Science Learning Trail @ MacRitchie Resevoir

Quite a few weeks back, I followed a few HCI schoolmates and headed to MacRitchie Resevoir. You will ask why, so I'm telling you. Actually, this is a part of the MOE's plan to improve the learning trails that we have every now and then ( I remembered quite a few back in Primary School). I did not apply for this, but since I had shorter than 10 CIP Hours, I HAD TO go. Let's think, we're actually some sort of Beta testers for this learning trail and give comprehensive feedback at the end. Mr Vincent Tan was the Teacher-In-Charge, but luckily, he did not put up an angry face, which is like a thousand 'Phews!' A few members of the PUB also joined us, and they got authorities, so... don't mess around with them. :D

After reaching MacRitchie by a hired bus, we settled down and were given a logbook each and introduced to our guide for that afternoon. Here's the map of MacRitchie Resevoir:

We started at the Amenities Centre which is probably indicated by the tiny red dot on the southeast of 'MacRitchie Resevoir' and headed west, which is actually almost unfindable in this map above, so we need a small scale one:



As you can see, we headed towards the area below the promenade. We could see the forest reserve opposite the promenade, and also the Band Stand, Lim Bo Seng Memorial and the Kayak Platform. It was like a small hill, so we could see quite a distance away. Then we moved towards a small jetty above the promenade. There, we collected water samples from the reservoir and started evaluating the water quality. Obviously, the water quality there is near perfect, otherwise the people of PUB would have to complain. We evaluated the smell, colour, turbidity (level of 'murkiness' of the water), pH value, temperature and checked if any oil pollution was present in the water. Luckily, everything was fine, the water had no smell, green and yellow algae in the water which is perfectly normal in waters in a catchment area, zero levels of turbidity, no oil pollution, 31.4 degrees Celsius and pH value of 5. Good, statistic collection done. Then we realised that dark clouds were looming above us. A thunderstorm was approaching. We rushed back to the Amenities Centre, and was later greeted by a small drizzle. We had to stay put and wait for a while, and the rain stopped after 10 minutes or so.

The sky returned to its clear state almost immediately. We walked along the dam and the lawn area and around the east end of the reservoir. We also realised the history of reservoirs in Singapore and also the human impact of the water here. Although it was tiring, there were still monkeys to cheer us up. We had to turn back a while later when we were on the boardwalk. There was not enough time to walk through the whole thing and we had to go home. Then, we saw a few people feeding the fish at the reservoir, which is illegal. Remember the PUB authorities? Well, they did not handcuff him (they were not police by the way), but called the park rangers to take action. I didn't know what action was it, so we didn't care. Near the shed for canoes, we were given a quick debrief followed by a survey so as to improve the conditions for learning trails in the near future. After that, I headed home by bus.

Quite a exciting adventure huh? Oh, and not to mention, we did saw a few canoes capsizing. We shouted, "In your face!" and laughed. Ok, maybe we were too cruel, I have to admit it now.


Great! I've finished the 3 Science ePortfolio posts! YAY! See ya next time when I have more updates!!!