using songs to teach science

While searching for teaching materials, I came across a website full of science-themed songs. There are songs about electricity, magnet, what's inside our earth, colours of the rainbow, etc.

What I think is primary science teachers can download the music, listen and jot down the lyrics and then share them with students when teaching related topics. It will be fun!

bahasa Melayu crossword competition #1

Bahasa Melayu Crossword Puzzle Competition!

Win a 6 months subscription of Dewan Siswa!

This is the first academic crossword puzzle competition here. This month, the student (or even adult) who can give me the most correct answers will be entitled for a 6 months subscription of Dewan Siswa.

• The competition closes on Thursday, 15 February 2007. Winner will be announced on Saturday, 17 February 2007.
• The judge's (me!) decision is final.
• You can enter as many times as you want. But each set of answers must be accompanied with a slogan "I love/hate Bahasa Melayu because......"
• If there is more than one entry with all correct answers, the winner will be selected based on the best slogan.
• If there is no entry with all correct answers, the winner will be selected based on the most correct answers.
• To submit, just list down your answers (Melintang: 1. Asonansi, 2. Hiperbola....Ke Bawah: 1. Responsi, 2. ABAB....)
• Send all your answers and slogan to academicxwords@gmail.com
• Click here to download the file.

Tekata #1: KOMSAS Tingkatan 1

Melintang
5. Rima akhir bagi setiap rangkap Syair Menyambut Pelajaran ialah ___.
6. Pantun Budi ialah pantun ___ kerat.
9. “Laksana menumbuk beralas nyiru” dalam Syair Menyambut Pelajaran ialah gaya bahasa ___.
13. Di negeri manakah letaknya Tasik Biru yang menjadi sumber inspirasi kepada penyajaknya, Kemala?
14. Banyak udang banyak garam, banyak orang banyak ___.
15. Kata “pokta” dalam Syair Badrul Zaman ialah gaya bahasa ___.
17. Pengulangan huruf vokal "a" dalam baris “bila kita tiba-tiba merasa kehilangan” dalam sajak Puisi Buat Mama ialah gaya bahasa ___.
18. Kata “bersiram” dalam Syair Ken Tambuhan ialah gaya bahasa ___.
19. Latar masyarakat yang digambarkan dalam Syair Ken Tambuhan ialah masyarakat bangsawan ___.

Ke bawah
1. Nada sajak Puisi Buat Mama ialah ___.
2. Apakah maksud kata “khatam” dalam Syair Badrul Zaman?
3. Tema sajak Negeri Cinta ialah semangat ___.
4. Frasa “suara bibirnya” dalam sajak Seorang Guru ialah gaya bahasa ___.
7. Hancur badan dikandung tanah, ___ yang baik dikenang juga.
8. Sajak Burung ___ bertemakan kegigihan.
10. Kapal belayar dalam semak, perut lapar semua ___.
11. Sajak Surat dari Kampus menceritakan kejayaan anak kampung melanjutkan pelajaran ke menara ___.
12. Dahulu parang sekarang besi, dahulu sayang sekarang benci. Pengulangan kata dahulu ialah gaya bahasa ___.
16. Maksud kata kucupan dalam sajak Puisi Buat Mama bermaksud ___.
17. Apakah rima akhir Pantun Kanak-kanak?

You can also download from here.

aiya, Nadal's out!

It's a total frustration for me to see Nadal lost the battle in today's quarterfinal.

He is not fully fit for this Grand Slam tournament and fighting Fernando Gonzalez, who beat Hewitt and James Blake in the 3rd and 4th rounds respectively, was a tough one.

Anyway Gonzalez has done a good job with his groundstrokes. It's amazing to see him played so well on the hard court considered that he is a clay specialist. He had a good year last year. And in 2007, I think all of us might want to watch out for this guy.

Nadal, please buck up!

Nadal is the biggest reason why I watch tennis. He is the one who makes many of us believe that Roger Federer is beatable. I love to watch players like Hewitt, Roddick and Blake too but no other men players played like Nadal. He has charisma and you have to admire his never-say-die attitude.

However, after his lost to Federer at Wimbledon last year in the nail-biting final, Nadal hasn't really perform at his best.

Yesterday's match at the Australian Open against Andy Murray was a nerve-wreaking one. Nadal had to struggle for five sets before he can win the match to proceed to the quarterfinal. His games has been very shaky and I really hope (cross my fingers) he will improve his performance till the final.

