NPARKS-NIE MARINE ECOTOXICOLOGY MONITORING PROGRAMME CUM INTERNATIONAL ELEMENTZ SCIENCE RESEARCH CONFERENCE AND EXHIBITION

With calm steady hands, an incision is made on the shell of the tightly clamped mussel, and a syringe is carefully inserted into it. The pair of hands carefully manipulate the syringe, probing around for the mussel’s adductor muscle, before drawing a vial of its precious hemolymph.

The hands belong to the students who participated in the NParksNIE Marine Ecotoxicology Monitoring Programme, where they learnt fieldwork and laboratory techniques to determine the water quality of Punggol Beach and Sungei Buloh Wetlands Reserve.

The group of students, Fu Kailin (4E4), Divakaran Manushri (4E4), Jessica Long Mei Yun (4E4), Alicia Chian See En (4E4), Nawal Bte Mohamad Mustafah (4E4) and Koe Yun Ji (4E2), under the guidance of Mr Tan Hong Chan and Ms Emily Tow, embarked on a six-monthlong journey of fieldwork and data collection, laboratory testing, data analysis and report writing.

The journey culminated with the presentation of their findings at the International Elementz Science Research Conference and Exhibition. This year, the teams added a new dimension by building upon their seniors’ findings and expanding their project into a longterm study, making their project a unique one – the only project to span four years. Their hard work was rewarded with both teams achieving the Bronze Award at the conference.

8th Asean Quiz

It was two months of hard work for our Secondary 4 students. However, when asked if they would do it all over again, all of them agreed despite the many hours of research. With Singapore taking up the chairmanship of ASEAN and leading the milestone celebrations beyond ASEAN’s 50th anniversary, the school sent three teams to participate in the 8th ASEAN Quiz (National) held at NIE-NTU campus. They competed with 66 other teams to reach the semi-finals, alongside schools like Raffles Institution and Dunman High School. Through their participation, students were inspired to play an active role in fostering economic and people-to-people ties, reinforcing our sense of togetherness and strengthening our ASEAN identity.