Interdisciplinary learning in Ting Kok Mangrove

Nature is a natural treasure of learning which allows students to broaden their horizons and inspire their thinking. Following up the successful Multidisciplinary Outing to Chung Tsai Yuen (松仔園), 140 teachers and students bounded for ecologically valuable Ting Kok Mangrove in Tai Po to perform an interdisciplinary learning program, blending a variety of aspects including Environmental Science, Biology, Geography, Information Technology, Languages and Arts. By utilizing interactive Edmodo platform, students could investigate biodiversity, water quality analysis and causes of human pollution in a creative and collaborative way, then presenting their ideas in forms of passages, posters and video clips.

The activity was kicked off with a talk by Prof. Nora Tam on “Mangroves in Hong Kong” and then a series of workshops to introduce the necessary knowledge and skills. There were also two pre-trip site visits. The actual activities were led by senior pioneers to go through on-site field work and in-house completion of the projects. After a week, iIn-campus booth displays and presentation followed to convey the message of sustainability in general and promote mangrove conservation in particular to all students. Our green gurus even launched a campus signing campaign to promote marsh protection. Based on their findings, students wrote letters and passages to newspapers, green groups and the Government to advocate the importance of environmental conservation of mangroves and to oppose detrimental development in habitats nearby such as Long Mei Beach.

Pre-trip visit (12 Oct 2013)

Science club committee members working hard inspecting routes for setting transects for mangrove field study

Pre-trip workshop (28 Oct 2013 and 6 Nov 2013)

Students attending a series of workshops before the trip to familiarize themselves with the concerned skills and knowledge needed in the field studies

Interdisciplinary study on Ting Kok Mangroves (9 Nov 2013, 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon)

In the out-door sessions, students first identifying species and investigating environmental parameters, and then organizing resources in the field site to promote sustainable conservation

Post-trip discussions and interim report (9 Nov 2013, 2:00 p.m. – 5:00 p.m.)

Students refining their data in the afternoon session and coming up with some ideas for presentation two weeks later

Presentation day (21 Nov 2013)

Presentation taking place in the covered playground for all students to visit the stalls at lunchtime

Signing Campaign (21 Nov 2013)

Signing campaign at the school entrance to arouse students’ awareness towards environmental conservation on mangroves