Urban Gardening has been fun and exciting. Through this service, I have progressed quite a lot and have learnt much about gardening and sustainability. Although I had a vague idea that green rooftops were sustainable I wasn’t exactly sure why or how. Green roofs act almost as an insulation and so a building doesn’t need as much air conditioning as it would normally do. In addition, although Singapore has no winter season, green rooftops also act as an insulator to the cold during winter. Thus they reduce energy costs and the Urban Heat Island effect which is a process in which urban environments absorb heat making the hotter than the surrounding rural areas.
Green roofs also provide shade, remove air particulates (as in pollution, especially carbon dioxide) and produce oxygen. They last twice as long as normal roofs and reduce and sometimes slow stormwater runoff. So this is what I have been contributing to school and what I have learnt about green roofs in urban environments and sustainability.
Furthermore, I have developed many group skills such as communication, leadership and organisation which is needed to maintain a healthy garden and a well-contributing group. I have also learnt a lot about gardening which includes gardening skills such as transplanting, propagating, fertilising. Or tools such as the difference between spades and shovels, and what a hoe is used for. I have also learnt different types of plants and what they need or provide through research such as how beans (image below) grow fast, release nitrogen into the soil and need to grow on something:
I have learnt a lot more about plants and something interesting that I have learnt is how asexual banana plants will grow smaller banana plants around the main one, which started happening when I transplanted a banana plant to my bed:
Moreover, not only have I been contributing to environmental sustainability but I have also used the garden for other purposes such as giving fruits, mainly papaya, to Fresh Fruit Friday, a service aimed at providing fresh fruits for migrant workers. I have also been planning on providing vegetables to another service which aims to provide fresh vegetables to the school community, and planning to give information sessions to parents on how they can make their own garden, especially grow their own food. This service has in somewhat inspired me to be more environmentally aware and I have started to grow into my passion for the environment.
Below are some photos of the evolution of my and my partner’s garden bed.
For my NYAA I started my activity in September of 2017 and finished in October 2018. However, I am still in the orchestra and I hope to continue through my High School years. The orchestra has taught me many things and most of all has been a lot of fun. One of the most important skills in an orchestra is listening to other musicians, and I have developed this skill and have seen the impact on my listening skills.
Furthermore, every piece that we practice requires a lot of practice and having the hard-working mentality has been very helpful in my academic classes. In addition to that, I have grown as a musician, being able to play a variety of genres and also expand my knowledge of music. The orchestra has inspired me to play or at least inspire me to play other instruments. Nowadays, I sometimes record a piece on a piano and then play it while I play the cello piece. Although it is great to play solo, I believe playing in an ensemble such as an orchestra makes the music experience so much more engaging and fun which is why I have tried to play multiple instruments to get that feeling. This makes music much more engaging and fun. My grandmother came and visited us in December and January of 2017/2018and we played together as an ensemble (she the piano and me the cello) for some Swedish tunes which were extremley rewarding and fun, especially in front of a crowd.
Thus, I think it is safe to say that I have made a quite considerable amount of progress as a cellist, and a musician in an orchestra or an ensemble. Finally, through the variety of pieces/genres (we have played rock, pop, classical, scene music, and more), we have played and from previous ensembles and orchestra from previous schools, I have now explored new genres of music for cello and piano. Right now, I am playing Bohemian Rhapsody by the queen on both piano and cello and have started composing new pieces of my own creation inspired by other pieces or from my imagination. For the future, I would like to play other instruments such as the French horn, drums, bass, saxophone, flute and more.
In the midst of the Midsummer’s day, or midsommarsdag as known in Sweden, and right at the coast of the southernmost point in Sweden stood a cottage so ordinary in Skåne (southern Sweden). Close to it, a juniper and moss-shaded green, and quite an ordinary forest shielded the fierce wind from the Baltic sea that day. However, what lay deep in the forest was a trädkoja, which in Swedish translates to a treehouse, but what was strange about it, wasn’t because it stood out, but rather because it blended right into the birches and ashes. You see, the treehouse was built with natural materials around it, no tools were needed in the construction except a saw, but there was a ladder from an old playground nearby. It gave a new meaning to sustainable architecture. Cousins, siblings, aunts and uncles from all over Skåne came, and either admire or aided the construction. Despite the few days when the logs from the second level fell down on unsuspected visitors or even one time when the whole structure broke down, we managed to build it up again and make it even sturdier. Hence, this expresses one of the fundamental passions that I have which has somewhat woven intertwined with each other is the environment and design.
