Petaling Jaya, 1 October 2022 – Salcon award-winning programme, Salcon Smart Water Programme (SSWP) brought together 38 students and 4 teachers from SMK Convent Sentul for a fun and interactive half day event at Sungai Penchala today.
The SSWP, conducted by Salcon Berhad (Salcon) in collaboration with Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) and non-governmental organisation, Water Watch Penang (WWP), advocates hands-on science learning with the aim to allow students to apply various scientific theories that they learned back at school in interactive water experiments.
Under the guidance of facilitators, the students got their hands dirty conducting science experiments which include river water physical, biological and chemical tests in order to determine the health of the Sg Penchala river. This involves water pH testing, water flow monitoring, water turbidity, dissolved oxygen testing and identifying aquatic organism using water monitoring kits.
“Children are rarely exposed to outdoor educational activities nowadays and this programme provides a very good opportunity for our students to have a practical experience of river water monitoring. Through the activities today, I can see that our students are enthusiastically involved in the learning process”, said Ms. Sagunthala Maniam, teacher of SMK Convent Sentul.
This was the twelveth year in which Salcon has held the salcon Smart Water Programme (SSWP) for schools in Klang Valley. To date, this programme has benefited 84 schools and 4 orphanage homes, involving more than 3000 children.
According to one of the students, Yap Ern Tong, “This is the first time that I had the opportunity to wade in the river to test the water quality, and this intrigued me and my friends to learn and explore more on the interrelation of our nature and science”.
Salcon’s General Manager, Chern Meng Gaik said: “Nowadays, children are much too focused on academic pursuits and miss out on the simple pleasures in life. This programme aims to bring children out of their classroom and up close and personal with our rivers. This approach will have a more lasting impact on their young and impressionable minds to raise their awareness of conserving our rivers and precious water resource.”
The evaluation survey which conducted before and after every programme shown that there are significant improvement or understanding among these children on water knowledge after conducting the activities by themselves.