Project where they cared for endangered plants was tops in primary-school category
Grace Chua Straits Times 14 Jan 11;
THE young paramedics ran a battery of tests, which included taking temperatures, checking the acidity levels and measuring the intensity of light.
Their patients, rooted to the spot, sipped from home-made intravenous drips fashioned from recycled plastic bottles.
More than 80 Stamford Primary School pupils each spent several weeks last year caring for an endangered indigenous plant obtained from local nurseries. Most were the iridescent, branching peacock ferns or the tongue-like Wallich's Schismatoglottis, which are listed as vulnerable here (having fewer than 1,000 mature plants in the wild).
And though many of their delicate charges did not survive a spell of foul weather, the pupils emerged more aware of conservation and more knowledgeable about the environment.
Their project, ER@Stamford, was tops in the primary-school category of last year's Sembawang Shipyard Green Wave Environmental Competition. Twelve student project leaders from the primary school in Jalan Besar received awards at a ceremony yesterday.
In all, 49 winning teams from primary, secondary, junior college/ITE and tertiary categories were given prizes at the ceremony, held at the Marina Mandarin hotel.
Other bright ideas include a more efficient water-saving thimble for taps by Hwa Chong Institution student Selina Sia, 17, and an entire plan to make the MRT eco-friendly with biodiesel made from algae as fuel, by a Nanyang Technological University group.
Senior Parliamentary Secretary for National Development Mohamad Maliki Osman, the guest of honour at the ceremony, said in a speech: 'I would encourage the students present today to expand on their ideas and consider how these ideas can be made applicable to the larger adult population.'
Stamford Primary pupil Htat Wai Yan, 12, explained that they chose endangered native plants to drive home the message that conservation is important, and that these plants are at risk from habitat loss here and elsewhere in South-east Asia.
The surviving plants are now left to grow around the school's eco-pond.
For its efforts, the team was awarded a $4,000 prize, though the school has yet to decide what to do with the money.
Mathematics teacher Rosy Goh, who was in charge of the project, said: 'This is the third year our school has taken part. The first year, we got an encouragement award; the second year, we got a merit award. This year we were first - we're very encouraged now.'
