A very Rainy DP Science Trip

The group 4 project this year was in Sinharaja rainforest and took place from December 11th to 13th. 

 

The first day we set off from school and it took about 2 hours to get to Sinharaja. After a short 40 minute hike we got to our lodge and had lunch. Right after we got an introduction to what we are going to be doing on this trip, plotting and observing quadrats to see the development of species. My group was; Akhil, Stephie, Kritika and Avin. Our advisors showed us how to make a quadrat which is a 2 meter by 2 meter square for us to look at. From there we started counting the different species in the quadrat, counting leaves and branches and other aspects of the species. This definitely took a while to get use to since its very time consuming having to measure the diameter of each plant (since they were relatively small) then identifying each one. Since it was the first day working with the group it wasn’t the smoothest and we definitely had some bumps trying to get every data piece down properly. Later that night we went out for a very wet frog walk which was… traumatic. I’m already not the biggest fan of frogs so going out looking for them isn’t especially my favorite thing to do, let alone the amount of rain we had that night. Some highlights from this walk:

• Finding a big spider and seeing the sheer terror in Aniq’s eyes from his jumpscare
• Seeing very cool fungi on trees 
• Getting a leach on my palm and neck 🤨 
• Running back in the pouring rain in the pitch black with only a dull torch for light 

 

Day two started bright and early to some mist from all the rain the night prior. Then we met up with our groups and walked down to the plotting area to start our data collection. Our first quadrant went pretty smoothly but it took some time to get the hang of using survey123 for putting in our data so we decided to swap to writing it down on paper. For our second and third quadrats, they went a lot better and faster than the first. We had gotten a lot more experience and had a system going for everyone to do a job and get things done. Though we had to end it early due to a lot of rain making it hard to stay out for longer. Sadly this rain continued for later on and we were unable to go and visit the nearby stream. Instead we had a lecture informing us about the development of Sinharaja Rainforest; from logs to bio-riches. 

On day three we set off for a hike which was supposed to be ‘five kilometers’, which ended up being twelve very long and hot kilometers. Although it was definitely painful it was all worth it for the view at the top. It was very hot but so clear and we were even able to see Adam’s peak in the far distance. 

Overall this trip was definitely interesting, I’ve learned a lot about collaborating with others and even though at times I was uncomfortable it was very enjoyable to be out with my fellow classmates.