Month: January 2016

On the 26th and 27th March, by the newly renovated North Spine, Earthlink held Keep Them E-Live, an event aimed at raising awareness on electronic waste, which is a topic discussed not nearly as much as it should be. The constant improvements and updates in the electronics world have made the shelf life of smartphones, laptops and other devices very, very short. New and improved versions of devices are released constantly, and consumers often struggle to stay up to date with their tech, and don t have the time to think about where their old phones and devices are going. Improper disposal of these devices are extremely dangerous for the environment as they contain lead and mercury, and can release toxic fumes when incinerated. Consumers may also be interested to know that their devices contain rare and valuable resources within their circuitry, which could lower the burden on the earth if they were to extract and recycle them.

Often, consumers who haven t the time to repair and salvage slightly faulty devices choose to throw them out and replace them with new ones. However, making an effort to have them repaired could reduce the amount of e-waste produced, while maintaining the device s functionality, and lowering the impact on the earth and the consumers wallet.

Keep Them E-Live focused on educating the NTU community about e-waste in Singapore and around the world, and provided simple tips to cut down on e-waste. This was done through mini games held at the booths that aimed to inspire responsibility and awareness on the consumers part.

The message that Earthlink has for consumers is simple: be mindful of your electronics, repair when you can, replace only if necessary, and the impact we could collectively have on the world would be tremendous. A few simple changes on our part could result in reduced mining and deforestation, preserving ecosystems and reducing the effects of global warming.

Besides the main mission of promoting and raising awareness of the need to conserve and preserve the environment in order to save our mother Earth, Earthlink NTU is also interested in enhancing the relationship and communication between its members. On the morning of the 23rd of January, Saturday, a second subcommittee outing in academic year 15/16, was organized to fulfill that aim. It was a visit to Fort Canning Park, Singapore. Fort Canning Park is a site integrating nature and history, and was perfect for providing an opportunity for all Earthlinkers to experience the beauty of nature and get to know about some historical facts about it.

At 8.00a.m, participants gathered at the foyer for the School of Humanity and Social Sciences to mark their attendance. After each participant had been assigned to their respective groups, there was an ice-breaking session conducted to let all the participants mingle among themselves and to get familiarized with each other. At 9.45a.m, we boarded the buses and departed to the destination.The journey only took us approximately 45 minutes as there was no traffic congestion along the roads. We gathered at a field near the entrance and listened to the opening speech given by the Camp and Welfare Director. He talked about the purposes of the outing and told us some historical fun facts about the place. For instance, under the British Army, the fort served as the headquarters of the Singapore Base District until the spread of World War II into the Asia Pacific in 1941.

Immediately after that, the participants proceeded to have fun with our very first activity which was the station games. One example of the station games was the catapult construction competition. After we had been introduced about some types of cannons which were used back in 18th century and shown a catapult prototype built using rubber bands and ice cream sticks by the game masters, each team was tasked with building one themselves, which was subsequently used to lob an eraser into some cans stacked together. The team that hit the most cans wins the game.

There were a total of 5 station games awaiting the participants. However the plans did not go smoothly  after all the teams had finished playing about 2 station games, there came a heavy downpour which forced all of us to seek shelter and wait for the rain to stop. While waiting, we carried out some wet plans which could be done indoors. When the rain had finally stopped, we were behind schedule and was forced to cancel 2 station games.

Nevertheless, after we were done with lunch, we proceeded with the most important and fascinating activity of the day, which was the nature walk! The Nature guides led the participants in a walk around the Spice Gardens to learn about various species of flora planted there such as the peppermint plant, lime grass, pepper et cetera. The nature guides played their roles well and professionally in giving extra explanation and information about anything that interested the participants. Throughout the journey, it was pleasing to note that all Earthlinkers never forgot the rule of not plucking any plants.

Finally, the memorable subcommittee outing 2 was concluded with a closing speech and all participants then headed back to NTU by bus. I strongly believe that this journey had successfully bonded all the participants and raised essential environmental awareness among them.