Nature Walks, Repair Workshops, Bird-watching and More

August 19, 2024

Student-led interest group BES Drongos engaging the public through conducting nature walks at Thomson Nature Park.

Taking proactive steps towards environmental stewardship, NUS student groups are spearheading initiatives and doing their part in rallying the community towards a greener future. The wide variety of environmental student groups – from campus-wide groups, residential life groups to academic programme groups, provide the student community with diverse opportunities to participate in environmental conservation at varying levels. Here are some meaningful initiatives these student groups have driven towards promoting sustainability and protecting biodiversity both on and off-campus.

BES Drongos

A student-led interest group under the Bachelor of Environmental Studies (BES) Student Committee, BES Drongos engages the public from all walks of life by conducting guided nature walks. Through these walks, the student volunteers hope to engage and educate the public on the biodiversity residing in nature spaces as well as raise awareness about conservation issues in Singapore.

Formed in 2014, in support of the Love Our MacRitchie Forest movement, BES Drongos set out to raise awareness of the biodiversity residing in the Central Catchment Nature Reserve. Since then, the group has expanded its guided walks to include terrestrial walks at Thomson Nature Park. In January 2024, it expanded its programme to include a new intertidal walk at Changi Beach where participants can spot interesting marine life on Singapore’s shorelines.

A student guide (left with cap) from BES Drongos introducing marine life species to participants of the Changi Beach intertidal walk.

Living in an urban city, many of us may not be exposed to issues that threaten the biodiversity and wildlife in Singapore. Addressing this awareness gap was what prompted a collaboration between the College of Humanities and Sciences and BES Drongos in AY2023/2024 on specially curated walks at Kent Ridge Park led by the group’s guides for students taking the GEN2004 module on Green Communities in Action: Climate, Species, Crisis offered at the NUS Faculty of Arts and Social Science. Located just a stone’s throw behind the NUS Kent Ridge campus, participants will not only discover the surprisingly rich wildlife and biodiversity present at an urban park but also learn about the significant sociocultural history that the park holds. One interesting fact is that Kent Ridge Park is the site where the Malay Regiment fought one of their last battles against the Japanese invasion during World War II.

The guided walk at Kent Ridge Park also enabled both student guides from BES Drongos and students taking the GEN2004 module to foster new friendships over their shared interest in Singapore’s biodiversity.

President of BES Drongos Tay Rui En (Year 3 BES student), shared, “When the GEN2004 module coordinator asked us to be a long-term partner for the fieldwork sessions, I thought it was a really valuable opportunity for BES Drongos to bring groups of NUS students to explore the natural world of Kent Ridge Park. It is heartwarming to see the students being enthusiastic and genuinely interested in learning more about Singapore's biodiversity!”

NUS Bitscraps

“Repair before replace” – this is the mission of NUS Bitscraps, a student interest group dedicated to electronics repair and sustainability. Formed in 2023, the group aims to empower members with essential skills for repairing electronics. Through repair sessions, workshops and hackathons, the group hopes to create a welcoming space for members to fiddle around as they explore their passion for engineering.

 

NUS Bitscraps members working as a team on an ambitious laptop repair project.

In line with its mission statement, the group organises a donation drive within NUS every semester to encourage donations of broken items as repair projects for members. The group will then use these items for their weekly hands-on sessions where members can freely explore repair projects alongside a small team of like-minded peers.

In January every year, NUS Bitscraps also conducts training workshops targeting different skills required in electronics repair. Ruolin Shi, a Year 2 College of Design and Engineering undergraduate who is also the President of NUS Bitscraps, shared that one of the group’s most memorable workshops involved the repair works for remote-controlled (RC) vehicles, with participants fixing broken RC devices and racing them at the end of the workshop!

NUS Bitscraps members working as a team on an ambitious laptop repair project.

Rounding up AY2023/2024, NUS Bitscraps collaborated with the NUS Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEE) Student Branch on the Rewired Hackathon. Attracting about 100 students from across different local universities, junior colleges and polytechnics, the sustainability-themed hackathon saw participants repurposing electronic parts with Internet of Things solutions.

Ruolin also shared her upcoming plans for the group, “Following the success of our founding year, we want to organise larger-scale events and collaborate with different organisations to continue putting together meaningful and enjoyable activities for the NUS community. Through our outreach, we hope to change their attitude towards throwing away broken electronics as we believe that anyone can pick up repairing skills and do their part in reducing waste.”

To build their confidence in repairing electronics, members are exposed to a variety of items – from broken RC devices (left) to broken motors (right).

EVBig

EVBig is an environmental biology interest group under the NUS Life Sciences Society that brings together nature-loving individuals through nature walks to share about the rich flora and fauna that many may not know exist in Singapore. In this academic year alone, EVBig has organised three different walks showcasing different aspects of Singapore’s biodiversity – an intertidal walk at Changi Beach, a night walk at Mandai Track 15 trail, and a birdwatching session at Jurong Lake Gardens.

EVBig’s first nature night walk at the Mandai Track 15 trail is one of several guided walks organised by the group to highlight Singapore’s rich flora and fauna.

At its first nature night walk at Mandai Track 15 trail, participants saw many different species of insects and nocturnal animals; and were thrilled to have caught a glimpse of the elusive lesser mouse-deer and the striking wagler's pit viper. The entire walk, peppered with the croaking of frogs and chirping of crickets, provided the participants with a truly immersive experience as well.

The group also organises events such as welcome teas and symposiums to connect with existing and future environmental biology students. They hope that the experiences and knowledge shared by the group’s senior members will help junior students make more informed choices during their undergraduate years and in their future careers.

The annual EVBig Final Year Project and Seniors' Sharing Session presented seniors from EVBig with the opportunity to share their experiences such as module selection and environmental biology-related final year projects, with their juniors.

Year 3 Life Sciences student Eugene Tan (back row seventh from left), Director of EVBig, said, “We hope to host more guided nature walks as we believe that this is a fun activity that most can easily participate in and allows us the opportunity to raise awareness about our local biodiversity. We are working with the Nature Society Singapore to receive guide training so that we can eventually lead guided nature walks for the public too!”

This story is part of a series featuring environmental student groups in NUS and first appeared on NUSnews on 16 August 2024.