We did another anti-bacterial experiment on herbplants and I chose Cermai, a very sour fruit. And guess what? The experiment turned out to be positive! There was a very clear zone around the extract which signifies that it DID kill the bacteria which was put into the same petri dish as the Cermai extract.

The next day, my partner Hannah and I repeated the experiment with the same extract but with different concentrations of alcohol (i.e. 70% alcoholic extract, 90% alcoholic extract, pure and boiled extracts), to display the results to the parents and students during our school’s Open House Day on 4th November. On the day itself, we gave away handmade soap to the parents. It was so fun making our own soap!

I really enjoy the Biology research and experiments, as we get to learn a lot of new things that we do not get to during our normal lessons.

- by Helen Toh, Sec 3F, Kranji Secondary School

The Clean & Green Carnival at the Republic Polytechnic on Sunday, 5th November, was an exciting experience! Many teachers came to support us at the booth. Ali and myself were the mascots for my school. We were the…

WALKING KERANJI TREES!!! haha…

As we were walking around, the guests told us that we were cute (as in our outfits). What a funny experience it was! And OH! I didn’t expect to meet the Prime Minister. I got to shake his hand too! Now I can’t wash my hands. Haha…just joking!

Overall, everyone (both students and teachers) played their parts in making the booth beautiful and explained details about the Keranji tree to the guests. I really enjoyed myself throughout the event. I hope that Kranji Secondary School will have more of such activities again.

And thanks to Madam Normala, Ms Karen Wong and Ms Vanitha, who made it possible for our school to get first place for the “Community In Bloom” Award. And thanks to everyone who came!

- by Siti Salmah, Sec 3G, Kranji Secondary School

As a tour guide of the Green Haven, I had gained a lot of knowledge during the tours that we had conducted to the people who came to visit our garden. The Heavenly Herbs garden is a garden where there are herbs and spices grown and they are good for our health. I had also conducted many tours such as the soft launch of the garden on 27th May 2006, tours for principals from Wuhan (China), tours for students and staff - “the touch, taste and tell experience”, tours for the “Community In Bloom” project judging and tours for the Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations.

The Heavenly Herbs garden also consists of many types of plants that you might have never come across before. There are plants such as the lantana, mock strawberry, mock orange, curry leaves, laksa leaves, cat’s whiskers, basil and many more others…

During the tours, I had gained knowledge through the teachers-in-charge, such as Madam Normala and Miss Vanitha. They had been very patient to us while trying to explain to us the uses and effects of the plants. They had also given us a lot of encouragement when we were having the Clean& Green Week exhibition on 5th November. We were allvery excited and nervous at the same time, as the Guest-of-Honor was the Prime Minister, Mr Lee Hsien Loong. We had to explain to himabout the Green Haven and this was a very rare opportunity for me.We werevery nervous, but the teachers kept encouraging all of us, telling us not to be so nervous and reassuring us to believe in ourselves as we can do it.

In the end, our efforts paid off! We gave it our best shot and overcame our fear. It was definitely both the teachers’ and pupils’ efforts that we had won the top prize in the “Community In Bloom” competition.

It was truly a great experience and also a rare opportunity for us to show our gardening efforts.

- by Marilyn Chia, Sec 1A, Kranji Secondary School

I was so fascinated by plants especially after we went through the topic of the world of plants in our English lesson. This plant that is pink and green in colour in our eco-garden amazes me. I thought to myself - aren’t most plants supposed to be green? Pink is such a funny colour for a plant.

I have learnt that plants will use green chlorophyll to undergo photosynthesis. I was so curious about how this green and pink plant could undergo photosynthesis and found out that this plant is called “ono nea“. Actually, the explanation for it is that there is masked chlorophyll underneath the pink parts of the plant, and the chlorophyll can still allow the plant to undergo photosynthesis.

It was really an interesting discovery for me. Hope it was for you too!

- by George, Pri 2D, Catholic High Primary School