February 21, 2019
February 2019: High Achievers hosted a group of students from Summerhill Shanghai as part of their 7D6N study tour where they had the unique opportunity to have a first hand experience our local tertiary education.
The highlight of the trip will undoubtedly be the visit to the state-of-the-art Infocomm facility where they had a chance to try out basic video-editing and coding.
The students sat down for an introductory briefing at the start of the day that covered Singapore's illustrious history, the nations focus on continued urban planning design and our focus on incorporating the STEM framework into our education system. Though early in the morning, the participants were quick to perk up given the many sensory sites and sounds of Singapore's latest ICT training facility.
The students were kept involved through the use of Mandarin and attractive presentation slides. Their enthusiasm and knowledge of important Singapore facts were on show as they were extremely animated when answering the lecturer’s questions!
Following the briefing, the students commenced on their campus tour where they were exposed to its common sights and sounds: from students moving from lectures to tutorials to loud chatters from pockets of students engaging in their small group discussions.
They were accompanied by local tertiary student facilitators throughout the day, acting as not only gracious hosts but also seniors to the Chinese students, giving them first-hand experience on what student life is like here in Singapore.
Stomachs were rumbling after the tour so students patronized the campus food court for their lunch. Here, they were given the responsibility of handling their own lunch money and the independence of deciding what they wanted to eat. Not new to cashless payments, the Chinese students got to experience Singapore's e-payment gateways.
Thereafter, the students attended the coding workshop and tried their hands at Micro Bit. Although foreign at first, the students took quickly to the functions and exercises as the microcontroller provided tactile experiences and tangible rewards when coded correctly. Through the workshop, they achieved simple coding tasks and the key functions of the Micro bit.
There was a surprise treat from the organizers during their break! In celebration of Chinese New Year, the organizers wanted to spread the joy and give the students an idea of how Singaporeans celebrate this festival. They learned how a mutual and common festive occasion is celebrated differently from country to country. The students were introduced to local delicacies such as Ang-Ku-Kuih; an oval-shaped pastry with sweet filling, Ondeh-Ondeh; sweet potato coated with grated coconut, and pineapple tarts; a butter skin pastry with fresh pineapple fillings.
After the scrumptious snack time, students engaged their creative juices through video-editing using Adobe Spark: a free and accessible graphic design application that would allow them to access it at any place and time. The students also had a wealth of content at their disposal, with footage and photos documented throughout the trip by their instructors being used for the exercise.
During the exercise, the students were also introduced to 3D printing where prototypes were printed in real time on industrial grade machinery. The demonstration really showed the students that possibilities are endless with the advancement of science and technology and how they should embrace such new technologies.
That concludes their one-day local tertiary immersion program! They were then presented with Certificates for their participation in the Smart Campus Experiential Learning Workshop by the lecturer.
We hope that the students had a better understanding of what is student life like in schools and how the curriculum allows them to push ideas to their limits rather than being bound by the impossible.
Story covered by:
Chen Chong Jun and Lim Zhi Cheng
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