By Shirleen
Such a great blessing to resume conducting the study visit in December 2022, after more than 2 years of pandemic.
To expand the students’ horizon of knowledge, there is different unique theme for every trip. This year the theme is on Geology with the visited place, Ipoh. The sight of limestone hills is quite abundant in Perak especially in Ipoh, Kinta Valley.
In the visit to the Geology Museum, students learn deeper into the evolution of human from the formation of the earth to the age of dinosaurs and until now. Also, to learn more about formation of the minerals used every day in our lives like diamond, asbestos, bauxite, etc.
And in the visit to Perak Cave Temple, students get a chance to actually see the limestone, movement of the earth traced and seen in the patterns on the rock, which were formed over ten of thousands of years.
At Gunung Kanthan, as it is a special ecosystem formed as karst, there are new species found both in animal and plant which are not found in other part of the world! It is awesome ecosystem as it forms an enclosed cave with its own unique habitat for the animals and plants.
Questions were thrown to the students to ponder…
For example, our country have the resources in geology, like bauxite, so do we go into mining it?
Highlights of trees conservation is similar here in geology. Trees cut down take a hundred year to regrow. Precious stones like diamond mined will take millions of years to regrow!!!
It is mind opening to see how harmful we humans are inflicting onto the earth, seeing in a fuller picture what to stop and what to conserve for our future generation to have healthy earth to live on! And thanks to Gary to link the 3 different places for the children to see and have a seed to be a better member as human on earth to protect the environment.
During this trip, a tragedy occurred near Batang Kali. With this news, though we were away from Batang Kali, we did have a meeting with Gary to see if we should cancel the original plan to trek at Bukit Berekeh. He being the expert in Environment Science, explained to us the difference in these 2 places.
At Batang Kali there is over-development while Bukit Berekeh is still primitive with kampungs at its foot. Besides. Bukit Berekeh has a different composition of earth (mainly sandy) in comparison to Genting Highland (muddy soil). He assured that it is safe to carry on the trekking even though it was drizzling in the early morning.
With this discussion and decision, we held a meeting with the students on the night before the trekking. We have to use our knowledge and wisdom to make decisions in our lives. With this real-life tragedy, students were acknowledged about it and leading them to see how we made the decision whether to carry out an activity with awareness of the current situation.
Besides acquiring new knowledge on geology, in this trip, we do see students have their breakthrough in taking up different responsibilities being Guardian Angels, Leaders or as individual learners.
Guardian Angels
Hermann and Xin Qian had been very initiative to take up multi-roles to help making the trip smooth and successful. They know Ipoh well as it is their hometown. And they are helpful to give some suggestions in where to have breakfast, what are the local food to order and so forth. They were keen to share and help making decision. They were totally committed to their roles, even took extra time to discuss how and what to do better for the next day activity.
Leaders
This round leaders like Hui Xuan, Ka Xian and Ayden are new to this role. And they were great to take up the role and did their best. And it is even more encouraging when they were able to review to see their own strength and weaknesses. For example, Hui Xuan had a good awareness to reflect taking up a few roles simultaneously was not something manageable to him. They were awesome to be first willingly to take up the responsibilities even it could stretch to their extreme, and amazingly calm and ready to review and improve.
Learners
And we have amazing members too. Fa Ru got a cut in her toe. A night before the trekking, she was asked if she was fit and able to endure the pain in the cut to trek. The decision was left to her after some advice. She chose to trek. Though it was tough, she made it with Hermann’s, teachers’ and friends’ help!
Our Qi Yuan was also amazing in her courage and spirit. In trekking up Bukit Berekeh, only then we knew she was scared of height. However, she endured and pushed herself on with the encouragement from the teachers, Xin Qian and leaders! We are proud of her.
