APCEL Sponsored ELSA Botanic Gardens Trail Walks Team To Workshop With Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum

The ELSA Botanic Gardens Trail Walks Team underwent a series of 3 training sessions with the museum staff in the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum (LKCNHM), on 4, 6 and 19 January.

The first session on 4 January was held at LKCNHM and involved introducing the Team to the basics of running a nature trail. The Team as brought to a classroom to learn the fundamentals of leading a trail walk. Matters like answering questions, crowd control and managing safety were comprehensively covered by the museum staff.  This was done through a prepared presentation, and the museum staff engaged the content and answered the Team’s questions competently. After the classroom session, the Team had a practical hands-on session in the museum, and were given thirty minutes to find a specimen and conduct a five-minute presentation on it. While admiring the exhibitions, the Team was given advice by the museum members on how to better structure the presentations, and possible points or features that could be pointed out to better engage the audience. Team members presented a specimen to each other, and subsequently received personalised feedback on audience engagement and content. The key point to be taken away from that session was the understanding of basic presentation skills – including crafting content and capturing the attention of the audience.

On 6 January, the Team was brought to the Botanic Garden Learning Forest and attended a professional nature trail by the museum staff as participants. The Team was given trail material and guides on the various wildlife in the forest beforehand for reference during the conduct. The trail was extremely informative, delving into matters of history and biology, while bringing the Team around different sections of Botanic Gardens. The museum staff were keen-eyed and pointed out various fauna and flora that Team Members had difficulty noticing. Furthermore, while giving the trail, the staff meticulously went through their rationale behind their action and methods, imparting the skills behind conducting a good nature trail. Consequently, the Team was able to learn from their live demonstrations and explanations. The Team’s homework was then to recreate the trail on their own, with each person placed in-charge of a 20-minute section. Ultimately, the Team gained insight on how to properly conduct hikes on their own. This included, learning how to structure a trail session, learning how to spot wildlife, and learning how to observe proper crowd control, among other key learning points.

On 19 January, the Team underwent the last training session. This time, the Team was placed in-charge of organising their own guiding session. The Team returned back to the Learning Forest, having prepared their scripts. Team members took turns to give their individual presentations. Each museum staff acted as a mock trail participant, posing the Team with difficult questions to test the Team. From there, the Team obtained the opportunity to conduct the trail while under stress. When the session was over, the Team received personalised feedback from the museum staff. Feedback in greater detail was also emailed to the Team.

After the three sessions, the Team has obtained both theoretical and practical experience – having learnt from the museum staff and having received salient feedback. Therefore, the Team has been well-equipped by the workshop to conduct a nature trail. The Team would like to express its sincerest gratitude to APCEL for sponsoring the workshops – this would not have been possible without their unwavering support.

Photos by Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum