Feature

Camping by CE Students
by the Gomti River

Nauroz Farhan Nur

EPARTMENT of Civil Engineering (CE) of University of Asia Pacific (UAP) recently arranged a camping at Burichong in Comilla. The CE students set up their camp at Balikhara village near Gomti River. The tour was held from the 19th of November to the 21st of November. The students passed two memorable days of their life during the camp. Prof. Dr. Md. Tarek Uddin, Head of the Department of CE visited the camp venue and shared some moments with the students. The students did everything from preparing food to cleaning the dishes. Setting up the tent was the most challenging work in camping. Late at night, a barbeque party added an unusual taste of food to the menu. The students stayed outside their tent in the night by chitchatting and doing music around the campfire. The students who faced a lot of problems solved their troubles hand in hand and gained an experience on how to work together as well as to solve unforeseen problems. It also helped them to forget the monotony of urban life.

(2nd Semester, Dept. of CE)

Few hours with vermicompost

Tanha Shamree

IF someone had asked me to spend few hours with vermicompost, my reaction would be "yuck!" But my thoughts changed after the 14th of November. On that day, British Council gave us an opportunity to know about this nasty but environment-friendly thing. They sent an invitation to our school offering students from 10-15 years of age to visit British Council to get some idea about vermicompost. The programme was conducted by CMES (Centre for Mass Education in Science) under their Basic School System (BSS) programme.

We the student of Universal Tutorial School reached British Council at 2:45 pm. The Auditorium was large and so was the projection. Two other schools also participated in the programme. Dr. Ibrahim showed us the whole process with the help of a projector along with the aid of a practical experiment.

Vermicompost is the improved compost obtained through actions of earthworm on organic matter. CMES was the first in Bangladesh to work with the research and development of vermicompost and now started producing and marketing this cheap but more effective fertilizer. Recent experiment carried out by CMES shows that vermicompost has higher rate of nutrient than processed cow dung. To facilitate and popularize it they are working through Basic School System (BSS).

I used to feel icky about worms. The lecture by Dr. Ibrahim not only lessened my fear but also made me feel like touching it and I did touch it. After the study tour, we learned that, some disgusting creatures could really be helpful to our environment as well as to us.