The Combined Science Project is an approximately 6-month endeavour wherein Grade 11 students from different sciences join forces to develop an investigation to tackle an ecological/social problem. What I envisioned to be a light stroll in the park turned out to be a crucible that reforged the very steel of my scientific being. This CSP, a sobering experience, pushed us, students, to great lengths as we vied to achieve an investigation whilst having to juggle internal assessments and studies along with dedicating significant mental power to the ideation and development of our end results. In my instance, our creation of a probe to investigate the parameters of life in a lake was initially a task that I reckoned would be fairly simple: little did I know of what trials and tribulations would be laid out before my team and me.
But as Sun Tzu once said in The Art of War: “Opportunities multiply as they are seized”. Bearing cognisance of that quote, my group and I got together to tackle the fundamentals of the CSP, and in no time, we had effectively honed our time management and organisational skills to harness scientifically tempered creativity into a tangible probe, “The Lakemarang 6700”. This singular instance of one group amongst various others yielded not only a device that had strong potential to be utilised to change the environment for good, but also helped foster sustainable mindsets. As we toiled on our magnum opus, we reflected upon our use of materials, balancing the opportunity cost of missing out on other commitments for this project and how our actions could now legitimately span above and beyond the plane of advocacy.
The CSP offers students not only a sandbox to explore scientific potential and a foundation to cultivate eco-centric thinking, but also helps students develop and integrate problem-solving from an interdisciplinary lens. This hands-on, collaborative journey helped develop strong teamwork skills, strengthen esprit de corps, and encouraged leadership and thinking out of the box. This assignment was tantamount to what lay in wait for us in the real world once we stepped into it.