Boomerang Box Jr. is Welcomed in Singapore Boomerang Box Jr. arrived in Singapore to great fanfare. It visited 7-12 year old students at Temasek Primary School and Jin Tai Primary School.

In these photos, students get a good look at the Jr. Box while they learn about world trade!

Click on any photo to view a larger version.

The container is part of the NOL Group's community reach project via its container transportation subsidiary, APL. The aim is to teach children around the world about international trade, geography and different cultures in a fun way that combines IT and interactivity.

The Boomerang Box Junior is a spin-off from the original Boomerang Box, a 40-foot commercial shipping container which school children can track on its global journeys via an interactive Web site (http://www.apl.com/html/ boomerang_box.html). The website highlights where the Boomerang Box is at any given time.

Covered in art produced by students and pictures of APL's Boomerang Box mascot, the surfing eagle 'Boomer', the converted container contains a world map which tracks where the larger Boomerang Box has been and what commodities it has carried on a colourful question-and-answer panel.

Students are shown a video featuring the animated Boomer who explains the basic concepts of trade by following a computer-game toy as it leaves the manufacturing site in one country and moves to a retail location in another.

Students can learn interesting facts about the countries Boomerang Box visits and its cultures as well as set up email or pen-pal exchanges with children around the world through the website.

APL's Boomerang Box Junior project is in response to repeated requests from teachers and students for the main Boomerang Box to visit them.

"The big box is in actual world trade service and just couldn't make enough extended stops so we designed Junior," explained Robert Sappio, APL Senior Vice President -Global Sales and Marketing.

"Singapore's history is strongly linked to trade and global transportation. APL's parent is the Singapore-based NOL Group and we are very pleased to be able to bring Boomerang Box Junior to Singapore. Our aim is to highlight to students the way that trade links countries and help them to understand how global transportation happens," he said.

The Boomerang Box project was started in 1997 by the Port of Seattle and APL's Americas Region headquarters, based in Oakland. Since its inception, Boomerang Box has traveled continuously by containership to points in Asia, Europe and the U.S. This project has been featured in the New York Times and National Geographic and the website was featured as a Yahoo! pick-of-the-day.

APL provides customers around the world with container transportation and logistics services through a network combining high-quality intermodal operations with state-of-the-art information technology. APL is the container and logistics arm of Neptune Orient Lines Limited, a global transportation and logistics company engaged in shipping and related business.

For more information, please contact Paul Wilke at (65) 371-5311.