Caterpillar Count

We had the first of our ten caterpillar count sessions on the 5^th of January 2013.  The count is a continuation of the butterfly surveys conducted early last year in collaboration with the Nature Society Singapore.

The caterpillar differs from our series of butterfly surveys held from February to April last year in the aim and focus of the research.

The butterfly surveys in their methodology aimed to gauge the relationship between the species of butterflies and their nectar plants.  We were required to observe each plot of each species of plant for visiting butterflies.  The duration of the survey was ten weeks, and restricted to the garden at Dhoby Ghaut Green. 

On the other hand, the caterpillar count aims to keep track of the health of the caterpillar populations of the Autumn Leaf and Plain Tiger butterflies in the Dhoby Ghaut area.  The count is being conducted over a period of ten weeks, and covers the Dhoby Ghaut, Istana Park and Penang Road sections of the Butterfly Trail @Orchard.  In each location there are a number of plots of Crownflower and Bloodflower plants (host plants of the Plain Tiger and Autumn Leaf butterfly respectively) to be surveyed for caterpillars.  The length of each of the caterpillars spotted is also documented to gain a clearer estimate of the population’s overall growth and health.  Any butterfly eggs, pupa, and competition for resources (i.e. snails) are also recorded.

The process of conducting the caterpillar count is more elaborate and requires more attention to detail than the butterfly count, and it is allowing us to broaden our field experience in the area of the maintenance of urban nature projects.  In the spirit of scientific inquiry and discovery, we are also excited for this second, more energy-and-time-consuming foray into the world of documenting-in-order-to-better-understand-and-preserve urban biodiversity.

However in the spirit of waking up early, squatting by the roadside and peering into bushes in search of tiny insects, we are also humbled by the enormous amounts of time and energy professional researchers dedicate to conducting such research; and are better able to appreciate the challenges involved in the documenting-in-order-to-better-understand-and-preserve biodiversity in general.

We are grateful to the Nature Society Singapore and its representative, Mr Anuj, in providing us this opportunity to take this little role in the preservation of urban biodiversity.  

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2nd place at Nationals!

Project W.I.S.H. is extremely honored to be able to announce that we have managed to clinch 2nd place for middle division in the national competition. Here is us with our mentor after the nerve-wrecking presentation.

At the prize-presentation ceremony with our certs and medals. Notice how all of us can't stop smiling :)

With this win comes even more exciting news. We will be advancing forward to participate in the 2013 International Conference held at Indiana University from 6-9 June. Official website: http://www.fpspi.org/International%20Conference.html

We are very encouraged by this confirmation that the effort we have put in so far have not gone to waste. We will be working extra hard for IC and will continue to update our progress here.

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SOTA workshop

We were invited to conduct a workshop on 13 September for a group of SOTA students who are going to embark on an Overseas Service Learning project to Sumatra in November. Over there, will be working with a partner organisation, the OIC (Orangutan Information Centre). The OIC aims to conserve the orangutan by preserving the rainforest in which the orangutan live in and by educating the locals on peaceful co-existence. 

We started off with a presentation on the importance of a green corridor as well as the roles it play as part of urban nature.

Here is us showing them the butterfly trail and how it spans all the way from Fort Canning to Tanglin, thus creating a green corridor.

Since SOTA is located so near to the butterfly trail, we decided to bring them on a short walk so that they can experience the green corridor for themselves. During the walk, we also showed them the different butterfly plants.

We ended the session with the SOTA students filling out our feedback forms.

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Collaboration with APPdicted

During the September holidays, another CmPS group, Project APPdicted conducted a workshop for students from RGPS (Raffles Girls' Primary School). The objective of the workshop is to improve interactions between families and friends, without the interference of technology. We helped them out in their workshop by introducing urban nature to the participants such that they can reduce the usage of technology and find alternative ways to spend their time with their loved ones. 

As we are only given a 15 minute slot to talk to the students about our project, we decided to come up with a booklet (seen above) so that we can ensure awareness is raised about the urban nature deficit and at the same time, promote the Butterfly Trail @ Orchard. The booklet can also reach out to the adult participants, as we were not given a chance to talk to them more about our project.

Shayna, Yuexin and Kate preparing door gifts:  Each bag includes Project APPdicted's and Project W.I.S.H.'s booklets, a tag designed by Project APPdicted, a hand-made rose and a badge designed by Project W.I.S.H. and a pencil from RGS.

Registration started at 7.45a.m.

Upon registration, each participant are told which team they are assigned to for the station games in the later part of the workshop. The 7 team names are named after butterfly plants which can be found in our school, namely bloodflower, ixora, snakeweed, yellow bell, lantana, crown flower and wedelia. Having the teams named after the butterfly plants, we can ensure that the participants knew at least one type of butterfly plant in Singapore as a takeaway from the workshop. 

Presentation

The hardest photo: Everybody participated actively to find the butterfly in this photograph as it is well photoshopped by Kate. This photograph was also proven to be the hardest one in the game when we played this game in Science Centre's workshop.

