a. A two-sentence summary of the project goals.

Project Atlantis serve a number of functions that all centres around 1 concern, which is to raise awareness regarding the status of our environment to the younger generations. Based on the primary concept, we diverge our event towards different environmental issues such as plastic usage, different types of water and environmental pollution and we even educated the students regarding the basics of marine biology and from there the participants may use the knowledge that they acquire throughout their lives and might even help educated their families about the issues. So in the grand scheme of things, we predicted that this event may lead to a positive outcome.

b. Did other fund-raising efforts contribute to your projects? What were they?

Yes. The funds that we are able to gather from the Starfish Foundation have provided us with more than enough to sustain the month long project. Additionally, our internal fund-raising did also help with the project as well. Majority of our funding is used to materials for our aqua-scaping workshop which are the glass jars, plants and soils. Other materials, we do try to reuse unwanted objects such as old clothes or plastic bottles as to fit with the environmental friendly theme. Transport fees wise, the AQSA members that took part in going to the schools, and not much of the funds are used for transport.

c. Provide details about how your project actually worked.

I. Were there unanticipated difficulties? Budget constraints?

Yes. There are unanticipated difficulties faced during the project running. Initially there was a plan to conduct an exhibition at our school as a way to conclude the entire project but the plan was scraped due to a number of reasons. One of which is because we are unable to find enough participants that would go out of their way to come to UCSI to attend this event, the other reason is due to us not having sufficient funds to provide a transport service for the participants from the high schools we went to.

In addition to that, setting up the entire project was quite difficult, since the committee members in UCSI university that participated in the project are not only the students from Aquatic Science, there are also other members from different faculty as well and as such the timing of the meetings and the events are not always favourable to everyone and some people are not able to attend every meeting and activity organised. Furthermore, there is also difficulty in correlating the event timing to suite the participants in the high schools and the committee members. This is because during that time when the events are being held, the participants are also having their exams and thus we have change our timing to fit the participants as well as the teachers in charge.

Last but not least there was also a slight bump in our aqua-scapig project as during that time, the Kuala Lumpur area are having water shortage issues which cause us to not being able to get a good water source at one of the schools, but that issue had been overcomed so there were no drastic deviations from the initial plan.

II. Language or cultural barriers?

We hardly face any language difficulty throughout the entirety of the event, this being due to the fact that the committee members consist of multicultural and multiracial members, we have Malaysian members as well as international members and thus the Malaysian members are able to help overcome the language barriers by helping to translate to each other when needed.

III. What worked well? What didn’t work well?

Throughout the entire project, everything worked fairly well, there are parts where everything is good and there are some other parts that needed to be fixed. We manage to adapt from the previous event and change this project to a more indoor experience compared to an outdoor experience. Because to this the response have been positive since we are able to spend more time in conducting the project in classrooms compared to that if we conducted the project in the fields. In addition, the participants can also focus more on what the committee members are teaching them and the teachers can also join in without having to worry about the downpour of rain or the blaring glares of the hot sun. For the aqua-scaping activity, we decided to use miniature jars to do the terrariums and that made the entire process much more convenient and easier to conduct for the participants and the committee members. To add on to the positives, the participants and school authorities at the high schools we’ve been to have been wonderful as they have given a full cooperation throughout the project.

III. What worked well? What didn’t work well? Throughout the entire project, everything worked fairly well, there are parts where everything is good and there are some other parts that needed to be fixed. We manage to adapt from the previous event and change this project to a more indoor experience compared to an outdoor experience. Because to this the response have been positive since we are able to spend more time in conducting the project in classrooms compared to that if we conducted the project in the fields. In addition, the participants can also focus more on what the committee members are teaching them and the teachers can also join in without having to worry about the downpour of rain or the blaring glares of the hot sun. For the aqua-scaping activity, we decided to use miniature jars to do the terrariums and that made the entire process much more convenient and easier to conduct for the participants and the committee members. To add on to the positives, the participants and school authorities at the high schools we’ve been to have been wonderful as they have given a full cooperation throughout the project.

