Workshop with Project APPdicted

Project WISH collaborated with Project APPdicted in conducting a workshop during the September holidays.

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Playing on Wings Workshop at Science Centre Singapore

Project WISH hosting a workshop at Singapore Science Centre to teach young children the importance of urban nature. Our group, our teacher-in-charge and some happy children and their mother.

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Meeting Mrs Edith Wolff

Project WISH met with Mrs Edith Wolff, from a school in Germany, who shares our passion for butterflies and urban nature. We exchanged ideas and knowledge, a great experience for both parties.

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Butterfly Garden at RGS

Besides outreach, Project WISH also set up and continuously maintains the butterfly garden within our own school, by pruning regularly and repotting and introducing new plants every few months.

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Butterfly Surveys

Apart from outreach, Project WISH also helps to collect data regarding the butterfly gardens by conducting weekly butterfly surveys at the Dhoby Ghaut Green garden, increasing our knowledge of butterfly patterns.

Friday, June 29, 2012

What can I do? (Guest Post for SCS blog)

This was originally written as a guest post for the Science Centre Singapore blog, found here. 

When I tell people that I am part of a group whose mission is to raise awareness of the Butterfly Trail @Orchard in Singapore, I almost always get blank looks in reply, followed by comments about how it’s a waste of my time. Even more so, when I inform them that we target our education at children, because ‘children are unable to understand or make any difference towards the situation’.

Looking at the ‘Playing on Wings’ workshop we held on 16 June at Singapore Science Centre, I cannot see how people underestimate children so much.

We entertained them with some origami before the workshop began.
With a group of about 30 children and their parents, the programme was a meant to be a brief lesson about the importance of butterflies and urban nature in Singapore, and the dangers they face. Naturally, the activities, such as making origami butterflies and finding camouflaged butterflies in their natural environment, were uncomplicated and unable to touch on many of the very real problems butterflies and urban nature face in Singapore, such as lack of awareness and action. Somehow though, the kids got the message.

"If it's good for us, why don't we care more?"
“If it’s good for us, why don’t we care more?” A child, maybe eight or nine, asked us.

The overly simplistic mind of a child is a unique insight you will not find anywhere else. No matter how much research we do regarding the matter, how many reports and essays we write about the multiple complicated causes behind the issues urban nature face in Singapore, it will never quite cover the crux of the problem quite as elegantly as the unassuming words of a child.

“If it’s good for us, why don’t we care more?” Good question. The environment is important towards us, both as creatures who live off the Earth and her resources, and as practical humans who require natural resources for our own purposes. So why don’t we worry more about how it’s doing, about what we can do in return for it?

It was a tough question to answer. We eventually came up with something about how adults have a lot of issues to deal with, and maybe sometimes forget about nature, which is why we want to remind them about it.

The answer came quickly, without deliberation. “So you just have to make them remember, that’s all?”

The girl was eerily accurate. After all, the main aim of our project is to increase awareness of urban nature in Singapore. “And what purpose does that serve?” you might ask. “What can we do? We’re not policymakers. We’re not people with money to spend. How can we change anything?”

Who says it’s merely the big, grand actions that make a difference? Appreciate the nature around you. Take a walk along Orchard Road and notice the seamlessly placed butterfly gardens. Perhaps take a stroll inside and find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer vibrancy of the flora and fauna around you, things you miss with your eyes glued to a screen. Plant a plant, take a picture, and if you like it, if you think it belongs in Singapore, if you think it’s important that your children is able to see it with their own eyes, spread the message. Let everyone know. Everything and everyone can make a difference.

When we started this project, we were but a few teenagers with a goal and nothing else. Now, we’re working with Nature Society Singapore (who founded the Butterfly Trail @Orchard), we’ve hosted a workshop with Singapore Science Centre, we’re in collaboration with schools from other countries and, to me, this is proof that all it takes is passion and sincerity to make a difference.

Our goal may be merely to get people to know about the Butterfly Trail @Orchard and appreciate it, but awareness is a step towards the bigger question of, “What are we doing to protect urban nature in Singapore? What are we doing to make sure that our country’s rich biodiversity does not die out? What are we doing to ensure a balance between our cityscape and our flora and fauna?”

