DEVELOPING EMPATHY ABILITY BY STORY-TELLING WITH PUPPET FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDENT IN LENTERA ALAM LEARNING CENTER

The root of empathy has been planted in person since he/she was a baby. Then one of the way to despite foundation of moral education and built children empathy has to be done since early life. Empathy is an ability to understand others’ feeling and capability to put self on others condition. This research used Action Research Method and aims to know children’s empathy after they performs a folklore story by using puppet in front of their friends. This research engaged 5 students aged 5 years old in Lentera Alam Learning Center. There were four steps, 1) Planning; 2) Action; 3) Observation; and 4) Reflection which were done in two cycles. The treatment was teacher told a folklore story to children, then ask children to retell the story for his/her friend by using puppets in front of the class. Check list observation was used during the performance on the first and second cycle. It was found an improvement on children’s empathy, before the treatment pre-test score is 11.2 then post-test on the first cycle 16.8 and the second cycle 22.4. Children’s empathy shown by the ability to distinguished emotions, sharing, helping, asking apologize, giving forgiveness and cheering others friend when they were sad

Teaching the Electronic Design and Embedded System Course with Body Sensor Nodes

The body sensor nodes armed with a MSP430 microcontroller, a IEEE 802.15.4 radio chip, a memory flash and an electronic amplifier circuits is proposed as an educational platform for electronic design and embedded system courses. The body sensor nodes are designed based on a commercial wireless sensor network (WSN) device that contains the microcontroller, radio chip and memory flash in a single platform. The WSN device also supplies the connection pins for I/O signals, ADC, SPI and UART functionalities, to control an electronic amplifier circuit. For electronic design courses, the ease of creating the body sensor node, will be hard to resist by the students. An electronic amplifier is designed and fabricated by the students in the laboratory in the electronic design courses. The WSN device is stacked on the top of the electronic amplifier circuit to prototype a new body sensor node. For the embedded system course students, the unique properties of TinyOS used as the operating system for the body sensor node allowed the students see the effects of the software in short time

Producing transgenic rice with improved traits and yield – how far have we come?

Improving rice production is of current global concern so that food security is maintained especially in developing nations where rice remains as the staple food. With the aid of molecular biology, various isolated genes conferring to abiotic, biotic and herbicide stress tolerance has been successfully transferred into rice. Attempts have also been made to enhance grain yield, nutritional characteristics, fragrance and photosynthetic capacity of rice. The success of a commercialized transgenic rice largely depends on the biosafety and environmental risks assessments as these information translates into consumers’ acceptance towards genetically modified (GM) rice. As the renowned Golden Rice has received the green light for field trial in the Philippines and Bangladesh, this would serve as a catalyst for better acceptance of GM food crops. A brief case study on the commercialization of transgenic BT rice in China will also be discussed. The review aims to bring useful insights for future endeavors in improving traits for rice through genetic engineering

Phylogenetic analysis of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense associated with fusarium wilt of bananas from Peninsular Malaysia

Fusarium wilt of bananas caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc) has been known to hamper banana production. In Malaysia, most of the edible banana cultivars are susceptible to the fungal strain Foc tropical race 4 (Foc TR4). To date, molecular characterisation of Foc TR4 in this country remains elusive. Thus, this study aimed to characterise the diversity of Foc TR4 in Peninsular Malaysia based on the phylogenetic analysis of transcription elongation factor (TEF-1α) sequences. From March 2016 to December 2016, 17 isolates of Foc were isolated from nine outbreak states in Peninsular Malaysia consisting of Penang, Perak, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Kelantan and Terengganu, with disease incidence exceeding 70% in several plantations. Morphological, molecular identification using TR4 specific primers and pathogenicity assay confirmed the identity of the fungal pathogen. Pathogenicity assays indicated that the aggressiveness level varies among the isolates. Phylogenetic analyses of TEF1-α sequences showed that there was no genetic variation among the Foc isolates by clustering them into four vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) of 01213 (TR4), 01216 (TR4), 01213/16 (TR4) and 0121 (R4). PCR amplification using VCG specific primers have further categorised 16 Foc isolates as VCG01213 and a single isolate as VCG01213/16. In addition, no correlation between TEF-1α sequences and aggressiveness of isolates could be established

DEVELOPING EMPATHY ABILITY BY STORY-TELLING WITH PUPPET FOR EARLY CHILDHOOD STUDENT IN LENTERA ALAM LEARNING CENTER

The root of empathy has been planted in person since he/she was a baby. Then one of the way to despite foundation of moral education and built children empathy has to be done since early life. Empathy is an ability to understand others’ feeling and capability to put self on others condition. This research used Action Research Method and aims to know children’s empathy after they performs a folklore story by using puppet in front of their friends. This research engaged 5 students aged 5 years old in Lentera Alam Learning Center. There were four steps, 1) Planning; 2) Action; 3) Observation; and 4) Reflection which were done in two cycles. The treatment was teacher told a folklore story to children, then ask children to retell the story for his/her friend by using puppets in front of the class. Check list observation was used during the performance on the first and second cycle. It was found an improvement on children’s empathy, before the treatment pre-test score is 11.2 then post-test on the first cycle 16.8 and the second cycle 22.4. Children’s empathy shown by the ability to distinguished emotions, sharing, helping, asking apologize, giving forgiveness and cheering others friend when they were sad

Development of biodegradable plastic composite blends based on sago derived starch and natural rubber

Polyethylene is a widely used packaging material, but its non-biodegradable nature can lead to waste disposal problems. This increases the concern in research and development of biodegradable plastics from natural resource as alternatives to petroleum-derived plastics. In this study, biodegradable plastic composites were prepared by blending thermoplastic starch with natural rubber in the present of glycerol as plasticizer. Local sago starch was cast with 0.5 to 10% of natural rubber to prepare the bioplastic. The products were characterized by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), water absorption test, biodegradable test, hydrolysis test, and mechanical analysis. Meanwhile, composite with natural rubber latex was increased from 0.5 to 10% showing that the melting temperature is in the range of 120 to 150 °C, but with no significant difference. The water absorption characteristics, biodegradability, and tensile strength decreased by 11.21%, 30.18%, and 20.733 MPa, respectively. However, the elongation at break was increased from 26.67 to 503.3%. The findings of this study showed that sago starch has a great potential in bioplastic production with good miscibility and compatibility