Playing with dirt and soil

Breakfast today was a spread, and there were sunny side-ups!!! :) We had a pretty entertaining session with Dr Simon and his family over the meal, where I shared with him some interesting facts about Singapore. I couldn't help but fix my vision on his adorable 3-year old son for I really love toddlers and young children. Right after breakfast, our group headed to collect soil samples for our experiment. It was quite a challenge identifying suitable topsoil due to the torrential rain the day before, which practically caused most of the soil to turn soggy. When we finally found a patch that looked in good shape, we started to heave our shovels and get the ball rolling. Even then, it wasn't an easy process. We had to remove small rocks and vegetation to make our soil as pure as possible and patience was key. In the process, we uncovered many earthworms from the ground. In the past semester, I have learnt many facts about annelids and earthworms, and I was intrigued by their wriggling movements which I know are possible due to their longitudinal and circular muscles working in concert with each other. I picked one up and immediately got my fingers sticky and slimy. Prior knowledge taught me that earthworms have ventral nerve cords, and when I pricked them, they started to curl up, possibly an act of defence upon sensation of stimuli. It was an interesting session applying what I learnt in theory on the field.

We managed to rush back in time for the next activity. Once again, we got to take a ride in the golf cart, which took us a distance away from where we stayed. It was a guided tour of a region in the forest which had experienced mudslides and landslides due to a major earthquake which hit Taiwan in 1999. The guide was overly generous in his sharing of ideas and knowledge. He mentioned that over the past 2 days, 400 mm of rain hit Taiwan as a result of the typhoon! Just when I thought we would have to hike back the way we came, a golf cart arrived to pick us up after the tour.

After lunch, we proceeded with our experimental set-up. I wish to thank Judy for helping to provide the necessary equipment and apparatus. It was a dirty affair all afternoon, and we inevitably messed up the lecture room when we used a hairdryer to dry our soil. Furthermore, there were complications to our experiment when we found that the force of water from the bottle was insufficient to even push the soil down the tray. At that moment, a downpour erupted, which gave us an idea - we should might as well just place our set-up out in the rain. There would then be no need for simulation of actual conditions. Hopefully the rain continues tomorrow to facilitate accurate collection of results.