On 23 November, Alexandra Hospital played host to professional naturist and photographer Gerry Ellis, also the founder of GLOBIO. Globio is a US-based, international non-profit organisation dedicated to giving children an online platform to connect with one another globally through sharing the conservation message.

Gerry’s talk, entitled “Journeys Beyond the World Wide Web”, was jointly organised by ASKnLearn Pte Ltd, SingaporeLearning.com and Alexandra Hospital, and attended by primary school teachers and pupils from Queenstown Primary School, Nanhua Primary School, River Valley Primary School, St Anthony's Primary School, Wellington Primary School and Zhonghua Primary School. The talk centred on Gerry’s passion in passing on the message of wildlife conservation to children.

He went on to thrill the pupils with tales, photographs and video footages of the giant pandas he visited at China’s Wolong Nature Reserve. His reason for showcasing this project was to share how some pupils from two primary schools in Wolong got involved with panda conservation by making observations of the animals at the nature reserve, making drawings and then putting up reports on Globio’s website. Gerry invited the pupils in his audience to take on a similar project in Singapore and put up their reports on Globio for children around the world to view and learn from.

Gerry believes that pictures are a great way for children to learn. This is how he designed Globio – learning through seeing and doing. He went on to introduce the features of Glossopedia, an interactive virtual library found in Globio’s website. Features of Glossopedia: Engages children in exploring subjects such as nature, wildlife, culture, science, geography, mapping, etc. It provides detailed information about various plant and animal species all over the world, such as their habitats, life cycle, anatomy and status (if they are endangered). Featured articles – articles on environmental issues and other topics of interest like conservation, Earth Day, etc. Beautiful photographs and video footages of animals and plants which enable children to experience almost first-hand the lives of the creatures in our world. Detailed maps showing the range of the habitats of various flora and fauna.

The hour long talk ended with a treat for pupils – a pleasant tour of the lush green grounds of Alexandra Hospital, conducted by Rosalind Tan, a senior staff member of Alexandra hospital. Rosalind guided the pupils through the Butterfly Trail, a garden of flowering plants playing hosts to about 100 species of free-roaming butterflies. She is one of the key persons involved in conceptualizing this trail. Pupils also toured the Medicinal Garden, containing 70 species of plants that “heal, thrill and kill” as well as the Fragrant Garden with its 50 species of plants that perfume the air with their unique scents. The final stop for the tour was the special public toilets with the same green, “open-air” concept borrowed from the Singapore Zoological Garden’s much-acclaimed public toilets.

Click here for more information on Globio!