Furthermore, in terms of academics, I don’t have any huge goals at the moment. I feel like the effort that I am putting in now is sufficient, sometimes even too much. Therefore, my “goal” in the academic side of things is to continue that effort and work that I am doing in academics. Of course, if there is anything that I in the future have trouble with, I will do as I have always done, to work hard onto improve that particular topic. As mentioned before my two passions are the enviornment and the design, or a least so far. Likewise, for service I am going to continue in Grade 10 to do the services that relate to the environment which are Climate Change and Clean Energy (college service), Urban Gardening (college service, East Solar Initiative (service started by a student) and Gili Eco Trust (Global Concern). Moreover, I used to play a great deal of sports, and a range of sports as well. I have been trying to balance academic and activities as well as service but it hasn’t worked out as I wanted to. Although I wish I could compete in a team, I don’t have time for that. This is why I have decided to do Floorball on Wednesdays and Badminton on Saturdays. Thus, for next year, I will do a similar sort of arrangement. In order to look slightly beyond my time in High School, I think it is safe to say, or at least at the moment, that my plan is to enroll in a university that considers environmental sustainability, and study/purse architecture (specialising in sustainable and “green” architecture) or something that relates to the environment. This isn’t the final plan, but I suppose it is good enough for now. The university that I would enrol in would probably be in Sweden, as I am Swedish and because they are free there, or possibly Canada, as I have a Canadian passport (my father’s Canadian)
I am not that type of person who wants to be the best at everything (although it may seem like it to some people, I really wish it weren’t true that I am good (not perfect or best) at a lot of things) or the person who does extra work, doing internships or anything like that. However, maybe I should consider doing some work that relates do what I am passionate about. In addition to that, at times, I feel like I have too many services that I commit to. Furthermore, I am in the High School Symphony Orchestra because I like that type of music and playing the cello (although I really want to try some jazz instruments because that is also something I’m interested in). In fact, I had real trouble deciding whether to do RM (resistant materials) or Music. I want to be that type of person at the High School concerts who is in the background and plays a range of instruments. My goal for music is to play in the orchestra for High School Musical next year and to perhaps try a range or a different instrument, and be more involved in the school concerts.
For me, except for my passion and the importance of environmentalism, I think that one of the most profound belief that I have is that everyone should have some purpose, something that is significant, even it is small, it has to have some impact. Of course, I would hope that one would do something good, but even it is bad, it should be significant. I don’t believe in any higher deity, but I feel like if your alive, you have to do something that is worthwhile. In the back of my mind, I sometimes feel hatred toward obnoxious jerks or if I feel like some person doesn’t care about the environment or other people. That they are selfish or that if they didn’t exist (I am sorry about this, but this is truly how I feel sometimes) nothing would change, or that the world would be a better place. Of course, if all humans didn’t exist, the world would definitely be a significantly better place, but I think you know what I mean. Thankfully, I don’t lash out or do something mean to them, but this is a problem but also a deep belief that I have.
From April 1st to April 9th, I had my first trip to UWCSEA and probably the biggest one that I have ever had. Although it was supposed to be the joint between East and Dover, we were only East because all the Dover students couldn’t come as a result of some particular problem, mainly medical. However, it was an amazing trip as we did lots of things.
Before we even went on the trip, we had some preliminary training days (2 in total). On the 4th of March, we did some icebreakers and made sure that we knew everyone who was coming on the trip. Furthermore, we tried our wetsuits and, mask and snorkel. We swam 200 metres and floated for 10 minutes. Finally, we looked through the first section of the PADI Manual.
Moreover, on the 25th of March, we looked at section 2 and 3, answering the questions and looking at the videos. Through this, we have learnt what our equipment is going to be, hand signals underwater, understanding how underwater affects the environment we know, our confined (>5m) and open water dives (<5m), pressure, and lots more.
