Individual reflection - Tee

Engineering and Biomimetic is a module that study about the conversion of natural to engineering application to solve some engineering problems. There are 3 main objectives in this subject which are to analyze the limitations and technologies for the adoption of nature in engineering design, evaluate the sustainability of biomimetic engineering system and mechanism of energy transfer within the living beings. To fulfill these 3 objectives, students are required to form a group (about 4-5 person per group) and write a blog about the experience for adoption of a living substance.

Our group choose to adopt a red-eared slider which is a very popular turtle pet. We choose to adopt this turtle is because it is easy to adopt, abundance, cheap and its living and habitats are quite interesting. Besides the adopting of pet, we also required to research about the anatomy and characteristic of the pet from literature. This is my first time to adopt a turtle type pet, therefore I have zero knowledge on the pet before we adopt it. When I first adopting the turtle, the main problem I have is the living environment of the pet. Since initially I thought turtle living environment is in water, I have pour in many water inside the container. However, based on my observation, I have found that turtle will take their head out of the water after a certain time to breathe, thus I have reduced the water level in the container to allow them breathe easily. Besides that, I have put a small rock which is used as a place that can help them escape from water for a while. The rock cannot be too big, because it may hit the turtle and cause some injuries on it. The second problem I have faced is the smelly odor that come out from the water in the container. To solve this problem, the water inside the container have to be changed daily. Aside from the adopting of turtle, the problem I have in writing blog is the arrangement of the blog article since I never wrote a blog before.

After the adopting of turtle, the main lesson I have learnt is that we have to put much care and love on the living substance we adopting. We have to take responsibilities on their living environment, foods, habitats and many more. Besides that, I have more understanding on the knowledges of the red-eared slider such as its anatomy, characteristics, habitats, its biomimicry theories and many more. I think this is a good assessment for students as it can help them to have more understanding on the objectives of the module which may be hard to fulfill just from the lectures.