International winter school among various activities at the beginning of a new year

Dear all…

I hope all of us have new spirit, new resolution and new vision for the better life in the future. In this my first report of January 2014, I will share my activities. It begin on 31st December 2013 - 1st January 2014 when I use my time in Sapporo Mosque to self introspection, shared story of wisdom in related to the human life and the important thing is pray with the hope in this year, I and my family also all of human in the world have better health and enjoyment.

On 2-5 January 2014, I use almost all of my holiday time to develop the report of “Global Warming Assessment” course. This is one of three PARE Program core subject. Then I begin to write the report of “Sustainable Science VI” course which is one of my five optional subject. Besides that, I also had to prepare to attend “Sustainability Science VII” on the second week of this month. However, I still be able to chat with other Indonesian friend from same dormitory including cooking and shopping together.  

On 8-10 January 2014, I was very excited to join “Sustainability Science VII” course. This course is registered in Graduate School of Environmental Science as International Winter School 2013: Changing Land System- Training Course of Ecological Monitoring, Advance Modeling and Integration. I feel fortunate to join this course because the material of this course is much related to my research.

On the first day of the lecture, there was interesting thing. Usually we have to introduce our self but this time the organizing committee has unique idea. As "ice breaking" all of participants must introduce their friend who sit in the nearest to them. Therefore I use 10-minutes which given by committee to talk with my friend with the subject of talk around the data of name, place of born and living, reason to join this course and also hobby. In that day, many interesting topics offered by lecturer, such as: theories and the modeling of tree species coexistence in forests by Kohyama sensei; Global warming and elevation range shift in a subtropical forest by I Fang sensei and Evaluating tree diversity and ecosystem functions in Asian forests using databases and meta-analyses by Isihara sensei. At the end of the program, all of students must introduce their current research or future research plan using power points. I get the opportunity to deliver a presentation in second.

On the second day, we had chance to visited Tomakomai Experimental Forest (TOEF). Since 8.30 am, all participants already standby in the bus in front of Hokudai conference hall. The trip took 1.5 hours with once stop and around 10 am we already arrive in TOEF. In the lecture room Hiura sensei (TOEF Director) gave brief explanation about TOEF and its facilities. His talk was about natural history, research and education of TOEF. 

After that, we continue the program with field course to give deeper understanding about plant ecology and soil bio-geochemistry. At that time, Isihara sensei guide us to measure the DBH and girth of tree and its relation to biomass stock. While Shibata and Kobayashi sensei teach us about how to measure soil temperature and its relation to soil structure. One of the important lesson that we can took was deeper soil have warmer temperature and more soft compare than the soil in surface. Soil structure in Tomakomai is much influenced by ash from Mount karuma eruption more than two hundred years ago. At the end of the program, Fukuzawa sensei gave us the lesson about PH and EC (electric conductivity) which contained in the stream water.

Before back to Sapporo, all of participants were invited by organizing committee to visit Forest Museum. The objective is all of participants know more understanding about biodiversity of different types of trees including the type of species which came from natural forest, secondary forest and conifer. Beside that we also can saw many some statues of animals in the forest habitat, such as bear, tiger, dog, wolf, deer and various of birds.

On the last day of the course, all of participants must have discussion in 5 group with each group consist of 5-6 people. I joint in first group with the topic of plant dynamics. The committee gave us one hour to develop research question as well as research design. There were fruitful discussion, because all of member the group gave their opinion. At the end of program, I had chosen as Rapporteur to deliver 5 minutes talk and convey our group conclusion to all of participants.

On 11th January, I also some Indonesian friends were visit parent’s apartment of Minami in Shinsapporo. I was very excited to attend to this party. Because I could not came to the other party last month, so this is a good opportunity for me to receive her invitation. This party is called as Sushi Party. In there, we had chance to make sushi and convey expectation  in Japanese traditional style.

Thanks for read my post….

Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a reply