On the first day, we mostly did our travel to Makassar and stayed at an airport hotel. On the second day, we arrived at the site and looked at the most important spots near our shelter and worked through sections 1 and 2 again for the PADI theory as well as completing a few quizzes. We completed our first confined water dive where we learnt all the necessary equipment and how to use it. Finally, we had a beach clean up with some local English university students and listened to a presentation about Operation Wallacea. On the third day, we started off by doing some more practice diving and learning about buoyancy as well handling equipment underwater We looked through more of the PADI theory. Finally, we listened to a presentation about the Global Fin Print which is a shark and ray (elasmobranchs) monitoring project. During that day, we swam 200 metres and floated for 10 minutes. Our accommodation was quite nice but there were mould and cracks everywhere including ants and millipedes. The toilet got quickly dirty. However, there were many days when I decided to jump off the jetty and do some flips. Furthermore, most of our diet was vegetarian with the occasional fish and the special chicken on our barbecue day we had on our second last day. There is a schedule every day and it was tiresome because we had to wake about at around 5 to 6 and sleep at 9 and there was always a lot going on a day. We had lectures and dives mostly, with some downtime, but not that much. We also only ate Indonesian food.
On the fourth day, we finished the theory by looking at planning a recreational dive. We completed two open water dives and learnt about coral reefs and how corals grow and what species there are. They are in fact animals. On the fifth day, we completed the PADI exam (47/50 is what I got) and the confined water dive sessions. we also did an open water dive but there was a really strong current. However, we have mastered our underwater skills and we also did some snorkelling. We also looked at different signals for invertebrates and fishes. We identified the different invertebrates and fish species in our lectures today. On the sixth day, we tried our first fun dive or recreational dive as we are now PADI certified. We practised some reef monitoring through the use of belt transect or line-intercept transect. Imagine a 5x5x50m rectangular space and count all the species of invertebrates and fish and that is a belt transect. The other is a line intercept transect where you identify the benthic (floor) cover for 50 meters.
On the 7th day we went to snake island by a fishing boat and hoping to see dolphins, but we didn’t. Anyways, we saw a huge school of pink whiprays, lots of black tip and white tip reef sharks, all kinds of invertebrates and fishes whether that was a sea snake, moray eel, see stars, lionfish, needlefish, goatfish, trumpet fish, angel fish, clown fish, surgeon fish and lots more. We did our transect method and realised that there were lots of algae, but lots of hard coral. In order for a coral reef to be pristine, it needs to have 70-80% hard coral cover, but there was only 60%, but that is still very good. There were lots of algae but fortunately, there were invertebrates and fish species that eat the algae (parrotfishes and sea stars, for instance). We looked at a documentary called racing extinction.
On the 8th day, we travelled to different places around Bau Bau rather than diving because we aren’t allowed to dive within 18 hours before a flight due to the nitrogen in our blood. We went to the fish market in order to inspect what the local population are eating/consuming or catching/selling. We went to a fort made out of corals as well as a night market and other places around Bau Bau. We had a final barbecue night where we engaged in several activities with the locals and ate fish and chicken, with the usual vegetarian meals.
Pantai Nirwana (our usual dive site)
Bau Bau
Belt Transect
Line-Intercept Transect
Research Question:
How are the local residents of Bau-Bau contributing to the local coral reef in both direct and indirect ways?
Before I even answer this question, I would like to talk about which of the SGDs (sustainable development goals) and points on the sustainability compass I find most interesting.
Although I care about all of the SGD goals, the ones that concern me the most are 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 or in other words, goals that directly concern about the environment. Thus, nature is the one I will focus on in terms of the sustainability compass.
On my first dive, there was a lot of trash in the ocean and on the beach. However, that was because the wave movements made the garbage and plastic from the neighbouring islands and elsewhere wash up to Pantai Nirwana’s shore. However this still clearly illustrates that there is some trash problem. Even on the other days, there was still loads of trash in the ocean and on land. If you go around Bau Bau, you will see that there is a limited amount of garbage cans and trash all over the place, mainly plastic. Of course, this isn’t necessarily their fault because they were quickly introduced to this material that is really hard to break down. They thought it was just like the rest of the materials which would mean that if you chucked it away, it would;t harm anything and decompose naturally. Thus education is the key to show that this form of materials needs to be handled correctly and sustainability. The trash directly affects the coral reefs, because over time, even if the trash is on land, it will enter into the ocean. There, marine life and animals will consume the plastic which is toxic. This either harms the food web or designates a certain section of the marine life. Furthermore, the plastic is not a good place for marine organisms like corals to grow and reproduce on so too much of it, means no space for marine life to prosper. However, by far, the biggest factor and impact is that harms the marine life when it is consumed by them or when it damages them either by entanglement or other injuries.
