Day 3

Schedule, 1st of June 2011, Wednesday, Day 3
Time	Events	Comments
8.00 AM	Breakfast	The apples were awesome!
8.30 AM	Getting Ready	Chaotic Rush (Worse than diner dash)
9.00AM	Tracked to Genting Beach	Walking in flip-flops: Scratches Everywhere!
9.30 AM (Syafiq, Maxwell, Zahir)	Started our coastal zone surveys in managed site:  (a) Point Intercept Transect- Estimate the habitat in a particular area (b) Beach profile- To find out the gradient and steepness of the beach (c) Longshore Drift- Test the direction of longshore drift and the speed.	It was actually a very interesting spot since there's both destructive and constructive waves.  The areas near the headlands are causing erosion while the middle ones are depositing stuff.  According to Pete, this is caused by the human interference (is. boats).  The survey for longshore drift was also quite a failure since they got stuck in between some choral rubbles. When doing the point intercept transect, Bryan Chung Jin Howe kept on complaining getting his underwear wet, which I must agree; wet underpants are so not fun, but tmi anyway. We found a coconut washed up by the sea and picked it up to play with as a rugby ball.
11:00 Am	Preparing questionnaire about the coastal zone	Literally adapting almost everything from the rainforest questionnaire! We even got a break to buy some refreshments, but some of the items sold were rather more expensive than usual.
12:00 PM	Interviewed locals	It's when the Malay language came in handy :) We even managed to spot an ongoing conservation project in relation to the coastal areas.
1:00 PM	Lunch	Awesome spaghetti and pizzas.
2:00 PM	Coastal survey at Melina Beach Resort (unmanaged site)	We did our coastal surveys as we did at Genting. The art students had the opportunity to draw some interesting sketches of the coast. The refreshing water was practically crying out to us for a nice swim!
4:00 PM	Simulating activities- Building model dams, agriculture channels and shrimp farms to study the human impacts in a river area	Team work was clearly shown. Climax - Fight between the shrimp farmers and the Las Tioman (dam builders) manager.
7:00 PM	Dinner	More awesome apples plus yummy salad!
8:00 PM	Presentation by the Las Tioman manager, cucumber farm owner and shrimp farm worker to debate their respective pros and cons.	Informative, funny and really enjoyable looking at others' masterpiece :)
9:00 PM	Was shown a depressing video about how our dams and farms were destroyed.	A warning - Never fight mother nature :)
9:30 PM	Free time at the beach	There was a circle of truth going around at the beach, and some other learners lying on sarongs, looking up at the sparkling stars in the sky; and others sitting at the restaurant doing their blogs; it was just so calm and peaceful!

Overall, it was an exciting and fun day.  We truly enjoyed learning outside the classroom with real situations and case studies.  The stimulation activity might be the best part throughout the day.  Of course, we also did get a kick out of having fun and swimming in the sea. 

Peace out!

Superior 7,

Jia Yi, Kai Song, Nicole, Wen Wen