Reflection 1 (male student):
"The most important day I think is the fourth day because we had the opportunity to clean up the garbage from Salang beach and the adjacent sea shore. We were split into five different groups to cover the entire beach area and we found a lot of different types of trash.
The most surprising thing for me was the number of cigarettes we all found. Our group found more than 80 cigarette buds. However, the number we found was much smaller than the number of cigarette buds found by the other four groups. The total number of cigarettes all five groups found was more than 1000 and I did not think there were that many cigarettes in the sea.
In addition, we found a lot of plastic bottles and plastic straws, which are items that a lot of us use on a daily basis. After seeing how much trash we collected today, I feel I need to change my lifestyle. I buy water from the ISS school canteen at least once a day and from my calculations, if I do this everyday for the entire school year I will end up using more than 200 plastic bottles. I just feel that I need to change my lifestyle first so that other people are encouraged to do the same."
Reflection 2 (female student):
" On our last full day we were able to help the community in a way that was both educational and where the immediate impact was visible. The task was to clean out as much trash from the beach as possible. I was stunned by the mass amount and types of trash that gets accumulated by the beach. It made me realise the horrific outcome that is the reaction of us being too lazy to throw our trash away in a proper bin or recycling area. Starting from cans, cigarette butts, plastic bags to metal pipes, glass and dishwashing soap bottles, there was no end to what we cleared out form the beach. I would have never thought that these materials would end up in the ocean harming their ecosystem so terribly. I can say for sure that the little impacts I can make by changing my lifestyle (even if it is just using a reusable shopping bag) will be in action as soon as I am back home. I am extremely thankful for this trip as I would have never realised the importance of changing my habits if I hadn’t experienced their impacts in real life. We ended the activity by dividing our trash into different sections so that we could collect data on the frequency of different types of trash on Salang beach.
Later that day, we moved onto snorkeling again which today had the purpose of collecting data for our Group 4 project. The methods of data collection made me properly look at the marine life and focus on the types of coral reef found around Tioman island. Some outstanding creatures such as rainbow-coloured fish and even a turtle were spotted as we snorkelled through. Besides the beautiful visual experience, learning about the impact of human actions on the marine ecosystem in more depth was a good way for us to conclude the trip."
Overall, today was a day of deep reflection, concluding with a very engaging activity led by Mr Whitehead about the IB Learner Profile and the CAS Learning Outcomes. Photos from the day can be found below.
"The most important day I think is the fourth day because we had the opportunity to clean up the garbage from Salang beach and the adjacent sea shore. We were split into five different groups to cover the entire beach area and we found a lot of different types of trash.
The most surprising thing for me was the number of cigarettes we all found. Our group found more than 80 cigarette buds. However, the number we found was much smaller than the number of cigarette buds found by the other four groups. The total number of cigarettes all five groups found was more than 1000 and I did not think there were that many cigarettes in the sea.
In addition, we found a lot of plastic bottles and plastic straws, which are items that a lot of us use on a daily basis. After seeing how much trash we collected today, I feel I need to change my lifestyle. I buy water from the ISS school canteen at least once a day and from my calculations, if I do this everyday for the entire school year I will end up using more than 200 plastic bottles. I just feel that I need to change my lifestyle first so that other people are encouraged to do the same."
Reflection 2 (female student):
" On our last full day we were able to help the community in a way that was both educational and where the immediate impact was visible. The task was to clean out as much trash from the beach as possible. I was stunned by the mass amount and types of trash that gets accumulated by the beach. It made me realise the horrific outcome that is the reaction of us being too lazy to throw our trash away in a proper bin or recycling area. Starting from cans, cigarette butts, plastic bags to metal pipes, glass and dishwashing soap bottles, there was no end to what we cleared out form the beach. I would have never thought that these materials would end up in the ocean harming their ecosystem so terribly. I can say for sure that the little impacts I can make by changing my lifestyle (even if it is just using a reusable shopping bag) will be in action as soon as I am back home. I am extremely thankful for this trip as I would have never realised the importance of changing my habits if I hadn’t experienced their impacts in real life. We ended the activity by dividing our trash into different sections so that we could collect data on the frequency of different types of trash on Salang beach.
Later that day, we moved onto snorkeling again which today had the purpose of collecting data for our Group 4 project. The methods of data collection made me properly look at the marine life and focus on the types of coral reef found around Tioman island. Some outstanding creatures such as rainbow-coloured fish and even a turtle were spotted as we snorkelled through. Besides the beautiful visual experience, learning about the impact of human actions on the marine ecosystem in more depth was a good way for us to conclude the trip."
Overall, today was a day of deep reflection, concluding with a very engaging activity led by Mr Whitehead about the IB Learner Profile and the CAS Learning Outcomes. Photos from the day can be found below.