rouge while on trip but unfortunately I haven’t upload in Youtube yet.

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Iron Deficiency Exploration Description

Students: 13
Facilitators: Karen Krieger

This is the first exploration of Year 5. First of all, I’m so happy to be a part of this exploration because this exploration was a completely new learning for me.

In this exploration, we learn about the main health issue in Cambodia, which is anemia. We do research and there are three types of anemia. One of the them is Iron Deficiency which is the topic that our exploration focus on. We study about the causes of Iron Deficiency and what are the solutions to help it. I was surprised because I never know that Iron Deficiency is the main health issue in Cambodia. It’s interesting to learn why is this the main health issue in Cambodia, specifically on the rural place.

First of all, the cause of Iron Deficiency is mean that you don’t have enough iron in your body. Your body needs iron because iron produces red blood cells that carries healthy oxygen. If a person don’t have enough iron, it means they are not healthy enough. The symptoms of having Iron Deficiency are, paled skin, tired, sleepy, weakness, shortness of breath, dizzy. The things that you can do to get more iron in your body is your diet. You need to eat red meat, leafy greens and all those food that contains a lot of iron in it. There’s another solution…….

We work with this organization, The Lucky Iron Fish. It’s an organization that helps rural people in Cambodia to get more iron in their body by giving out the Lucky Iron Fish. The Lucky Iron Fish is an iron fish that contains the iron (f1) that every human have that type of iron in their body. This iron fish is really helpful for Cambodian people.

We went to Siem Reap to give a workshop to villagers and students about The Lucky Iron Fish. We taught them about how to use the iron fish and we try to encourage them to use the iron fish everyday in their daily meals. We have distribute around 200 iron fishes to the villagers and the student’s parent. While we were doing workshop, we also document it, film. Our product for this exploration is a video clip about The Lucky Iron Fish, in Khmer version.

While we were in Siem Reaps, we also visit tourism places over there. We went to war museum, landmine museum, nightly indoor performances (PHARE), Angkor Wat, hiking and night market. It was a really fun trip and we received a lot of new experience.
Visit The Lucky Iron Fish Website.

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Unusual Spiritualism in Cambodia

This is a Create Your Own Exploration (CYOE). This exploration we decided to research on the spiritualism in Cambodia like the belief about the superstition and others. We went on trip to four different provinces, interviewed people about their belief. We went to Kampong Cham, Kampong Speu, Kampot, and Kep. Some of them share about their ghost story that they have meet spirits before.

In this exploration we have created a podcast (episode 3) talking about spiritual in Cambodia. This is the topic that I find fascinating because Cambodia have a lot of beliefs about spirits and ghost.

There are three segment in this podcast. The first segment talked about the history of the belief, the second segment talked about ghost story that we collected from our interviewee and the third segment talked about the future of the belief.

Listen to the podcast to know more about the belief in Cambodia.
Click here to go to our blog!

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Marine Conservation in Cambodia

Exploration: Marine Conservation
Facilitator: Karen Krieger
Students: 12

In this exploration, I’d learn a lot about marine ecosystem. My group went to Koh Seh (Kep) to study about marine ecosystem and marine conservation. This trip was the best trip I’ve ever taken before. I got to live on an island for five days with all of the friendly people on the island. When the first time I got on the boat I felt kind of not comfortable because I’ve heard from Karen that we needed to travel about nearly an hour to get to the island. But after a few minutes, I felt so great because I was so excited to go to the island. When I first got to the island I felt so fresh and I met a lot of great people and kids over there. We had a very delicious meal and great place to sleep (bangalo). However, we went to the island not just to have fun we also learn a lot too.

Marine Conservation Cambodia (MCC) has taught us a lot of about what they are doing there and what they are trying to do to protect marine ecosystem in Cambodia. I’ve learn about illegal fishing in Cambodia (ex: trawling). This was my first time that I know how bad is illegal fishing destroy marine life and ecosystem. Trawling is really really bad because it’s not just taken fish, but it’s also destroying everything under water (ex: coral reef). I feel kind of sad for the ocean. I feel like , Cambodian should stop fishing illegally. Beside learning about illegal fishing we’ve learn about life under water. We’ve learn about coral reef. Why do we need to learn about coral reef? Well, coral reef is a habitat for marine life. It’s provide food to the organism. Also we’ve learn about seahorse, one of the cute organism underwater. MCC is trying to protect seahorse because in Cambodia, seahorse is in a great danger. We’ve learn how to measure seahorse and also learn why seahorse is important to protect.

We also did some activities that help the world like beach clean up. Liger and MCC collect about 130 kg of trash in an hour. We put the data that we collect and put it in the world form data (Ocean Conservancy). We use the trash that we collect and we did some recycled materials.
At night we watched 2 documentary, coconut man, seahorse man. Staying at Koh Seh has been one of my powerful experience ever.

At school we as a group writes a proposal for students next year, so they get to go to the island and learn about marine ecosystem too. Everyone is pounding the pavement really hard to work on the proposal and get really serious. This proposal, we will present to Dom (country director at Liger) and Mr. Jeff (coordinator) then they will prove the proposal that students will do this project next year. In the proposal, my job is to writed about Next Year Plan Feasibility Study. In the proposal we also include problem and solution about marine ecosystem in Cambodia.

Have a look at our proposal!

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Khmer Interior Design

In this exploration, I’ve learn about interior design. This exploration is special because this is a “chose your own exploration”. We choose this topics because we want to learn about interior design, although we thought being an interior designer is fun and easy. Another reason is my sister in law is an interior designer so I can contact her and ask her question.

We also have the greatest opportunity ever because Liger has a construction going on, so we ask Dom (country director) to design that apartment. Our group has divide into three groups, kitchen and living room, two bedrooms, and a bathroom. I was working on bathroom with my partner, Menghouth. We were working so hard to get everything done. We’ve been shopping for furniture, light, and others.

Being interior designer is not easy. Everyone that doesn’t know about interior design always said “interior design is super easy. If you have money you can just go buy furniture and put it in your house”. We’ve been doing this for 7 weeks and we found out that it’s not as easy as we think.

We also having fun while we doing this.

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Hidden Voices Description

Name: Hidden Voices
Facilitator: Rich, Sophorn, and Trish
Students: 13

In this exploration, we are studying about songs that are endangered, that Cambodian never heard it before. So to find the songs that are endangered we been to 2 provinces to interview people from difference places. We been to Kampong Speu and Mondulkiri. We not just went outside to interview people, but we also interview people by calling them and asking about there favorite songs and so on.

(Hidden Voices Trip)

In class we been studying about Podcasting. We also made a podcast that talk about our Hidden Voices group. To make this podcast, we been working really hard to edit, writing script and so on.
I was working on editing too, and it was not that easy to do. The program that we use to edit the podcast is Audacity.

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I feel like, this exploration made me learned a lot of things.
I can improve my interviewing skills when I went to interview people.
I learned how to edit in Audacity.
Communicator (being brave)
Being Proactive
Try to challenge my self

My favorite songs that my interviewee told me is មន្ដស្នេហ៍ខ្លុយ​(mon snea kloy teb)

We also made a blog for our group to share to other people about the endangered songs in Cambodia. This blog is full of songs that we found. Also, If you want to listen to the Podcast that we made, please go to our blog!
Visit our blog! Hidden Voices

(Hidden Voices Group Pictures)