January 2012

plant your seeds like segun Did you know that SEED volunteers receive seeds (points) for being active on planetseed.com? Each time a user logs in, refers a friend, submits a blog, answers a poll, or does a variety of other activities, he or she gets more seeds, which can then be traded in for a variety of SEED token gifts, such as Connected Wisdom books or artwork notebooks. SEED has also created a Community Garden on the Web site, where volunteers can “plant” their seeds. When the garden has 2000 seeds, a SEEDKIT will be donated to a local school. Volunteers also have the option to feature their profile on our Web site. This last option is what super points-earner Segun Oladejo has chosen to do. The long-time volunteer has been blogging to encourage education initiatives in his home country of Nigeria. Segun wants to encourage students to learn about computers and to study hard. He is also a regular commenter on SEED forums, and has made friends around the SEED world. Log onto planetseed.com now to meet him!     blowout! Oil Well Blowout Simulator. One of the biggest risks in drilling an oil well is having a blowout, which occurs when gas pressure inside the well suddenly forces out the oil. Blowouts can be both environmentally messy and dangerous. The SEED Web site has a new animation in the Earth Sciences section that lets you find the right formulation of drilling mud to prevent an oil well blowout. Play around with different muds until you get it right!

malaysia boleh! malaysia can!

Malaysia Can! And they proved it on December 5–9, by having a national SEED robotics workshop. One hundred students and 12 teachers from 8 SEED schools met 12 SEED volunteers in A’Famosa, Melaka, Malaysia, to learn how to make simple robots using GoGo boards. But that is not all they did. In a whirlwind five days, the group launched their own rockets at the Planetarium Negara. Next they attended a welcome ceremony at the Petrosains museum in the Kuala Lumpur Convention Center district. The museum is located in the PETRONAS Twin Towers, the tallest twin towers in the world. After a visit to a PETRONAS refinery, the group settled down for the main event: building robots.

Professor Roger Sipitakiat from Cheng Mai University, Thailand, a long-time SEED friend and educator, joined the fun to help teach the students how to use the GoGo board. “I am thrilled to once again be a part of SEED in Malaysia,” he said. He was joined by SEED alumnus Simon Lim, who helped lead the workshop. Added Sipitakiat, “I am so impressed by how many SEED alumni have continued to be involved as facilitators. It really shows how much impact SEED has on students and their future goals.”

The students and their teachers were divided into 15 groups and were given two days to design and create a robot. The themes were energy, water, or the environment, and the variety of projects was astounding. One group built a model of a ship that automatically releases oil-digesting bacteria when it detects an oil spill. Another group created a smoke detector prototype that can automatically initiate an air purification unit when it is triggered. Other groups created tools to detect flooding, a critical issue in many locations in Malaysia, using moisture and rain sensors.

When the projects were completed, the groups presented them to a panel of judges from Schlumberger, including Thore Hauptmann, EAG Marketing Manager; Rheza Rahim, EAG Personnel Manager; Varinia Boggino, WG TCC Manager; and Yang Fairuz, EAG DCS Manager .The judges picked their favorite: the FLOMP-Float Management Project from Sekolah Menengah Taman Keramat school in Kuala Lumpur. The project utilizes multiple sensors to detect air humidity, soil moisture, and the amount of rainfall to determine the risk of flooding in areas located near a river. If necessary, water can be diverted to a reservoir to prevent flash flooding.

The winning group will follow in the footsteps of Quirino High School in the Philippines by virtually presenting their project at the YouthCan Conference in NewYork on April 2, 2012.

Malaysia coordinator Jehan Akbal Ahmad enthuses “This was one of the most successful events Schlumberger has ever had in Malaysia.” That may be true now, but let’s see what happens with their next workshop. Lihat anda kemudian (see you then)!

REACH OUT! SEEDLINK is published monthly. To learn more about SEED, visit www.planetseed.com. We invite your suggestions, feedback, news and questions at seed@slb.com.

ABOUT SEED The Schlumberger Excellence in Educational Development (SEED) program is a global non-profit education program focused on students aged 10 to 18 in communities where Schlumberger people live and work. SEED offers a range of specialized learning tools delivered through a multilingual Web site, through face-to-face, experiential education workshops and through collaborative international projects. At the heart of SEED are our volunteers, who generously share their time, inspiration, knowledge and passion for science and learning.