~.*Credo in Deum, patrem omnipotentem, creatorem caeli et terra*.~

Saturday, November 26, 2005

*[[ Guiding at SBWR: DAY 1 ]]*

EnviroYouth Project: Leave-A-Trail

Guiding at Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve (SBWR)

DAY 1: 26th November 2005 (Saturday)

General Conclusions:
Strengths:
1. We followed our schedule closely and were on task! Everything fell into place and ran smoothly. It really felt like an almost-perfect guiding session with the well-prepared station and group guides, the enthusiastic and inquisitive participants, and a lot of luck (see point 2).
2. It was definitely our lucky day. With the help of one of our observant participants, we managed to see many species that others never had the opportunity to in years. These included a purple heron, schools of halfbeaks and archerfish, white-breasted sea hens, monitor lizards, paradise tree snake, squirrels and the family of sea otters (since Sungei Buloh only has one family of themJ). Furthermore, we were very fortunate to be able to make use of the theatrette as the meeting place. In addition, before the entire trail, we decided to screen the 10-minute audio-visual show prepared by SBWR to give them an overview of the place. Although it was impromptu, everything ran smoothly as planned. The video was indeed a great head start to the trail.
3. The prizes prepared were sufficient. We even managed to fork out last-minute prizes to award participants for last-minute quizzes in order to occupy them while the rest of the committee were collating the results of the games. On the whole, the participants seemed quite satisfied with the prizes given.
4. We received quite a number of praises from the participants, two of whom are interested in getting us to help out in some related activities. The first person is Mrs Seah, who helped in crafting the idea of the Youth Forum. She would like us to teach a group of Nanyang girls about Singapore’s mangroves and the related flora and fauna because they will be going to a similar area in Thailand for an immersion programme next year. Also, another of our participants, Faith, had her mother wanting us to give a group of students a similar tour in SBWR itself.

Weaknesses/Areas of improvement:
1. Not all the participants were paying attention to the station guides (e.g. some were wandering off on their own to take photos).
How to improve: After some discussion, we realise that it is quite difficult to get every single participant’s attention. Some suggestions to ensure maximum attention from the participants are that the guides should tell the participants explicitly that there will be time to take photos after the station guides have explained the various key points of the station so that they would not be busying themselves with their cameras while the guides are speaking. Also, station guides can speak loudly with more confidence, and be more expressive and lively (by employing rhetorical questions, using placards to illustrate certain details of species, pointing out clearly the various species you are talking about, get them to engage their five senses, etc.)
2. Not all the participants participated in the assigned games. However, those are only the minority and thus this is not a major problem for us. Most people expressed interest in the games and were quite cooperative and active in their participation. This can be especially seen in the Photo Hunt where people were enthusiastically showing the various guides the photos which they have taken during the trail. For the crossword puzzles and quizzes, there have been no problems so far. We find that the prizes do help to motivate them to complete these worksheets. Also, seeing that most participants only get one or two facts wrong, the level of difficulty of these worksheets should be quite reasonable.
How to improve: For the Photo Hunt, we realise that those who did not participate in this activity did not bring their cameras, which is something that is beyond our control. Perhaps we could modify the game a little for those who are without their cameras, like allowing them to identify as many species as they can from memory without any reference to the checklists given.

Follow-up Action Plan:
1. Collation and analysis of feedback forms (Jun Yong)
2. Upload photos to the Shutterfly album that Yuan Yi created for EnviroYouth (Jia Yun, Yuan Yi)
3. Post reflections about this guiding project on the EnviroYouth blog (Margaret, Yi Ping)
4. Meet Mr Siva next week (whole EnviroYouth team) at Raffles Museum at 4pmMeeting place: Buona Vista MRTMeeting time: 3pm
5. Get tokens of appreciation for the organizations and people who have helped us make this project possible

~.*hUiYiNg*.~ says Amen. @ | Saturday, November 26, 2005

~.* Jesus is LOVE *.~