These are journals of two of my students who joined the trip.
Sofia’s Journal
My Trip To Singapore
Last Friday, a few students of Sapura Smart School went on science field trip to Singapore. The trip to singapore was a really eventful one. Thrilling but extraordinarily tiring at the same time. I had a really good time during the trip. It all started out as follows :-
Students gathered in school at 8am and waited for the breifing by Mr. Micheal (our bus/tour guide). He made sure we all had our passports and white card checked and warned us about the high risk of getting fined if we are to bring in certain things like ciggarettes and liquor without permission. After the breifing was done, we left for our 5 hour journey at 8.30am. During the bus ride, we made two stops. One for breakfast and the other for lunch. We entered Singapore at about 1.30pm and everyone was really excited.
The bus drove us straight to the Singapore Science Centre. I was really excited to go to the science centre because I read on the internet that the Singapore Science Centre has more than 850 exhibits in the various exhibition galleries and if a visitor sepnds 5 minutes on each exhibit, it would require about 7 days to see all of them. I wish I had more time there :(. But lucky us they had a special exhibition. Body Worlds. A worldwide exhibition about how the inner structure of the body really looks like. It was only going to last for 6 months and it was truly, truly an amazing exhibition. I was amazed by the fact that they used real bodies on the display. I must admit, it was a little disturbing for me but I learned so much from it. The science centre was so huge my friend and I got lost, twice. All of us learned a lot of things from the science centre, and for me it was especially in the physics and biology field. I gained alot as I am sitting for these paper for my SPM this year, the science centre really helped me understand the subjects more and easily.
The author (left) and friend trying out the slinkyWe all left the Singapore Science Centre at 6.30pm and headed to Fragrance Hotel. All the students were devided into groups of three and these groups were all given a room stay. Everyone had a chance to freshen up after the long and tiring day. We met again at the lobby at 9pm and headed out for dinner. Some of us had dinner at the shop around the corner while others headed out somewhere else. My friends and I took a cab to East Coast to have a taste of some real singaporean food. When we came back, we met with Pn Salmah in the lobby who was apparently waiting for us and it turns out that we never really got an approval from her which we felt we felt really guilty for. Everyone went upstairs at 11pm and went so sleep.
The next morning, we got up early and packed our bags. We checked out of the hotel at 9.30am and headed for Jurong Bird Park. The bird park is one of the biggest in the world. I was really excited to go. After having breakfast at the Jurong Bird Park, the first thing we did when we entered was we catched a “Birds and Buddies” show. The birds were really cute. They even had a bird who could sing! We all walked around the park and had a chance to see lots of birds from different species. I also had a chance to see penguins! They had to specifically make the room really cold for the penguins. My friends and I also had a chance to feed the birds too. That was really interesting as the birds were all climbing onto us. We spent atleast 5 hours at the bird park. All of us were so exhausted from walking after that. We all got onto the bus at 3.30pm and left for home :).
The bus ride home took 6 hours. Everyone knocked out on the bus. We only made one stop on the way home. Mr. Micheal played a movie for us on the bus. When we arrived, all our parents were waiting for us. Everyone was happy to re-unite with their family again. The trip to Singapore, eventhough it was really tiring was an experience I’ll never forget.
SOFIA MAHARAN RASHIDI
S5 Science 1
Day 1
On Friday, the 26th of February 2010, us students arrived in school at around 7.30 in the morning and boarded the bus to Singapore at 8.40. On the bus, our tour guide, Mr.Michael briefed us about the rules and restrictions in Singapore as well as what we should do when we reach immigration at the border between Malaysia and Singapore. During the 5 hour journey, we had two rest stops in Negeri Sembilan and Johor. At around 2.30 in the afternoon, we reached Singapore.
After that, we drove straight to the Singapore Science Centre. We were given our tickets and immediately entered the centre. There were many fascinating exhibits in this centre such as the “Sound” exhibit which shows how sound is applied in daily life. One of the most fun parts of this exhibit was the “Echo Machine”. This machine
is a long tube which extends throughout the room. One end of the tube is for you to scream into. The louder the scream, the louder the echo. Another exhibit that fascinated me was the “Optical Illusions” exhibit. There were many activities given in this exhibit which tested the way we look at things. One part of this exhibit which really caught my attention was the “Crate”. Here, a few bars were arranged at a strange angle and you are supposed to stand at a certain point and look at yourself on a television screen infront of you. The camera which was placed at a certain angle makes it appear that you are inside a crate when actually, you are just standing infront of a few bars.
After that, we went into the “Body World” exhibition at around 5.00 in the evening. Here, there were many unique presentations about the human anatomy. All the models used were made up of real and preserved body parts. This exhibition really made me think as well as look at the human body from a new perspective. My favourite part of this exhibition is the way they presented the blood vessels in animals and humans. At first, I thought the models were not real but after I read about this model, I learned that plastic dye was injected into the bodies. After the dye had hardened, the tissue of the bodies were dissolved so all that was left of it was the blood vessels filled with plastic dye. This really showed me the vast network of blood vessels in our body. There was also another part of this exhibition that I really liked and that was the model of a smoker’s body. This model was also made of real organs like the rest of the models in the exhibition so it really showed an inside look of the damages smoking can do to the human body. All in all, I feel that the exhibition was an amazing experience and I would love for the people who arranged this exhibition to create a longer version in the near future.
We left the Science Centre at around 6.00 in the evening. We drove around and saw Suntec City and the Eye of Singapore which was beautifully lit up at night.
We reached our hotel at 8.00 and had our dinner at 9.30 after which we walked around the area to explore. At 11.30, we headed back to our rooms to sleep.
Day 2
The author (far right) and friends posing with En Rohaizi at the entrance On the 27th of February, we had a wake up call at 7.30 in the morning. Most of us had a good night’s sleep and were looking forward to going to the Jurong Bird Park after eating breakfast. We checked out of the hotel and left for the bird park at 9.30 in the morning. After an hour or so of driving, we reached the bird park. We got our tickets and headed into the park half an hour after arriving. The first thing we did in the bird park was look at the penguins and puffins during feeding time. The birds looked very happy and excited once fish was dropped into the water. I loved the penguins because they were very majestic when they swam underwater and also because they are very cute. After watching the penguins, we headed to watch a show. There were hornbills, parrots and cockatoos flying over our heads. There was also a talking parrot which could count in both English and Mandarin! After the fantastic bird show, we walked around the bird park and saw many beautiful birds like the Scarlet Ibis. This bird amazed me because every feather on it’s body was brilliantly red. Even when you take pictures of this bird, it’s colour in the photo still doesn’t compare to seeing it’s unique, brilliant colour in real life. After looking at the beautiful birds, we ate lunch at 1.00 in the afternoon. We decided to head back into the bird park because there was much more to be seen. We booked a very special tour around the park. What made this tour special was that instead of walking around the park, we had to ride scooter-like vehicles called “Segways”. It was a really fun experience and after the tour, I felt like buying one of my own in the future.
At about 3.30 in the evening, we left the bird park and boarded the bus to Malaysia. We had only one rest stop in Johor and after that, we drove straight to our school. After the long, exhausting ride home, we finally reached the school at 10.00 pm. I really enjoyed this educational trip and I hope we can go to Singapore again. I am very grateful to our guide as well as our teachers who managed to organize this wonderful trip.
Tara Thiagarajan
S5 Science 2
