
Field Study to Bogor Botanical Garden: “Exploring Nature with Science Education”
Field Study to Bogor Botanical Garden: “Exploring Nature with Science Education”
One
of the most anticipated program for the eleventh grade on the second
semester is Field Study. With this program, students can get this one full day to study outside the school,
where they can learn what had been taught in the classroom and see by them self in the nature. Sure, we are talking about
nature, because these are the Science major students in senior high school.
Last Tuesday (13/3), the students visited Bogor Botanical
Garden, in Bogor city, not very far from our school in Bekasi. We hit the road
on 07.15 AM and arrived at the biggest research garden in the country on 08.30
AM. We are very lucky, considering the traffic was smooth enough with no
traffic jam.
The purpose of this field trip, as well as the theme, is
“Exploring Nature with Science Education.” In Bogor Botanical Garden, we don’t
only see amazing view, such as beautiful flowers and trees, but we can also
learn the application of some school subjects, like Biology, Physics, and even
Mathematics! So, while visiting three objects in Bogor Botanical Garden, the
students also had to find the relations with those science subjects.
Our first stop was the Zoological Museum. It was an old
Museum, opened since the Dutch colony, around 1890s. The museum collected many
replica and real (dead) animals in Indonesia from time to time. We can see a
giant marlin fish that was found in North Jakarta Bay on 1933. Nowadays, we
even rarely see fish in the water so dark and sadly, full of garbage.
One of the student was amazed by the bones of a giant
blue whale that was exhibited in the back of the museum. I was also amazed, not
by the giant whale, but by the fact why the boy was so amazed, because I found
these things are very common in a museum. It turned out that the boy rarely
visits museum and this was his first time visiting Zoological Museum. Wow, this
field study really could open ones mind and experience out of expectation!
In the Zoological Museum, students filled their worksheet
which we gave them earlier and found the answers by exploring the museum and
interviewing the guide. They also made a video report for English project.
Our next stop was the Ecodome. It was a new building in
the Bogor Botanical Garden. The Dutch Government gave it to our government last
year, to enrich the collection in the garden. The building was very unique with
a half round shape and a roof full of plants. Inside the building, there were
tables made by woods with tree shapes. The atmosphere was very comfortable, so
the students can continue exploring and fill their worksheet there. The Physics
worksheet contains some questions about the shape and function of Ecodome.
Our last stop was the Herbarium. It was like a
laboratory, with many samples of plants. The students wrote down each specimen
they could find and explored the real plants outside the Herbarium. It was also
a very clean and sterilized place, so we have to take off our shoes there. We
went to the Orchidium garden next by the Herbarium after that to see some
beautiful orchid blooms.
Before we go back to school, we had a picnic by the lake.
We ate our lunch by sitting on the grass just beside the lake with a beautiful
fountain. How rare do we have a picnic in a green scenery outdoor nowadays? I
bet (almost) never! The students seemed to enjoy it and some of them run around
the field full of grass. They say it was a sprint competition. But I guess they
were just enjoying the place and the moment.
So this was a perfect chance to enjoy nature while we’re
on it. Enjoy and exploring it with science education, just like our purpose at
the first place.
Anitya Wahdini