Grade 11-IB Students Dive Into Real-World Research Through the Ciliwung

Let us forget dusty science museum tours. In this special case, Grade 11-IB students of Sampoerna Academy L’Avenue traded their clipboards for a paddle and embarked on an adventure through the vast Ciliwung river. Introducing the Collaborative Science Project (CSP), where they collectively work together in teams to better understand how all science subjects function together as a whole.

Each team proposes a research question about the river based on any science subject each team member picks; For example, one can analyze the chemical composition of the water for chemistry whereas one can focus on the fish population for ESS.

For this year’s CSP, SA L’Avenue has collaborated with the OceanKita organization as a partner, a company highly focused on eliminating pollution and waste in Indonesia’s bodies of water by collecting and processing it. 
Grade 11-IB students were split into 5 groups, each having their own raft where they skillfully synergized in rowing their boats within the fast streams! In fact, students there were even encouraged to play around and splash each other with water, allowing them to enjoy an otherwise possibly tedious project! 

Following the 2 hours of intense rafting, the 11-IB students came to a stop at a riverside where they were encouraged to meticulously collect as much trash and waste as they could. Of course, the students had to collect samples and data for their teams’ research question; Beyond that, the students were still allowed to roam free and enjoy the scenery; Some were encouraged to float down the flowing river too!

Returning to the starting point with their boats, OceanKita members helped weigh the trash collected by each team, ranging from 10 kilograms to even 30 kilograms! Each pollution ranged from unused clothing, plastic bags, leather equipment and much more which could be processed or recycled later on! It almost gave our students an unofficial competition!

The CSP of Grade 11-IB allows students to appreciate each science subject and their role in understanding the world around them, and even helping us recognize the importance of processing and recycling our waste.