Day 6 - A day of inspiration, farewells and gratitude

Brief Introduction of our day!

Today we visited the Samsung Innovation Museum! Read on to find out more!

Day 6
On our last morning in Seoul, we made our way to Suwon to visit the Samsung Innovation Museum. Here, we got to learn about the history of Korea's electronic industry, as well as the past, present and future of the semiconductor, display and mobile industries, the very industries in which Samsung has made great achievements!

On our way to Samsung Innovation Museum

Interactive booth on static electricity

Watching an illustration on the history of radio communications!

Here, we learnt about the history of light!

Connected real-time LCD displays

Real-time writing animation 

Here are our reflections that capture our learning at the Samsung Innovation Museum: 

"At the Samsung Innovation Museum, I was intrigued by the principle of the arc lamp. 

In 1802, Humphrey Davy experimented with the concept of electrical lighting by attaching two carbon rods on the positive and negative poles of a battery. When the two carbon electrodes were separated from each other, an electric arc was generated in between them, completing a full circuit. 

This was the first practical electric light, how cool is that?" - Gao Jie

"At the Samsung Innovation Museum, I was fascinated by the history and innovation of washing machines throughout the years! 

The first washing machine was created in 1851, where James King from the United States invented a manually operated cylinder-type washing machine. It used repeated movements to compress the air for washing, rinsing and spin-drying. In 1874, William Blackstone (also from the United States) designed a hand-driven washing machine as a present for his wife. It was similar to King’s washing machine, but was the first washing machine made specifically for home use. 

It is so amazing that those were the humble beginnings of the household necessity many of us can't live without today!" - Beatrice

"At the Samsung Innovation Museum, I was really interested in the workings of semiconductors. 
Semiconductors used for memory chips or system ICs have partial properties of both conductors and non-conductors. When light, heat or other impurities are applied, changes in the energy states in the semi-conductor occur, allowing electrons to move, thus the flow of electricity. Two elements, Germanium and Silicon are the major components used in the fabrication of semi-conductor substrates.
It is amazing to think that so many of our technological gadgets depend on the workings of semiconductors! Our lives would be so different without this basic building block of technology." - Jiahuey

"At the Samsung Innovation Museum, I was captivated by the three new types of screen displays; 3D displays, transparent displays and flexible displays. 

• 3D displays enable us to see holographic images without the need of 3D Glasses.
• Transparent displays are basically transparent screens, where one is able to see images displayed against the backdrop of the surroundings, as compared to conventional opaque screens. 
• Flexible displays are made of organic materials which are flexible in nature and which are being used in new-age TVs (like the one at the LG signature showroom) and in foldable phones. As compared with the more prevalent flat screen displays used in most electronics devices, the flexible display has better durability, lighter weight, thinner dimensions, and unique software commands.

I'm sure these technologies will be a hit in the handphone and TV market in the near future!" - Priscilla

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After our visit at the museum, it was time for our last meal in Seoul before heading to the airport. At the airport, it was a bittersweet farewell to our driver and guide. We will definitely miss the long bus journeys and little nuggets of information from Mr Lim. Thank you so much for taking such good care of us!

Our last meal in Korea:(

With our Oppa driver and bus! 

A farewell picture with our knowledgeable guide Mr Lim! 

PS: We have arrived safely at Changi Airport! On the plane, we had a very interesting experience! Just before landing, a video took us through some stretching exercise and all the locals were diligently following along so we joined in too! :D

Mass stretching on the plane! What fun!

We are home!

We've come to the end of our last blog post! 

Our heartfelt thanks goes out to the following people for making this trip possible and such an inspiring experience for us:

Shell for sponsoring the best learning journey of our lives, we are truly thankful. 

Our Shell mentor Ms Ong Loo Xin for her belief in us and for her support throughout our Nxplorers journey.

Science Centre Singapore for organising Nxplorers 2019 and for giving us experiences that have inspired us to embrace and use our STEM education to change the world for the better.

Mr Chester Ong for his unwavering support and encouragement over the years. 

Our STEM INC mentor Mr Wendell Wong for his expertise and help.  

Our School Leaders for their invaluable feedback and support in granting us this opportunity, it really means a lot to us. 

Our Teachers for their understanding, care and concern over the course of this journey.

Our Families for encouraging us and for being proud of us.

Our friends for being our cheerleaders and for coming to support us at the finals.

From the bottom of our hearts, thank you! 

Thank you so much for an amazing time! 

- Beatrice, Gao Jie, Jia Huey and Priscilla

Day 5 - A day of household trends and the stars

Brief Introduction of our day!

Today we visited the LG Signature Showroom and Nowon Cosmos School! Read on to find out more!

Day 5
We started off the day with a tour of the LG Signature Showroom. On our tour, we got to see how technology and interior design go hand-in-hand for stylish, comfortable, convenient and energy efficient daily living. 

Our tour at LG Signature Showroom

This kitchen may look simple but it's full of high tech features!

OLED lights are not only energy saving, but super on-trend too!

Now you see me, now you don't! OLED TV screens are flexible and can be neatly tucked away!

Then it was time for lunch in the famous Gangnam area, Oppa Gangnam style!

Lunch time on a cold rainy day!

We then spent the rest of the afternoon at Nowon Cosmos School and Seoul Conservatory! Here, we got to see exhibits on the history of universe and our solar system, go on an exclusive tour of the conservatory's telescopes and even watch a short movie in the planetarium. 

Informative displays on the history of our universe

Hey look, biology of the universe!

Having a look through one of the telescopes

The main telescope at Seoul Conservatory!

Time for a short movie at the planetarium!

Here are our reflections that capture our learning at Nowon Cosmos School: 

"During our trip to Nowon Cosmos School, we learnt more about the universe by watching a short movie in the planetarium. As we reclined in our seats and gazed upon the star-filled screen, I was very intrigued when the movie explained about the workings of the sun. 

The sun is actually a star and on its surface are sun spots. Sunspots are temporary phenomena on the sun’s photosphere that appear as spots darker than its surrounding areas. They are storms on the sun’s surface that are marked by intense magnetic activity and play host to solar flares and hot gassy ejections from the sun’s corona. Solar flares are violent eruptions of plasma from the chromosphere of the sun that is whipped up by intense magnetic activity. 

After further research, I found out that the flares often disturb the Earth’s atmosphere electrically and interfere with radio transmissions. In addition, the aurora borealis and aurora australis are results of flare activities that inject energetic particles into Earth’s magnetic field. Isn’t that cool?" - Beatrice

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"One interesting thing I have learnt today at Nowon Cosmos School is about nuclear fusion. 

Nuclear fusion is the process by which the sun is able to produce energy. Nuclear fusion reactions take place because the sun's gravity forces nuclei of the hydrogen atoms to fuse together into helium. From this reaction, energy is released and converted into light and heat energy. In fact, this is also the same process that takes place in thermonuclear (fusion) bombs. In the sun, the process occurs in a controlled manner, whereas in a bomb, it happens all at once in a big chain-reaction type of explosion. 

After further research, I found out that in order for the sun to keep generating the same amount of energy at the same rate, the temperature and density of the sun's core must rise, brightening the sun. However, when the sun runs out of hydrogen in its core in about 5 billion years, the nuclear reactions will then take place in the shell around the core instead. This causes the core to contract and heat up, eventually burning helium into carbon. While the core is contracting, the hydrogen burning around it will heat up the outer layers, causing these layers to expand. When the time comes, the Sun will then become what is called a red giant and its radius will be large enough to envelop the Earth." - Jia Huey

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"I have learnt so many new things about our solar system from our visit to Nowon Cosmos School! 

