PETALING JAYA, 19 August 2017: The Sg. Penchala at Taman Lembah Kiara was transformed into a giant water lab for students and teachers from SMK Seksyen 10, Kota Damansara through physical, biological and chemical river water experiments via the Salcon Smart Water Programme (SSWP) today.
SSWP, an educational programme for primary and secondary school children, advocates hands-on science learning with the aim to move the lab from the school to nature so that the students can enhance their understanding of lessons from textbooks to applied and practical learnings.
“This programme really brings to life the knowledge which we learn in school and has given us a clearer picture on the importance of water conservation,” said Nur Diana bt Abdul Fatha, 17 years old from SMK Seksyen 10 Kota Damansara, “And my favourite session was when catching insects to identify them before releasing into the water again,” she added with a smile.
Meanwhile, Puan Halina, teacher of SMK Seksyen 10 said, “I can see my students really enjoying their time in learning about their surrounding in an interactive way without their computer gadgets. We sincerely thank Salcon for organising the programme for students.”
The programme is Salcon’s flagship corporate responsibility initiative to educate the public especially the younger generations about water awareness and conservation. Students get the chance to conduct hands-on water experiments at Sg Penchala. Amongst the interactive activities carried out is physical water testing, which is the process of monitoring the water flow rate, clarity, color and smell.
Salcon Berhad Corporate Senior Manager, Ms Chern Meng Gaik said the programme aims to promote awareness on the importance of good quality water supplies in sustaining a community and its development.
“The children are given a hands-on opportunity to conduct the various tests themselves. This piques their interest and enhances their learning experience.” she added.
Apart from that, throughout the programme, students get to apply various scientific theories which they had learned back at school. For example, the chemical experiment where students were guided on monitoring the alkaline and acidic levels within the river water and identifying different kinds of organisms living in the river which is an indicator of the river’s health level.
Schools around Klang valley are invited to participate in the SSWP and to date, the programme has benefitted more than 40 schools and 1,800 children since its inception in 2010 and has garnered good support and response from teachers and students. Under the guidance of WWP facilitators, students mastered the skills and technique of conducting river and water testing. They were briefed by facilitators before commencing the experiments themselves.
Salcon measures the effectiveness of the programme through a pre and post water knowledge evaluation. The evaluation result has shown that the students’ understanding on water knowledge has increased significantly after conducting the activities by themselves.