Local biodiversity and dinosaurs go to Geylang East Public Library!

A month after our successful exhibition at the Yishun Pond Rejuventated, the Raffles Museum Toddycats has once again set up another exhibition at the Geylang East Public Library on 10 Dec 2011. It was really great to see experienced and new Toddycats sharing stories and working together to make this event a memorable one! Everyone was enthusiastic, all smiles and ready to welcome the visitors when the library opened at 10am.

Wild Carnivores at the Library - Toddycats volunteers all ready to start the show!

This time, the Raffles Museum of Biodiversity Research kindly allowed the showcase of a real dinosaur vertebra from 150 million years ago! There were even paper crafts of dinosaurs and prehistoric animals from XinHeritage that helped children and adults to visualise the entire dinosaur skeleton.

Papercraft dinosaurs and dinosaurs books surrounded a real diplodocus vertebra fossil

Dinosaurs always get people of all ages excited; we used this opportunity to spread the excitement of the arrival of the three whole diplodocid skeletons (Apollo, Prince and Twinky), which will be the centerpiece of the new Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum in 2014.

Happy volunteers with the dinosaur bones (Photo by Boh Zuze)

Reading all about the Diplodocus dinosaurs and how they live

Even the young ones were clearly thrilled by the sight of dinosaur papercrafts!

Besides the dinosaur bone showcase, there were many other specimens (eg. skulls, skeletons and many of our iconic local biodiversity specimens) on display! We also had a station with interactive games to play and for kids to understand various ecological concepts.

Toddycat Brandon Ang introduced visitors to our iconic dugong, small clawed otter and mangroves animals which fascinated many visitors!

Toddycat Joycelin uses a library book on snakes to educate the kids! They even got to view the snake skeleton prepared by Toddycat veteran Kok Oi Yee!

Toddycat Eunice Soh explains and shows to a family the position and function of the keel in the skeleton and how it helps the pigeon to be a good flier.

An elated kid who finally beats Toddycat Marcus Tay in getting a higher dice roll at snakes & ladders

Throughout the day, there were also talks scheduled, with prizes to be won if one gave the correct answers to the questions asked by the presenter –

• 11am – Marcus Chua on “The Secrets of Ubin’s wildlife”
• 12pm – Amanda Tan Hui-Ning on “The Adventures of the Red Jungle Fowl”
• 2pm – Meryl Theng on “Singapore’s River Otters”.
• 3pm – Me (Weiting Xu) on “Stalking the Civets of Siglap”
• 4pm – Ong Say Lin on “The return of the Wild Pig”
• 5pm – Fung Tze Kwan on “The fruit-loving Common Palm Civet”

Most of the talks were well-attended and many kids listened attentively in hopes of winning the pretty jigsaw puzzle prize which features our local biodiversity.

Marcus' talk introduced many people to the wildlife of Pulau Ubin!

Meryl captivates the attention of the crowd with stories and images of the smooth-coated otters in Singapore waters.

A happy kid gives the right answer and gets a prize from SayLin!

At the end of the day,we reached out to an estimated total of 130 individuals (adults and children). Although this number was not high, each individual had personalised attention from the guides and many of them stayed for 20 – 3o minutes,  thoroughly combing through each of the stations to learn more about our local biodiversity. Even some of the kids, whose curiosities were piqued, borrowed related books! We also received public feedback to bring the same exhibition to other public libraries around Singapore! This is very encouraging for Toddycats’ first attempt at a public library, and we really hope that we can reach out to other local branches.

The event would not have been a success without the help of Junius Soh, Janice Lee & Ong Saylin to help with transportation, thanks to Kelvin Lim (RMBR) for helping us with the specimens preparation, Hazelina Yeo and staff of RMBR for helping us with the dinosaur bone showcase! Besides transportation, we want to express gratitude to the photographers, Foo Fang Chee, Boh Zuze and Kenneth Pinto for capturing the priceless interaction between the guides and people. Lastly, the volunteers who helped to made a difference, many of you took time and effort to prepare for this event and all your hard work is greatly appreciated – Jocelyne Sze, Cheong Shu Min, Nandini Srinivasan, Lim Huan Hock, Marcus Chua, Ong Saylin, Meryl Theng, Tan Hui-Ning Amanda, Eunice Soh, Yang Yi Yong, Joycelin Teo, Lee Benjamin, Lee Kai Xin, Letchumi d/o Mani, Marcus Tay, Vivien Lee, Kong Ching Wan, Wong Jinfa, Foo Maosheng, Pang Wei Han, Kok Oi Yee, Ivan Kwan, Lim Kim Yong, Brandon Ang, Deanna Lye, David Tan, Jeremy Ng, Wu Bokai & Zestin Soh.

Our guides shared stories and helped connect the kids and adults with nature during their stay at the library exhibition. A positive atmosphere with lots of laughter and smiles was established, and many left with a twinkle in their eyes and joy on their faces. Hopefully, the specimens and the dinosaur vertebra will help to inspire our next generation of biologists (and paleontologists)!