The first piece of history that intrigued me was that in the infant stages of astronomy, ancient Greek astronomers believed in a geocentric system. In this system, the Earth was assumed to be the center of the cosmos through observations of the apparent motion of celestial objects around our planet. Turns out, they were proven wrong and instead, the sun is the centre of our solar system!

In addition, I found out that Venus is roughly the same size as Earth but its atmosphere is rich in greenhouse gases and sulfuric acid instead. As a result, it's surface temperature reaches around 400 degrees Celsius so Venus undergoes intense geological activity with a vast lava outflow continuously transforming its surface. Through these processes, Venus' crust is totally renewed every few hundred million years! Isn't that spectacular?"  - Priscilla

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"After visiting Nowon Cosmos School, I now have a better understanding of how a telescope works and the different types of telescopes there are. A telescope is a tool that astronomers use to see faraway celestial objects like the moon, stars, planets etc. We ourselves can also use it to explore the beautiful night sky. 

There are two types of telescopes. The first is the refracting telescope which is made up of lenses. The purpose of using lens is to allow light to bend as it passes through the lens. This helps the refracting telescope make far-away objects seem closer and more visible. In order to make a stronger refracting telescope, thicker lenses are used to help us to see celestial objects that are even farther away. The second is the reflecting telescope which uses curved mirrors instead of lenses. This is because mirrors are thinner so they make for lighter telescopes. The curved mirrors are able to concentrate and reflect light from the night sky in order for users to capture the image of a celestial object. It allows the images to seem closer and less blurry. One limitation of using mirrors is that the image of the object will be inverted. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution for this; all we need to do is just use another mirror to help invert the image so it is the right-side up.

From our visit, I realised that the physics concepts we have learnt in school are really applied in the construction of good telescopes. This truly amazed me!" - Gao Jie

Last dinner in Seoul 

Oh how time flies! It's now our last night in Seoul. Tomorrow we have one last item on our itinerary before heading home! 

Stay tuned for more! :)

Day 4 - A day of future cities and renewable energy

Brief Introduction of our day!

Today we visited the Museum of Agriculture, SK Telecom and Seoul Energy Dream Centre! Read on to find out more!

Day 4

Throughout our trip in Korea, we've seen so many applications of advanced technology, it was only apt for us to take a step back to see how far we've come by understanding how agriculture in Korea has evolved from its humble beginnings. 

At the Museum of Agriculture, we got the opportunity to see life-sized statues that mimicked days of the past! It was thought-provoking to see how farmers in the past used physics concepts, such as the principle of moments, in some of their tools to lessen the labour needed for farming. 

What surprised us was the write-up on how the rice fields were used in winter! In winter, villagers spent the time to use manure to enrich the soil for the next harvest. In addition to that, dormant fields were often occupied with children/birds. As the fields iced up, children used to speed across the fields on sleds! What an incredible scene!

For lunch we headed to Myeong Dong and had a local dish of stewed chicken, potatoes and sweet potato vermicelli, one of our favourites so far!

We look forward to our meals everyday!

We then made our way to SK Telecom! SK Telecom is the largest mobile operator in Korea with nearly 50% of the market share. It is the company that commercialised the fifth generation (5G) network last December and it has the world's best 5G network! The company is truly passionate about realising the age of hyper-innovation by transforming the way customers work, live and play. As part of the experience, we got to try VR shopping and being driven in a self-driving car!

Gao Jie shopping for a pair of sneakers

Being driven in a self-driving car!

That's not all! We had the privilege to be given the "Future Experience" called HI-Land 2049. The scene is as such: 

In 2049, the human race has combined all the advanced technologies in order to construct a future city, HI-Land, and we are on an expedition to visit the new city but are unexpectedly given missions to save casualties at a volcanic eruption and our whole planet from an approaching meteor!

