Reflections

=** Reflections  1. Post about Botanic Gardens Trip **=

I feel that the trip to the Botanic Gardens was a refreshing one, as we got to breathe in fresh air and enjoy the greenery around us. It was a nice experience to be out of the classroom for about half a day, and it also brought new dimensions to learning. The trip was something like a learning journey, just that it was only 3 classes who went and the schedule was not tight.

I find it interesting and rather creative of the teachers to link three subjects - Biology, Physics and English - together in this trip so that we can benefit in three different areas just from one trip. The Physics aspect was fun and taught us how to translate what we hear (bird sounds) into sonograms, but other than that, I felt it served little purpose and was only slightly relevant to the topic we are doing now, Sound. From my point of view, the Botanic Gardens is not exactly the best place for the learning of Physics. When you see nature, mechanical things and ideas are not the first things that pop into your mind, instead you think more from a biological, geographical or even poetic aspect. As for the English aspect, it was the most enjoyable because we had picnics! The negative part of it is that we have to do much more work after the trip than during. Of course, as this is a Biology journal, I have to dedicate more text to the Biology aspect of the trip. Mostly, I felt that the essence of this trip was for Biology, since the Botanic Gardens is essentially a very bio-ish place due to the numerous plants, and animals which can be found in it. I liked that we were given a chance to have a hands-on experience with something related to what we are doing (or going to do) in class, because Biology is about LIFE, and the classroom is pretty lifeless at times. However, the speech/talk/briefing given by the N Parks staff was a little random (at least to me) though useful and interesting.

One suggestion I can give: The trip can be used for PE too!