Every Hougean Innovates
Sec 1 Innovation Cohort Programme and Young Innovators’ Fair
The Sec 1 Innovation Cohort Programme is a 4-day programme, conducted by our Character Coaches for their Secondary One classes, which culminates into the Young Innovators’ Fair.
This programme aims to develop the iterative design thinking process in our Secondary One students based on a common theme - ‘Improving our School Experience’, through the FIDS Innovation Approach.
During the four days, students collaborate to empathise with the issues in the school environment, brainstorm for ideas collectively, analyse the value-addedness and impact of their ideas, before deciding on a sustainable solution.
At the Young Innovators’ Fair, students showcase and present their best innovative ideas across the whole cohort to learn from each other. Thereafter, they are recognised with the ‘HS Young Innovator Award’.
InnoVIAtion
In 2019, efforts were being made to strengthen the ‘Values-in-Action’ (VIA) model so as to allow students to focus on their thinking processes and make meaningful contributions to the community. With this in mind, the FIDS Innovation Approach was infused into VIA and hence the ‘InnoVIAtion’ programme was launched.
Through this programme, the VIA leaders participated in an experiential training using the InnoVIAtion package, before they begin planning, implementing and reviewing their VIA projects with their CCA members.
Students work in groups to understand issues in the community via online research, empathy interviews with organisations and key stakeholders, and environmental observations. They move on to brainstorm on human-centred solutions and present their proposals to their partner organisations. Thereafter, they carry out their VIA projects before finally reflecting on their VIA journey.
e-Overseas InnoVIAtion
Due to Covid Pandemic in 2019, many school programmes were affected, including Internationlisation. As such, we expanded the scope of our current programme, InnoVIAtion to e-overseas InnoVIAtion, collaborating with Thailand, India, Philippines, China, Vietnam and Indonesia.
Grand Finale involving all Asia counterparts presenting their innovative solutions to solve global issues
Through e-overseas InnoVIAtion, each partnering country presented on one key national issue, in alignment to the UN goals. Through rigorous design thinking discussions with their global partners, the students cross-pollinated their ideas, offered alternative perspectives, and sharpened proposed solutions to edify each other with the best ideas customised for their own national issues.
Hougeans collaborating with Asia counterparts
An example would be our Singaporean students who identified water scarcity as a national issue. Inspired by our Filipino counterparts’ sharing about their own schools’ water filtration system, our students devised their own water filtration prototype to filter and reuse the rainwater collected to wash the storage room.
A second example would be the students from India who shared that they do not have pen refills readily available for them and they find that the single-used pens contribute significantly to the plastic wastage in their school. By hearing from our Singaporean students, they considered the use of a plant-able pen, as well as the possibility of a pen refill dispenser that allows them to reuse their pens.
Finalised projects from our Asia counterparts
STEM
Our InnoChamps took part in STEM Playground 2023, organised by Science Centre and James Dyson Foundation, where the challenge is to construct a bridge, in a team of 4, with 50 satay sticks, to hold 1 kg of mass. The InnoChamps conducted their research, communicated their ideas, and collaborated to make and test their prototypes.