Okayama Joto High School comes to Rimba Ilmu!
by Benjamin Ong
Japan's Oyakama Joto High School sent a delegation of nearly 100 students and a handful of teachers to UM for a short exchange programme, and UMCares played host. Benjamin and Fitrah of the RIMBA team brought 27 students and two teachers to Rimba Ilmu for a short two hour visit.
At the Rimba Ilmu exhibition hall, the delegation was especially enamoured by the papier mache model of the Rafflesia, the closest they would come to seeing the real thing (left). Hopefully, some of them will be inspired to return one day to hunt down the actual flower in our forests! We then brought them to the herbarium, and briefed them on plant preservation techniques (right).
Before departing for the garden walk, we provided each of the students and teachers with a herbarium kit, meticulously put together by Vanessa of RIMBA, to get them started on collecting, preserving and preparing their own collections.
Prior to entering the garden, we introduced some of the animals they may encounter in Rimba Ilmu, using photographs from the Wildlife of UM exhibition (left). The students' reactions to some of the invertebrates were priceless (right).
For most of the students, it was their first time out of Japan - and right into the tropical forest (left)! Our abbreviated route started at the Palm Link, winding through the Activity Centre, Citrus and Citroids collection (right) and Central Wetlands, before concluding at the Medicinal Plants garden.
The students had a hands-on encounter with some of the tropical species in the garden, ducking around cycads (left) and peeling the 'skin' off the Syzygium gratum tree .
Group photo outside Rimba Ilmu. The students were accompanied by mathematics teacher, Mr Taka (white shirt, front row, far left) and PE teacher, Mr Otani (dark blue shirt, last row).
All photographs by Benjamin Ong.
Benjamin Ong is a lay ecologist, educator and now coordinator of UMCares' The RIMBA Project. Passionate about Malaysia's cultural and natural heritage, he is on a mission to photograph UM's grand trees using film, which he believes to be the best medium able to render their majesty. He can be reached at benjamin@dimanajua.com.