Moving on to our presentation time, we started off with a round of game 'Spot the butterfly' with the participants, similar to the workshop we conducted at Science Centre in the June holidays. The participants who have sat through a 45 minute talk and watched videos shown by Project APPdicted were glad to be able to have more interaction. Afterwards we briefly introduced the butterfly trail to the participants and encouraged them to take walks along the trail -- to foster family bonding, exercise, appreciate nature, learn more about urban nature and to reduce the usage of technological devices.

Moving on to talking more about our project

Shayna introducing the Butterfly Trail @ Orchard to the participants

After a short break, we split into the teams assigned previously upon registration. As it was not full attendance, we have to reduce to 5 teams. Yuexin and Shayna were station mistresses as the games they were in charge of during IHG (Inter house games) were reused in this workshop while the rest of us led the 5 teams to the respective stations. 

Yuexin's station: Identify host plants around the school

The participants visited our school garden to find more butterfly plants. At the same time, they learn more about our project and our project's aim.

Shayna's station: Matching the butterfly names to the respective pictures.

We then concluded the workshop after the station games with the participants filling up the feedback form. The feedback was quite postive and most of them found this workshop fun and interesting. 16 out of the 23  adult participants (about 70%) strongly agree that they see the need to expose their child more to nature like the Butterfly Trail walk @ Orchard while 12 out of the 18 children participants (around 67%) strongly agree that they see the urgent need to be in touch with nature and most of them are strongly willing to share their knowledge of the butterfly trail at Orchard with my family and friends. Now that the participants are aware that there is a butterfly trail at Orchard, many of them agree that they will visit the trail with their family and friends.

Ixora team

Yellow Bell team -- Winner of the day! 

Group photo at the end of the workshop

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Collaboration with and Upcoming Workshop

Exciting news first: We are delighted to announce that Project W.I.S.H has qualified for Regionals in the Community Problem Solving competition!  We are thrilled and honoured that our efforts have been recognized and that our cause was deemed a worthy one by the judges.

More exciting news: Project W.I.S.H is currently in collaboration with APPdicted, another CmPS group from our school also under Mrs Lee that was selected for Regionals.  APPdicted targets the issue of the decreased face-to-face interaction that has been a result of this era's over-dependence on technology.

APPdicted has organized a day camp for parents and children aiming to educate them on their chosen issue and on the importance of face-to-face interaction.  Our place in this programme is in promoting the Butterfly Trail@Orchard and other outdoor, nature related activities as alternatives to technology-based activities.

We look forward to collaboration with APPdicted in the future.

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Works in Progress: Book

A casual spectator observing this project might note that out of all the efforts at outreach that have been put forth this year, majority of them target the demographic of children.  The rationale behind our partiality towards children lies in the fact that children are, children.  Children are young and impressionable, and ultimately easier to reach out to.  They don't tend to be cynical or sarcastic; children are open minded and if you manage to capture their interest they will soak in everything you tell them and they will remember it.

And so we are once again reaching out to children, only this time through a different medium than we have done previously-- through books.

To be precise-- one book.  We are in the process of creating a picture storybook for children.

Books are way different from workshops or talks.  Books require active participation.  In workshops children have the option not to listen, or the option to listen but not absorb what is being said.  However in reading, the words you read have to be processed in your mind; they have to be taken in.  Which is why books have the potential to make a much larger impression on children, and a very different sort of impact.

The book we have in mind doesn't go along the lines of 'educational textbook', nor does it fall under 'conservationist propaganda'.  We are targeting children, after all.  The thing that sets the medium of The Story apart from any other method of communication lies in the captivation it can bring and the impression it can make; and we hope that the message conveyed through the story we tell will be well remembered.

We realise we are a league apart from professional writers in terms of the kind of writing they are able to produce and in the kind of audience they are able to reach out to.  In terms of the quality of the writing, there is little that we can do.  Although we do have a past national playwrights' competition winner as well as a qualified Special Arts Programme artist on the job.  As for reaching out to audiences-- more on that later.

More updates to come!

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Merchandise: Return of the Fundraising

We are proud to bring to the population of Raffles Girls' School(and other interested parties) seven original designs that will be sold printed on badges.  The badges will be available via order forms in class trays and come in two separate sizes.

Our project has been becoming involved with an increasing number of projects and events; and with great expansion comes a great need for funding.  When we speak of expansion now, we no longer speak merely of increasing the area covered by our school garden(although that is always a priority in our project) but of reaching out to related organizations and projects, and educating greater numbers of the public.  Many of the events we have planned and hope to plan require not only time and effort but also funding.


An end is never only an end in itself; and Fundraising Reloaded serves the second purpose of promoting our cause.  Unlike the sale of bubble tea, the selling of original badge designs allowed us another, more interesting medium for the promotion of our project.  As a result all our designs are in some way related to our project.  The system of the distribution of order forms almost guarantees that majority of the school student population will view the designs as well as the blurb introducing our project.  While fundraising isn't technically considered as outreach, it still serves as a vehicle of promotion for our project.

 Here's to Project WISH's second round of fundraising this year!

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