Month: October 2016

This year, Earthlink held her very first terrarium workshop on the 18th of October attracting members with green fingers. We were given an opportunity to take our minds off momentarily from the stresses of upcoming quizzes and finals and immerse ourselves wholeheartedly with the delicate task of planting and personalizing our own terrarium. And what makes it better? Building the terrariums using disposable bottles and containers! As Earthlinkers, we are always looking for ways to recycle disposables and even reuse them to our advantage.

What is a terrarium? A terrarium is just like a mini aquarium with plants instead of aquatic life. Imagine owning a small patch of garden that is portable, colorful and fuss-free. That is the main attraction of a terrarium! In addition, the calming effect plants have can effectively reduce stress, which is exactly what all of us students need right now in these hectic weeks.

Before we rush into our hands-on activity, we played a game of Bingo, designed and modified to broaden our environmental knowledge. Every table took turns to answer fun facts about the environment and with each correct answer, they can draw a cross on their Bingo game card. The group that manages to complete a Bingo first will be given two extra pot of plant to add onto their terrarium. Needless to say, all of us were eager to answer the questions, and in return, we gained quite a few new insights on some environmental facts from the lighthearted game.

Having held up our anticipation for some time, the hands-on terrarium building activity finally begun. Firstly, we cut our recyclable containers into our ideal terrarium tank and laid the pebbles as the foundation layer. The wide array of pebbles’ colors greatly attracted our Earthlinkers as they went in search for the perfect color combination. About 2-3-inch-thick rich soil was placed above the pebbles before the plants were set into the soil. Extra precautions were taken when we remove the plants from its original pot so that we do not damage the roots of the fragile little plants.

Succulent plants with a mix of colors and types were chosen for us to place in our terrarium. The intricate patterns of the veins of the leaves, as well as the different shades of green, red and pink, gave our reused empty plastic bottles and containers a new lease of life and brighten up our faces as we admired our own masterpiece. Now we truly had our own unique little green space, using used recyclables.

As the workshop drew to an end, all of us proudly took a group photo with our fresh and beautiful terrarium. Getting our hands soiled was well worth it. We all returned home with our very own miniature garden. Low maintenance, useful, beautiful and decorative, what more can you ask for?

The Earthlink Bonding Dinner, held on 12th October, marks the beginning of a series of upcoming events by Earthlink in this academic year! This event was organized by the Welfare portfolio to ensure that all Earthlink subcommittee members know each other. It was a night for everyone to relax, have fun and foster new bonds!

Upon registration, all the participants were given lucky draw numbers and were divided into seven groups. Starting off with ice breakers, everyone introduced themselves to each other in their group by playing “Catch and Call”. A ball will be thrown around the group, and the catcher has to call the name of the thrower. This interactive game allowed everyone to get to know each other better.

Our mass game was “Guess the Lyrics”. Short verses of popular songs were played and participants were required to snatch the chance to ring the bell and guess the song’s name and the following lyrics. Much to our surprise, there are actually some talented singers hidden among us!

Next up, we had the first performance of the night: a serenade by the EXCOs in the tune of “Flashlight”! It was a thoughtful and meaningful choice: the EXCOs hope that everyone in the club can be each other’s flashlight, guiding those who are in need, while we achieve our common goal together.

With the mood warmed up, the participants were getting hungry and eager for dinner. Not forgetting to #DitchDaDisposables, everyone brought their own containers! While most of us were happily indulging in the food and conversations, some of us also took the chance to take photos at the photo booth.

After the scrumptious dinner, each portfolio director and the subcommittees formally introduced themselves to everyone. Some portfolios even took the chance to promote their upcoming events and while encouraging everyone to sign up.

Finally, we had the highlight of the night: a dance performance by all the current Earthlink directors! The very entertaining dance definitely brought the atmosphere to the peak, and it was very heartwarming to see the effort the main committee had placed in. The dance performance was followed by a second mass game called “Kahoot”. This game tested the participants on Earthlink trivia and our history. Can you remember when was Earthlink established? 😉

After all the games and performance, we finally had… our LUCKY DRAW! Lucky participants walked away with reusable containers and cutlery, earphones, and FairPrice vouchers.

Before the dinner came to a close, we had a group photo session where the different portfolios showed off their creativity with their myriad of unique and innovative poses! To conclude the event, the Welfare portfolio thanked everyone for coming down for the event and hoped that everyone had a good time. Even though the dinner was just for a few hours, the bonds fostered that night has definitely set us off on a positive note for the academic year ahead!

On Friday, 7 October 2016, it was a meaningful night at the SBS lobby where student leaders from more than 100 clubs in NTU gathered to bid farewell to the outgoing management committees, and at same time welcoming in the new batch of leaders. The event was a collaboration between Earthlink NTU and NTU Student Affairs Office (SAO) to promote the “Ditch Da Disposables” (DDD) initiative during Student Leaders Night. DDD is an Earthlink NTU’s initiative that was started in 2014. It aims to reduce waste by reducing the usage of disposables. In a span of 2 years, the DDD initiative has successfully reduced more than 2000 sets of disposables during Earthlink events. This achievement motivated us to bring it to the next level by promoting DDD to every other clubs in NTU.

Disposable plates and cutleries were not provided for the event so as to be in line with the “DDD” initiative. Hence, Earthlink NTU started the event with sales of reusable containers and cutleries to cater for student leaders who did not bring their reusable containers. During the event, Earthlink’s student ambassadors also encouraged attendees to adopt the habit of using reusable containers. They shared with the attendees about the impact of disposables on the environment, and suggested methods to reduce these impacts such as adopting the BYOC (Bring Your Own Container) and BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag) initiatives.

The president of Earthlink NTU, Ms. Wong Zhi Sian, gave a passionate opening speech to officially kick-start the event. She explained to more than 900 fellow student leaders and guests about the importance of reducing disposables and also the DDD initiative. Ms. Wong explained that there are 200 thousand tonnes of waste going to Singapore’s landfill annually, and disposables contributes most significantly. Subsequently in his keynote address to the student leaders, Associate Provost (Student Life) Prof. Kwok Kian Woon voiced his appreciation for Earthlink’s initiative which aligns well with NTU’s effort to make NTU the world’s greenest campus.

During the networking session, student ambassadors from Earthlink NTU ardently approached student leaders from different clubs to introduce the DDD initiative. To bring the DDD initiative to a whole new level, our student ambassadors also invited the student leaders to join the DDD Alliance. Many clubs signed up for the DDD Alliance and agreed that they will try adopt the DDD initiative in their own club’s events. We have successfully recruited representatives from 45 clubs to join the DDD alliance through this event. By going straight to the student leaders, we hope to reach out to more students in NTU and convince them to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.

Although not all the attendees brought their own containers, we believe that a great step has been made towards a greener NTU community as it was the first time in NTU that an event of such a large scale did not provide disposables. More importantly, that night marks the first time many of the participants brought their own containers and we hope they continue to do so and implement the DDD initiative into their student clubs to create a more environmental friendly university culture.