There's nothing better than to have a final battle between Nadal and Federer in the first Grand Slam match at the beginning of the year. Although Roddick recorded a victory against Federer at the Kooyong Classic a couple of weeks ago, I don't think he will match Federer's perfection this time.

In the meantime, Nadal has to win over Fernando Gonzalez to move on to the semifinal. Gonzalez is also one of the few players I loved to watch and Nadal is not going to have an easy win.

flora hunt: mission completed

It was a tiring day because I went on without sleep since yesterday. I did not sleep after came back from Genting. Instead I stayed awake to update my blog and do some reading on anagrams and cryptograms.

My team and I reached Putrajaya at about 7 a.m. Almost more than half of the cars were already there. There were about 164 cars altogether. During the briefing, we were quite happy because the first half of the destinations were places that we knew well; Shah Alam and SS2, Petaling Jaya. After the midpoint, we were asked to go to Eye On Malaysia, in Taman Tasik Titiwangsa to collect new sheet of questions and accomplished a mission (which involved in answering questions regarding Eye On Malaysia). Then we had to proceed to Pandan Indah (which was a problem because all of us weren't sure where Pandan Indah was) and back to Putrajaya.

My team still couldn't answer most of the questions. We're sucked in anagrams! After two hunts, now my team mates want to quit. I'll probably have to find new team mates in the future because I'm not quitting. I think I just need to do more research and probably involved myself in more hunts to train up my skills.

Example of question for treasure:

Dalam bas ada bilik kecemasan kata orang putih,
Pastikan bukan V6 tapi V1000g, barulah sahih,
Harta karun ini adalah untuk kebajikan,
Yang betul, barulah markah akan diberikan,
Jenama melambangkan percintaan Shah Jehan,
Yang itu sahaja kami inginkan.

Answer: Beras berjenama Taj Mahal (5kg)

Astro Wah Lai Toi Drama Awards 2006

We arrived at the Arena of Stars, Genting almost at about 7.20 p.m. By the time my friends and I checked in at the entrance and squeezed through the huge crowd, the emcee of the red carpet show, Hui Min was already counting down the arrival of the stars.

I tried to get a space near the mini stage where Hui Min interviewed the celebrities. The first HK star that arrived was Nat Chan, the emcee of the event, and his wife (I think). I tried very hard to get a good shot, but the best that I could get was his back.

Then of course the arrival of the other emcee of the night, Chui Ling together with Alan Yun. She dominated most of the talking while poor Alan Yun was just posing the rest of the time.

By the way, I'm going to skipped the local celebrities because I don't know most of them except Ryan and Phoebe.

The purpose for me being there tonite was mainly because Kevin Cheng is my favourite TVB stars. He arrived after veteran actor, Tsang Kong, and Raymond Cho. I've been listening to Kevin's songs since my secondary school years which was back in the 1990s. That time he was not very popular but I listened to his songs because I was happened to be a fan of Linda Wong. They were romantically linked to each other at that time.

When Bernice Liu appeared, I was totally blown away by her beauty. I couldn't believe my eyes because she is totally different from most of the characters she played in drama (you know, the sam pat and funny characters she usually played). I must admit she is much prettier in real person than in photo. Probably ten times prettier. On the other hand, Ryan, looked rather chubby in the white shirt.

For the first time in my life, I thought Raymond Lam is really talented. He is cool but not the kind of cool's "cool" like Ron Ng and Kevin Cheng. He can dance and sing better than a lot of young Hong Kong stars today too.

Ron Ng, on the other hand, looked exactly like what he is on tv. He only performed and danced with Raymond Lam tonight. On the other hand, Raymond got a chance to perform his winning theme song from the drama, The Last Break Through.

I didn't know Myolie Wu can sing so well! Well, not perfect but at least this girl can hold some notes here. She really slim down a lot (!) after putting lots pounds for the drama To Grow With Love. She was not as chirpy as last year. Kinda serious. And she broke down in tears after she was announced the favourite leading actress. Probably it was emotional to won an award over Liza Wang, who took away her Best TVB Actress in Hong Kong the previous year.

During the entire event, there was nothing better than to put Moses Chan and Bernice together. The emcees keep teasing them and the fans chanted for them to kiss when they won the Favourite Couple award.

Although my seat was way up at the corner of the hall and I barely recognised the celebrities' faces, from afar, I was completely satisfied with the red carpet show. Watching live awards presentation is definitely better than sitting in front of the idiot box.