​Bali Beach Clean-up for competence, character and civic-mindedness

Plastic is quickly becoming the most widespread marine pollutant on shorelines worldwide. During the recent ASE Introductory Field Course (ES1006) in Bali, the students participated in a beach clean-up event organised with support from @theindigov, @plastic save and, @gekodive. A total of 227 kg of plastic was collected on an undeveloped black sand beach. The Coastal Ecology section of the course provides a primer to anthropogenic impacts on coastal ecosystems. The students saw first-hand the impact, different types and amount of plastic trash accumulating. They learned about sources, breakdown and transfer through the food chain, in the process gaining competence, character and civic-mindedness, 3 of the 5 C's of NTU graduates. Congratulations to the winning two-person teams who each collected 38kg of plastic in one hour! Thanks to @gekodive for donating two PADI open water courses to the winners.

ES1006 Introductory Field Course is the first field course in ASE's undergraduate programs, it runs for three weeks after the end of the second semester of the first year. It provides our first year students with the opportunity to gain fieldwork experience and apply the concepts they have learnt in the classroom to different tropical environments. This project based course is divided into three modules, representing the three specialisations offered in the BSc in Environmental Earth System Sciences programme: geosciences, ecology & ecosystems, and societies & earth system. Teamwork is a central part of the course and the field setting provides a great opportunity to get to know your fellow students better.

Link to a video of the clean-up on Twitter here

Link to course web page here