Singapore International Water Festival (SIWF) Environmental Quiz... at last! (19 - 21 Jun 09)

Good food, healthy turn-out and a few lessons in event management...

Yup, that is all I have to say about this inter-secondary school environmental competition organised by yours truly on a bright and cheerful SUNDAY (the caps are intentional).

I will henceforth let my figures do the talking (L-R, T-B):
Our MCs practising their scripts on 19 Jun 09, prior to the actual event on 21 Jun 09 (by the way, they did a marvellous job!);
Other helpers going through their designated roles on 19 Jun - you can certainly see that stress is not on their minds;
The actual day - student competitors in the front, teachers at the back (no, the teachers are not supposed to help);
A side event - my short and sweet poster presented at the concurrent exhibition manned by 3 of my students;
Dragon boaters in formation warming up for the competition (NOT my quiz but their dragon boat race);
The quiz finalists with our director in the customary photo shoot at the end.

A new toy: acoustic doppler profiler (ADP)

Heard of a remote controlled boat (similar in size to a model boat) that can effortless plot your river's cross-sectional area (depth, width all included)? I have and I even found out that PUB has just such a toy. How exciting! Determining the dimensions of water channels for water quality modelling will be a zilch.

Heard of how expectations tend to blind us to reality? The model sized boat turned out to be kayak sized behemoth (ok, I am exaggerating) that does not move on its own power and needs to towed. Bye bye remote control. Furthermore, this behemoth has a draft of 20-30cm and a blind zone of ~20cm upwards from the channel bed. ~ half a metre of depth without data! Why does anyone want to use this thing?


It turned out that some researchers have been using this toy to map the Marina Reservoir (dammed up by Marina Barrage). Since the depth is typically several metres, half a metre of blind zone is acceptable (?).

You probabaly can guess it by now. This toy is not for me. My water channels are too shallow, I don't have a motor boat to drag this thing (can I drag it by muscle strength?) and the software is kind of buggy. Still, I have provided a photo here of the toy in case you are thrilled to use this thing.

Singapore International Water Festival (SIWF) (20-21 June 2009): Environmental Quiz Challenge

This job is quite unlike any water quality monitoring I have done. Heck, it isn't even water quality work (despite the "Water" in the title). I had the fortune to be tasked with organising the event "Environmental Quiz Challenge" under the umbrella of SIWF. SIWF is an appetiser of sorts before the main event, Singapore International Water Convention which stretches for 1 week.

Quite simply, the Quiz is a competition for secondary schools to fight it out for the top 3 prizes. But what is really NEW and DIFFERENT is the venue - this event (and the Festival) is held at the Marina Barrage. What a way to launch our nation's latest (and very expensive) water infrastructure!

You probably can gather by now - this event is organised by PUB (no surprise) and Singapore Polytechnic (SP).

If you are interested to know more the Festival, check out this page.

If the Environmental Quiz Challenge is your target, check here.

Figures (L-R, T-B): Inspirational vista of the main courtyard; the CBD (and IR) as viewed from the Barrage; the actual barrage itself; Courtyard Room - where the Quiz is held