CyberFair Project ID: 2418

Close this Window

NOTE: Due to URL changes, some links may no longer be valid.

International Schools CyberFair Project Narrative
Title: Jurong BirdPark : An Exploration
Category: 5. Local Attractions (Natural and Man-Made)
URL: http://www.ri.sch.edu.sg/cyberfair/
Bibliography: No bibliography page cited

School: Raffles Institution
    Singapore, Singapore, Singapore

15 students, ages 14-16 worked together to complete this CyberFair project on March 20, 2003. They have participated in CyberFair in the following year(s): 2000, 2001, 2002

Classes and Teachers: Mr Leong Kok Weng and Raffles CyberStudios

E-Mail contact:

Our School's Web Site: http://www.ri.sch.edu.sg/

Project Overview

1. Description of Our Community

Our country Singapore is a small city at the southern tip of Peninsula Malaysia, in South East Asia. We are a multi-racial society with a population of around 4 million. Our first definition of Local community, as stated in the guidelines of the review, would be the people whom we directly interacted with. In other words, it would be the staff of the Jurong Bird Park and the tourists whom we interviewed. Our next definition of Local community would be our target audience, the Internet surfers around the world who would be visiting our website. This would include people who intended to actually look for information regarding the Bird Park, or others who had happened to encounter our website by chance. Therefore, the term Local community would encompass the online Internet community. Our last definition of this Local community would include the population of Singapore. Since the Jurong Bird Park is a local attraction of Singapore, logically we would want to use this website to promote the Jurong Bird Park as an interesting and enjoyable place of interest for Singaporeans to travel to during their free time.

2. Summary of Our Project

Cyberfair entry for 2003 showcases the Jurong BirdPark; Singapore’s one and only premier BirdPark. This 20.2 hectares park is one of the largest of its kind in the Asian Pacific and is arguably one of the finest bird parks in existence. The park boasts of a unique variety of more than 8,000 birds from 600 species all over the world, a collection that is one of the largest in the world. The Jurong BirdPark is renown for its specialties in birds from Southeast Asia and the more exotic and colourful tropical birds, as well as its unique "open-concept" approach. This means that the BirdPark’s exhibits and aviaries are specially designed to closely resemble the natural habitats of the birds themselves. Lakes and paddocks have been specially constructed for free-roaming waterbirds and other large flightless birds such as ostriches, rheas, emus and cassowaries. The BirdPark has numerous open spaces of lustrous landscaped littered with exotic flowering plants to create a soothing and picturesque environment for the BirdPark.

The Park is also home to the world’s largest walk-in aviary with the tallest man-made waterfall. There, visitors can relax around a scenic landscaped with free-flying birds from Africa and South America living as they would in their natural tropical habitats. Another premier aviary is the Southeast Asian Bird Aviary, which features some of the regions most exotic and most beautiful endangered species of birds. The Park also holds Bird Shows staged daily at the amphitheatre and the Falconry Arena. Visitors all around the world have marveled at the sight of a hawk swooping onto its prey or the interesting exploits of ‘talking’ cockatoos.

3. Our Computer and Internet Access

A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%

B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:2-3

C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection

D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:2-3

E. Additional comments concerning your computer and/or Internet access (Optional):

Our Computers: In school, we use Pentium III computers, while at home; most of us either have AMD XP or Pentium IV computers. Our Internet access: In school, all computers are connected via a Local Area Network (LAN), which is on a dedicated line. At home, most of us use some form of broadband connection.

4. Problems We Had To Overcome

Arriving at the BirdPark, we were shocked that a complete list of the bird at the Park would not be available to us as it is highly 'classified' material. As a result, we had to explore every nook and cranny of the Park, taking down the names of every bird on display. It took a while before it finally dawned on us the sheer amount of information we needed to research we had to collect. There was only one way through it: Hard Work. But we were driven by sheer motivation of wanting to complete this project in full.

During the Work Exposure Program, only a few of us got to interact with the birds due to the lack of help needed, so most of us ended up doing office work which was extremely tedious. We had to fold papers and slot them into envelopes which we had to seal. Sounds easy right? Wrong, because we had to repeat this process over 3000 times.

In the process of research we accounted many problems. For example, information of some of the birds could not be found, not on the Internet or in any of the encyclopedias in our school library. We even resorted to visiting the National Library of Singapore. However, some information of certain species of Birds remains to be found.

Unfortunately for us, our school also installed a PC safety card in all its computers. Its purpose was to inhibit the unauthorise installation of illegal software. Unfortunately, this also meant that we would not be able to save our project files on the computers to. It almost looked as if we would have to save our projects on hundreds of floppy disks. Fortunately, one of our members hit upon the idea of using our only Mac G4 to set up an FTP server which meant we could all upload and store our files there.

5. Our Project Sound Bite

"An experience which not only took us out of what was familiar but also one which forged a team." - Shane

6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?

Our project aimed to promote one of Singapore's Local Attractions, the Jurong BirdPark. THe Jurong BirdPark has been actively involved with the conservation of endangered species of Birds. This ties in nicely with some of topics on Ecology and conservation we study in subjects like Biology and Geography.

Also this project does fit in with our school's requirement for all students to actively participate in various community involvement projects. Some of us did participate in some work attachment at the BirdPark.

In the process of completing the project, we learnt that the hardest part of group work in such a project is making sure that everyone has something to do. If just one individual is off-schedule, the entire project could be held back.

We have also discovered that our education system in Singapore has very strict guidelines which do not allow for students to explore other interesting aspects of the subjects but rather confine them to the rigid standards of the Cambridge 'O'Level Exams.

Because of this, we have decided that the use of Internet is not all that feasible as a replacement mode of teaching in Singapore.

Top
Project Elements

1) What information tools & technologies did you used to complete your CyberFair project?

We used about: 10 PIII - PIV Computers 1 Mac G4 cube as a Server Alot of Digital and analog Cameras

The software used: Macromedia Dreamweaver Macromedia Flash Microsoft Word Notepad Adobe Photoshop

We also heavily made use of our school library

We conducted a random survey of 300 people in our local community and have tallied our results on our webpage.

2) In what ways did you act as "ambassadors" and spokespersons for your CyberFair project both on-line and in person.

We had a lot of communications with the Jurong BirdPark. The education officer who attended to us, Ms Sherrie Heng was very friend and was impressed with the work of those who were on the Work Attachment program at the Jurong BirdPark.

3) What has been the impact of your project on your community?

We hope that through our project, Singaporeans young and old would be able to understand and appreciate the effort put in by the Jurong BirdPark in conserving our enviroment as we know it.

4) How did your project involve other members of your community as helpers and volunteers?

To start off, we would like to thank Ms Sherrie Heng for her patience in helping us around the Jurong BirdPark.

We would also like to thank our Teacher in Charge Mr Leong Kok Weng for his every present support. When ever we were in need of resources, he would be there to help.

Last but not least we would also want to thank two former members of the school who have taken time to comeback and assist us with the intricate process of participating in Cyberfair.

5) Discoveries, Lessons and Surprises (Optional)

Did you know that out of 30,000 ostriches surveyed in a period of two years, not one of them actually buried its head in the ground, thereby disproving the common myth.

Top

View our CyberFair Project (Project ID: 2418)

Close this Window