However, this is not the only contributing factor, one must also take into account for the fishing which is one of the largest occupational jobs and economic wealth at Bau-Bau. Although some fishing methods are illegal like blast/dynamite fishing, there are still reports that it happened. Even I heard a blast and saw the effects of it. Fishing is probably an even more significant and critical impact on the coral reef. First of all is the fuel used in the fishing vessels, if that is leaked into the ocean, it will kill and harm marine organisms. Furthermore, the sound of the boats can damage communication between organisms especially dolphins. If a fishing vessel drops an anchor on a fragile coral reef, it will destroy a coral that has been growing for thousands or even millions of years in a matter of seconds. Cyanide fishing, of course, poisonous to the coral reefs and the bamboo booby traps can result in bycatch. This bycatch is critical because it might be wasted or the species that is caught is endangered and or it takes a long time for the organisms to produce offspring like sharks. When we went to the fish market, we mostly saw species that were okay to catch, although there were some bycatch and tuna that was being caught. Rays were also caught which is quite bad because they take a long time to produce offspring and there were even some turtle eggs. But fortunately not anything too big. Finally, overfishing definitely destroys the marine life and food web, and blast/dynamite fishing destroys the coral reefs and fish species just like the anchor.
I don’t really know how to start this post so that is how I will start my post. There are a lot of things that I find interesting. For example, I am able to play lots of sports really well, such as rock climbing, tennis, football, skateboarding, gymnastics, basketball, wakeboarding, snowboarding, surfing, golf and much more. I am also very good at the cello and the piano. I have even played part in some drama productions and there are a lot more to tell you. However, to me, these are things that I think are fun and interesting, not particularly a passion. So, here is my passion:
Since Grade 1, I started to be very interested, even passionate in learning. I really found it fun to learn new things and I remember in Grade 2 when our class had watched a Brain Pop video, I got so fascinated about that so, I watched every single video on that website. But also from that moment, I started to get really interested in Science, and at that time I thought I was going to be a writer or scientist. Later on, I got more interested in physics and in Grades 3 and 4 and even 6, I started to write a short story about topics that linked to physics. Even now, I am still interested in physics but in a different way (I’ll get to that later). However, that is only part of the story of my passion. I also started to get interested in being “green”, being sustainable and I think that’s why my favourite colour is green.
Between Grade 2 and 4, I was mainly looking at videos about sustainability but I was also implementing green tips that I had got from the videos into my daily life. But it was really in Middle School and in Grade 5 when I really started to take action. Beach clean up, gardening, working with environmental groups, meeting with Jane Goodall, starting an environmental focus group and much more. Two summers ago, my family and I rented a Tesla (an electric car)and I got really interested in that company because of the things they’re doing for the environment. Last summer I even made a tree house and tent out of just natural materials. Meaning, that I only used the things around me and I didn’t use any nails or screws, even wooden planks! As of today, I am aiming for zero waste (but it has been proven almost impossible here in Singapore) and we always use public transportation.
As you can see now, I am interested in both physics and the environment, but there is one more piece of the puzzle. I gave a hint from the last paragraph and that is design and building things. Ever since middle school I have enjoyed design and last year, I built a skateboard ramp for the school. I have also designed my room that allows more space in the room. So, that got me thinking, what do I want to do that involves the environment, physics and design? So whats the finished product? I think that in the future, I would most likely like to work in the field of sustainable architecture. That has science, maths, physics, sustainability and design.
The question is, why am I really passionate about sustainability and architecture? I love the natural world but I also like urban living, and I think that sustainable architecture can bring those things together so urban living lives in harmony with the natural world. So, that is what I am passionate about and that is what I would like you to know about me.