IV. How many people benefited or will benefit from your project?

Who are these people? One or more communities will be able to benefit from this project. More specifically, the communities that are surrounds the project site which are the high schools that we went to. Words which travel by mouth is much more effective and more believable compared to that of advertisements or posters. Therefore, by educating and exposing the students and teachers of the school to the idea of water pollution, plastic pollution and the benefits of ecobricks, the students can share this experience and exposure to their family members as well as their friends also which indirectly helping this project to promote its benefits to the whole communities surrounding it. Furthermore, during any events that the school held, the project site which is part of the school landscape, will stood out and will raise enquiries among the visitors to the school which indirectly promote the ideas of the project to others.

V. What is the long-term impact and sustainability of this project?

Is there a future for your project? In a long run, this project can help raise awareness as well as increase the understanding of the community to the issue of plastic pollution and the amount of plastic or nonbiodegradable waste generated through human’s habits of using single-use plastics. From there they can learn how to reduce the usage of these items or even come out with ideas of their own for substitutions for single used plastics. With that they can slowly implement the knowledge and skills that they have learnt from this project in their daily lives for better benefit for everyone. Slowly but surely these will become a habit of the communities, and from there we will be able to see a change in the amount of plastic usage within the area. As for the long run, we hope to expand our horizons and target more areas, not just Taman Connaught.

As for the future of the project, we receive quite a lot of positive reviews from the teachers of the high school and even praise from the parents of the participants. With so much positive feedback we anticipated to have a similar event with more workshops in the future and incorporate more topics that are relevant to the aquatic science community so that the young generation can more exposed to this field.

a. In several paragraphs, address each of the following questions:

• How does or will your project contribute to happiness? Short-term? Long-term?

• Has your project changed the way you think about the world? How has it changed you?

In this era, the condition of our environment has become a huge concern, not just in Malaysia but in all the parts of the world with global warming, forest fires, plastic pollutions being a in the headlines of our news articles. I believe that knowing we are able to play a small part in helping our current environmental situation such as reducing the usage of plastic use, would bring satisfaction to anyone. Having to teach kids to be happy about not only intrinsic benefits or personal gain and focus on the bigger picture of what their small actions can do to save the earth is the difficult part of this journey but I believe once they understand what they are able to do they will find happiness through their own contribution. To add on, doing this activity can help in environment in preservation in a long run. Better and greener environment will bring happiness to those living in it with definite.

If you look at it in a more materialistic point of view, plastic reduction can also provide benefits in an economic stand point. Using biodegradable materials can and will reduce the amount of trash and from there we are able to save up more land that are not use as permanent landfills. Reduction of waste also mean reduction of landfill or land needed to process the waste, thus we will have more land for other purposes such as housing, recreational purposes which will bring happiness to everyone. In addition to that reusing and repurposing plastic materials can help households save up some money. Plastic containers can act as flower pots or pails, plastic bottles can be reuse and even made into ecobricks that are able to use to build furniture and even larger structure like houses. However, you look at it this program will bring happiness, whether it is short term or long term.

For me as one of the committee members in the event that help to share my knowledge and experience to the younger participants the event let me to realize that the young generation have quite a lot of knowledge regarding the issues discussed proving that the present of the internet and unlimited information at your fingertips had serve a large function to educate the people. Moreover, this project has thought me that we should relook into our plastic usage, instead of recycling or repurposing the plastics, its better yet if we can reduce the amount of plastic waste produce from our daily activities for better benefit.Based on all these programs that have been through I have found out that recycling is not always the best solution to all waste generated. To address the forever increment of plastic pollution not only in Malaysia but also globally one need to look into how to reduce or even find an alternative instead.

b. Complete this section with a one to two sentence personal statement, suitable for use as a quotation, addressing how and why this project was valuable and what was the most important thing you learned as a result. (Indicate student’s name for quote attribution.)

• Wong Kay Yong (Kelas 4 CE, SMK St. Gabriel): For the longest period of time the education system has taught us about protecting the environment and with this activity it can finally help us practicalized what we have learn.

• Michelle Heng Shu Ling (Kelas 3 ON, SMK Taman Connaught): This program inspire me to try out marine biology as a future career option,