G8 Week Without Walls 2017

Trips&Expeditions

By: JL and Pinn

T

his year, Grade 8 went on a Week Without Wall trip to Khao Yai. We gained new knowledge, built unbreakable bonds and most importantly, had fun. This trip was a particularly unique trip since our teachers collaborated with the Environmental Education Center staff to plan our trip. The staff from EEC was a particularly valuable part of our learning since they specialize in environmental education in multiple ways from species of life underwater to the species above ground. Excursions that EEC provides starts from learning how to dive, veterinary studies, analysing fossils and learning all about the species that share the environment with us, and in addition, provide us with all the resources that we use daily.

GRADE 8 @Khaoyai 38 CONCORDIAN

Trips&Expeditions

On the first day of our trip, the staff gave us a brief introduction of this trip. Mr. Alex taught us the basics to scuba diving and some hand signals.

We were then separated into groups and each group’s instructor explained in more depth about scuba diving. After all questions were answered, we transported to the swimming pool where we were actually able to practice scuba diving. The instructors allowed us to assemble the scuba tank while they assisted us when we were trouble.

On the next day, some of us went river diving to collect invertebrates while others worked on the river water investigation and also collected some invertebrates in shallow water using a net. The river diving team ended up collecting mostly molluscs while others ended up collecting a larger variety of invertebrates. We determined these invertebrates with a chart where we were able to differentiate between different species of sea creatures. This activity allows us to be able to analyze the water quality and how it affects the invertebrates living there.

The last few days, we spent a whole lot of time in the elephant sanctuary. One thing that we did was analyse the health of the elephants.

We worked with elephant blood, analysing cells and the elephant dung for parasites.

With the help of our class, we managed to raise a total of 2,764 baht for medicine, and we fed it to the elephants along with bananas and corn. We set up tents with our friends and had fun at a late night campfire with a small talent show later. We reflected on our whole trip which made our week extremely surreal.

We were all amazed at how fast the time we spent in Khao Yai went. We truly had a chance to bond with classmates, get closer to teachers and get to know the people who work in such a large scale organization. We are all incredibly thankful that we had the chance to learn about the environment and the world around us.

39 CONCORDIAN

Trips&Expeditions

40 CONCORDIAN

Trips&Expeditions

41 CONCORDIAN