Ecological Exploration: DP Collaborative Science Trip

To complete the IB Programme, a mandatory component is the DP Collaborative science trip, also known as the Group 4 project. This year, the trip focused on the concept of Citizen Science, which is “when the public voluntarily helps conduct scientific research.” Thus, the trip was located in the Sinharaja rainforest in Sri Lanka, from December 11 to 13, where we were to conduct the data collection and investigate scientific factors like the pH of the soil, humidity, the population of species, etc.

How this trip worked, was that we were assigned into several groups of around 4-6 students, each consisting of at least one student from each science class, those being Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and ESS ( environmental systems and societies ). All of the variables of data that we had to connect, were related to either one of these sciences. Though, being a Physics student, it was a lot less content which I was familiar with, as it is quite difficult to measure things in relation to Physics when we are in the middle of a forest. However, that meant that most of the work was around the Biology and ESS students’ content, which was shared and taught to us as well. I found that quite interesting though as we were able to learn about topics that I was not so knowledgeable on, where I felt that I worked well with understanding with other science domains in terms of collaboration. Also from this experience, something that was new to me and that I learned about, was the equipment and tools used to help measure specific factors, such as how the Bio Quest can measure the bio luminance and humidity of an area.

Despite there being lots of good with this trip, in terms of the learning aspect, there were some challenges we faced too, which would be something that is an uncontrolled factor for us, being the weather. As we were collecting the data on the first day, for a trial of understanding the process and equipment, there was only a slight drizzle, which was fine. But then, as the second day came, when we took the official data, midway through the time, it started pouring rain. This then caused us to have to pack up faster, and not be able to complete as many plots in the forest as we had hoped. Despite this, it also did make the hike back a lot more slippery, but quite fun as well since I was with my friends enjoying nature!!

Something from this trip that I actually quite enjoyed was how our places of accommodation were separated into two locations, one for the ESS students, and another for the Biology, Chemistry, and Physics students. At first, I was quite bummed as that meant we had to split up from each other, but in the end, I quite liked this decision of being in two places, as it meant we had fewer people and a smaller group when we were back chilling, which also allowed me to hang out with different people! In the social aspect of this trip, I enjoyed it very much, as I had lots of fun with my friends, especially this one time when it was pouring rain, and we were running in the muddy grass!

Not only did this trip consist of moments just for data collection, but we did lots of walking and hikes as well. On the last day, we hiked up a very steep mountain in the steaming sun, which led to a gorgeous view of the mountain range, making the hike worth it!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall, I found this trip to be very fun in terms of the social aspect with my friends, but also very beneficial with the collaboration of sciences, as I was able to understand and learn more from other fields of sciences which I am not familiar with, and was able to see how they actually do connect with each other in real-world instances.