Venue of the trip：Mangrove Ecosystem in Tantou Village and Hengyun Power Plant and Enterprise

Date of the trip： February 24, 2024

Participants：AP Environmental Science Students (Y11 and Y12) and some Y9 and Y10 students

Teachers/ Officers in charge：Joel Benavidez

Admin：Grace Chen, Doris Dong, Weber Wei

Summary of the activity：

The mangrove ecosystem visit

The whole day’s activity started with a visit to the Mangrove ecosystem in Tantou village in Nansha district.

Guided by the expert from Jinan University, Professor Hu discussed the various species of the mangroves found in the area.

Students were oriented how to identify one species of mangrove from another and how to spot invasive species within the area.

Students were also taughthow productivity and ecological health of the mangrove ecosystem is monitored and managed.

The following are some of the other activities that the students were engaged in:

1. Invertebrate and vertebrate species survey – students actively roam around an area of the forest to look for other organisms that inhabit the ecosystem.

2. Soil quality survey – the students were tasked with analyzing the physical properties of the soil.

3. Perform water quality test – the students took water samples from multiple and definitive locations and ran some qualitative test which included the dissolved oxygen concentration, nitrogen concentrations, pH, and ammonia concentration. These tests allowed the students to have a clear understanding of how vegetation could impact the quality of water.

4. Community based lesson – the students were oriented of the importance of the mangrove ecosystem to the nearby community and Guangzhou as a whole.

The power plant visit

Later in the afternoon, the students visited the MG power plant which is run and managed by the Hengyun Enterprises.

The students met and convened with the officials and experts of the power plant.

During the short meeting and orientation, the students were able to ask relevant questions about energy generation and resources management done by the company.

After the short briefing, the students then went on to visit the plant’s facilities like the steam turbine, power station and gas station.

Evaluation of the field trip

After the trip, the students were given copies of the evaluation form. The following are the results of the evaluation.

Some of the students’ Key take aways from the whole activity ：