All our senses were treated as we entered through a robot gate, took a simulated train shuttle to the space control centre, teleported to a volcanic eruption in Collimar Mexico where we literally felt the heat of the volcanic eruption, took another simulated shuttle to HI-Land, performed remote surgery on a casualty, got transported down into HI-Land deep in the ocean, attended a live holographic conference meeting, go on an actual AR mission to change the course of an approaching meteor and finally take a 4D simulator ride through HI-Land. (For pictures and more information: https://tum.sktelecom.com/eng/main.do)

Just when we thought we experienced it all at Sangam MBC, we got to experience all this! What an experience of a lifetime! 

Our only picture of the entire experience at the robot gate! It's a MUST DO for anyone visiting Seoul!

Our last stop for the day was Seoul Energy Dream Centre where we got to tour the first energy-independent building in Korea. Purposefully designed, its architects incorporated solar energy, geothermal energy and all sorts of energy saving features to make the building not only energy efficient but also able to sell surplus energy back to the main grid in Korea to gather donations for the climate fund. If only all buildings were energy-independent, imagine what a positive impact that would make on our climate! 

Who do you think generated the most kinetic energy?

 

Gravitational potential energy and solar energy at work 

Wind energy and the effect of the shapes of the blades on the amount of energy generated

Did you know your appliances still use electricity when they are plugged in but not turned off?

Check out our infrared silhouettes!

Here are our reflections that capture our learning at Seoul Energy Dream Centre:

"After visiting Seoul Energy Dream Centre, I was surprised to discover that even in the past, houses built in Korea were designed to be kept cooler in summer and warmer in winter. During summer, the sun's rays hits the earth at a smaller angle of incidence (closer to the normal) so most of the sun's rays will not shine into house, helping to keep the house cooler in summer. During winter, the sun's rays hits the earth at a larger angle of incidence (further from the normal) so most of the sun's rays will shine into the house, helping to keep the house warmer in winter. This idea is really interesting as it made me realise that in the past, our ancestors already had a good understanding of how to design energy efficient buildings to keep themselves warm or cool in summer or winter." - Gao Jie

Seoul Energy Dream Centre's slanted design is meant to take advantage of the position of the sun's rays during summer and winter 

"Seoul Energy Dream Centre also has a heat recovery ventilation system that uses fresh outdoor air to exchange heat between inflow and outflow and help control relative humidity. I found this technology most interesting as it is an application of adiabatic cooling! The heat recovery ventilator allows energy to be saved by recovering 81% to 90% of waste heat from the exhaust air in winter and summer. In addition, energy loss is reduced and opening of windows is not necessary for ventilation! This advanced energy saving technology, which is also used in other buildings, has contributed to reducing the effects of climate change and making the world a better place!" - Beatrice

The heat exchanger concept helps with ventilation within the building

Inflow and outflow of heat to minimise energy wastage

"Throughout the tour at Seoul Energy Dream Centre, I learnt that it is possible for an entire building to be independently powered and ventilated with various technology. I also found the hydrogen fuel cell exhibit very interesting as I have never seen how it works before. When hydrogen and oxygen react in a fuel cell, chemical energy released is converted into electricity, with water as a by-product. Mr Mong even shared with us how a CEO got a hydrogen powered car to work and drank the water produced by the car in front of his audience to prove that the water was pure!" - Priscilla

Hydrogen fuel cell demonstration 

"Throughout the tour at Seoul Energy Dream Centre, I found the way it uses multiple forms of renewable energy most interesting. The integrated system of renewable energies allows the building to generate sufficient electricity to power the entire centre, making it solely dependent on its microgrid only. This is a great step forward as having an independent grid is what many companies have been working on for a more sustainable and eco-friendly future" - Jia Huey

Peeling the layers of the Seoul Energy Dream Centre apart to see how its features make it energy efficient

Live view of the energy production and usage for the day! 

Every new day's experiences just keep getting better and better, and today we were even treated to a Korean BBQ! We are looking forward to tomorrow's learning already!

BBQ dinner!

WE LOVE SEOUL!

Stay tuned for more! :)