Nature Workshop with Dunman High

I conducted a nature workshop recently for some Dunman High students, and here's a quick account of the experience we shared.

On the first day, I brought them to Pulau Ubin, and gave them a guided walk along the Sensory Trail and also Chek Jawa Boardwalk. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera that day, and thus have no photos to share here.

On the second day, we went to Tuas grassland in the morning.


It was something new for most of the students, I guess. Everybody's feet had to get wet as Tuas is usually water-logged.


Many pretty plants and animals live in Tuas, including the ground orchid in the photo and the little crab spider partially hidden.


Tuas grassland is also where you'll find Singapore's smallest dragonfly - the pygmy dragon.


Once everyone got into water, we decided to have a group photo.


And here's a more energetic-looking one... :P


Here's another group photo taken among the complex network of sea morning glory vines.

In the afternoon, we went to Bukit Timah Hill.


There are many long-tail macaques just near the entrance to the reserve.


But what got us really excited was this monitor lizard eating a huge centipede. The centipede was still alive and struggling when we saw the monitor lizard.


There were lots of cicadas making loud screeching sounds in the forest, and this time round, I managed to catch one to show the students their underside.

On the last day, we went Semakau Landfill.


We had to cross a seagrass lagoon to reach the reef area.


In the seagrass lagoon, I found this huge synaptid sea cucumber which is probably more than 2m long.


Yet anther sea cucumber we found was this stonefish sea cucumber.


There were lots of sand-sifting sea stars, some of them getting really to perform external fertilisation.


We really wonder what happen to this file snake. Its head was stuck in a hole.


Fortunately, we managed to find the knobbly sea star and took some quick group photos.


Soon, tide was rising and on heading back to the mangrove area, I spotted this little horseshoe crab.

On the whole, I have to say the students were great and we learned a lot of things from each other. Looking forward to see some of them joining as nature volunteers in future!