THINKING OUT OF THE BOX WITH SIGNUM FIDEI | LUMEN 25
- and there were many . From helping dementia patients to reducing climate impact , the list of issues seemed endless . Thankfully , our teachers helped us by evaluating our projects and streamlining our goals . With their guidance , we were able to focus and identify the issue we wanted to solve .
Our group decided on the dire need to raise climate awareness as we realised many people are unable to grasp the importance of conserving energy and just wanted to pay less for their electrical bills . By coming up with visualisations that changed according to their own energy consumption , we thought that this would be able to encourage people to be more conscious about their usage of energy .
The SF Innovathon is another in-house design thinking challenge with a Character and Citizenship Education ( CCE ) element and it was a really unique experience where we were challenged with a surprise theme to incorporate a notion of inclusivity or harmony in the community . As each group was to come up with a new idea , we saw many innovative ideas . Our group chose to include community goals as a way to bring people together to work towards the common goal of reducing their impact on the environment while another project revolved around the growing number of Alzheimer ’ s patients . The patients facing dementia often find themselves being over-reliant on their caregivers , causing them to spiral into phases of darker emotions and feelings . The over-dependence on caregivers to provide basic care to these patients is a pressing concern . Our group attempted to look into reducing the dependence on caregivers , allowing patients to live almost independently through an app that provides a range of features from location tracking to instant messaging .
Year 4 SF was more self-directed , with planning and organising left mostly to students . In groups , students reached out to different non-profit organisations that have goals of sustainability and innovation , such as Habitat for Humanity , Chopvalue , ParkRoyal and NEA . After deciding on an organisation to work with , students proposed a problem statement , that is , an issue to be tackled . Students then worked towards coming up with prototypes to solve their problems , constantly arranging meetings with their mentors to update them on their progress and discuss issues . The students ’ independence and initiative was evident throughout the process , with students having to organise their meetings and timelines . Of course , despite the success of the project for all
Year 3 Innovathon ( working on prototype )
Year 3 Learning Journey to SUTD
groups , there were a few bumps along the way . While sending out the initial emails seeking to work with the different organisations , many groups found that responses were few and far between . As such , it took certain groups some time before they could find an organisation willing to work with them . However , even after securing an organisation to work with , it took some organisations a while to reply . These challenges were however overcome by switching modes of communication , for example , from email
Technoprenuer Award Year 3 to Whatsapp . In addition , throughout the project , students were also able to learn the proper meeting etiquette , which was extremely important as they were representing the school . The meetings were an excellent opportunity to do so , as they had to present themselves with decorum . Overall , SF was a success , and all groups managed to come up with solutions that were relevant , and some even had their ideas implemented !