That day, twenty kids (and their parents) left the workshop having learnt about nature and butterflies in Singapore. That may be it, but I believe it made a difference. Maybe one day, one of those children may be the ones standing up and asking these questions and starting actual change. Or maybe not. I don’t know. But I’m not going to give up.


Going through the slides
Mom and child showing off their origami
Her other kid :D

Another family!

And another...

Butterfly camouflage!

All wanting to answer our questions :>

Getting a sweet for her correct answer

Skit!

Watching attentively

More watching peoples :D

Preparing the cups of soil for planting!

Shayna demonstrating how to put in seeds

Kate's turn!

Explaining the different seeds

I see Wang You :)

Happy family!

Adorable kids haha

Posing for a picture!

Awww showing off their artwork

Displaying their drawings!

Adorable pictures!

Wang You's butterfly and caterpillar tutorials 

Some of their feedback that we pasted onto a tree-shaped board
Family who wanted a picture with us!

The Butterfly Trail @Orchard is a project started by Nature Society Singapore, involving 15 butterfly gardens along Orchard Road. Do check out the NSS website for more details, here.



Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Playing on Wings at the Singapore Science Centre

Some time ago we approached a contact within the Science Centre with the proposition of organising a short, fun, and educational children's programme. And so it was that proposals were drawn up and flyers designed and scripts drafted, all culminating in a two-or-so hour programme held on the 16th of June and attended by a group of about fifteen children and their parents.

Poster on display.

The programme, titled Playing on Wings, is part of the 'Public Outreach' bit of our CmPS project.  The whole point of the programme was to educate young audiences about (1) butterflies in general and (2) the threat urban development poses to butterfly populations in Singapore.

Lesson time!
We started with a short talk introducing butterflies and general information about them, which was followed by a 'Spot The Butterfly!' camouflage game, a skit, and hands-on activities, in that order.

Enthusiastic responses from participants during the Spot The Butterfly! camouflage game


Creating butterfly origami

At the end of the day, the children left the place each with their own cups of seeds Aristolochia tagala, Stachytarpheta mutabilis(Pink snakeweed), or Crotalaria retusa (Rattlebox). Hopefully, this will not just stop there and they might actually start their own mini butterfly gardens at home!

Wang You instructing the young participants in the illustration of a simple butterfly


A participant planting her Rattlebox seeds in her cup of soil


We would like to thank the Singapore Science Centre for giving us this oppurtunity to spread awareness about butterflies in Singapore.  We look forward to returning in December with a more polished programme.

Monday, June 11, 2012

Bird and Butterfly Race

NSS Butterfly Guide App

Last month, on the 26 May, Shayna, Zek Min and I went to participate in the Mini Bird and Butterfly Race organised by Nature Society (Singapore) (NSS) to celebrate the launch of the NSS Bird and Butterfly iPhone App during the Biodiversity Festival and to trail run these applications. These iPad/iPhone applications developed by the NSS aid users in identifying bird and butterfly species and also keeping records of sightings.




The race was held in conjunction with the Festival of Biodiversity

Shayna

One of the butterflies (Rustic Butterfly) we spotted during the race! 
We had a jolly good time, made loads of delightful new friends and grew to appreciate the stunning beauty Mother Nature has bestowed upon us.

We did not win, but it was an enjoyable experience and although we are still a little iffy on the use of binoculars, we did learn a fair bit about identifying birds and butterflies.

We would like to express our gratitude toward the Nature Society for organizing the race and giving us the oppurtunity to participate, and for creating the apps which will be a tremendous help to the public in identifying butterflies and so doing spread awareness about them.  Especial thanks goes out to the representatives of the Nature Society who facilitated the race and who managed to put up with us and who, more importantly, pulled the entire event off beautifully.


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 The next day, Zek Min and Yuexin went to help out @ the booth at Botanic Garden to promote the application (and teach them how to use it) to the public:

 Tags!

Students from River Valley High School helping out with the booth as part of their CCA activities


Yuexin

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