Nature Journaling and Drawing Programme on Campus Series 1

Nature journaling, a practice of drawing or writing in response to nature helps us to connect more closely with nature, and results in the creation of our own unique nature journal. The practice calms our mind and increases our attention to detail and appreciation of beauty. It improves our recognition of different animal and plant species, and our understanding of where and how they live. A nature journal allows us to capture the moment (a sunset, a view, a critter, a flower, a fungus…), and recall observations which would otherwise be forgotten. The entries in our journal can give us inspiration for other creative projects and can be used to compile species sightings and other more scientific observations that are of great value to citizen science projects.

 
Nature Journaling and Drawing Programme on Campus Series 1 organised by the Department of Student Affairs Sungai Long Campus as an attempt to introduce nature journaling to our students and staff. It is conducted on 4 weekends of Saturday afternoonon 22 and 29 July, and 5 and 19 August 2023 by Mr Chow Keng Fatt in providing an extremely effective and engaging way to teach observation, curiosity, creative thinking about nature with a combination of words, sketches/drawings, and numbers in a nature journal. Journaling deepens our observations, thinking, and memory with words, pictures, and numbers that lead us to think in different ways and make a more complete record of what we see. Doing this also helps us form stronger memories and leads us to a close, careful observation and improved memory. When we draw, we must look again and again at the least familiar parts of a subject, paying careful attention to structures and shapes. This leads us to notice biologically significant details and features we could easily miss in a written account alone. Using numbers helps us make different kinds of observations and reveals significant pattern. This process of quantifying observations will lead us to questions we wouldn’t have thought to ask.

 
The programme kicked start with the introduction of nature journaling, its skills, benefits, challenges, and kits. 4 participants (2 students and 2 staff) were introduced with focused attention and process over product as they learned to slow down and make discoveries with 3 languages (words, pictures, numbers). Mr Chow explained that all these skills are learnable by everyone with regular practices. In addition, participants were taught of metadata (data behind data) that provides context and background of our nature journal pages. It includes date, time, location, GPS location, air temperature, weather, and wind speed that can be found on our smartphone. Participants were given opportunity to begin their journaling at the entrance of South Lobby, KA Block.

 
The next 3 classes focuses on visual recording of observation (I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of) with writings, sketching, numbers, as well as curiosity. This is called as pencil miles as we put our experiences on pages without limits. All the 4 participants were brought to the SL2 public park and the entrance of North Lobby, KA Block as part of the outdoor sessions. They were amazed of the trees and plants they noticed that they put thoughts on their pages. Throughout the programmes, they were allowed to bilingual (Mandarin or English) as they feel comfortable. As nature journaling does not pursue pretty pictures, they sketched without fear. Tis is heartening that participants the whole process of experience without any judging and comparing as we all learned with each other. With error-free, participants are able to express their thoughts throughout their pages. They even managed remember their childhood memories and how they miss it (e.g. lying on the grass field and looking at the sky), noticed different kind of life that share their space on a tree , and saw other tree grown up on a wall of one of university buildings with its roots cracked into the structures with anxious feeling. It is noticeably that they tried their best to bring out their thoughts on their pages and share among us. The nature journaling and drawing programme ended with a simple gathering at Burger King. It was a really simple yet full of fun and enjoyment session on 19 August 2023 despite having that late afternoon. Throughout the programme, the participants enjoyed the learning process (indoor and outdoor) and create a rich, priceless experiences that they ever had.

 
Throughout the programme, participants are able to express their experience and encounter in nature environment with awe and wonder in their journal entries. It is our hope that they are inspired of becoming a desirous observers of wildness especially in their own backyards and surroundings, hence encourage them to safeguard our biodiversity. With regular and deliberate parctices, they will be able to develop their sense of place through learning skills of scientific, creativity, critical, and analytical thinking. The will also be able to share and encourage eagerness and wanting to know more of their backyards and surroundings.