EXCEL REPORT 3: MOON ECLIPSE OBSERVATION

The Moon Eclipse Observation is an activity that organized by the UTM Astronomy Club. This activity is held on 8 November 2022 in Bangunan Canseleri and Helipad. The activity began by the talk session held by Club Pemeta (Bangunan Canseleri) and followed by the Moon Observation (Helipad) held by UTM Astronomy Club. The purpose of organizing this activity is to have a basic understanding of the causes moon eclipse and to nurture students’ curiosity in astronomy that supports the development of science in Malaysia.

The graduate attributes that I had achieved in this activity are communication skills, thinking skills and leadership and teamworking skills. In this event, I learnt the importance of communication skills where we need to ensure the information is clearly send to the participants, and this is known as effective communication. This is because during this event, the location of the activity had been changes due to the closure of Balai Cerap in UTM. Thus, we can held observation of moon activity in observatory in UTM and we decided to change to Helipad. We need to communicate well with the participants so they did not go to the wrong place. Besides that, I also learnt the thinking skills where we were able to figure out a new place to hold our activity when a sudden event occurs. Last but not least, I also learnt the leadership and teamworking skills as a committee members. We need to work together to ensure our activity go well.

The activity begin with the talk session by Dato’ Sr Dr. Azhari Bin Mohamed which held by Club Pemeta. The speaker explained well about the knowledge of astronomy and participants were very interesting about the space and universe. They asked a lot of question with the speaker in the Q&A session. Following that, our activity began, the participants gathered at the Helipad UTM around 7.00p.m. . They used the theodolite to observe the moon with guide of the helper from club Pemeta. The event ended at around 9.00 p.m. . It was a very exciting event to be participated.

The impact of this activity on the development of graduate attributes is that students are able to develop and strengthen their communication skills, thinking skills, leadership and teamwork skills. This is due to the fact that I must communicate with the committee members during the activity in order to organize it. Accidents like the temporary closure of Balai Cerap during the event forced us to move the activity venue. We must choose a location where we can observe the moon and communicate with our participants. These had all improved our communication abilities. Aside from that, the event also helped to improve my critical thinking skills. I am able to think quickly and critically when a sudden change occurred. When the location of the activity is forced to changed, we need to think a lot because it caused a domino effect. For example, beside deciding a new location for the activity, we also need to cancel the application for renting the bus for the participants. Furthermore, participating in this activity helped me strength my leadership skills. This is because our committee members were able to work together to overcome obstacles in order to complete our event. Generally, I had learnt a lot of soft and hard skills when participated in organizing this event. I hoped I had more chances to participant in more event held by different clubs.

The difficulty I encountered was handling the cancelation of renting for the bus as this is my first time doing it. However, with the experience that I had learnt, I am sure I am able to handle the same situation well next time.