1st Collaboration, 2014
INTRODUCTION
In Raffles Institution’s Lower Secondary Science Year 2 Raffles Programme, the Waste Management module was conducted in 2012 and 2014.
It was a 3-week curricular coursework that involved students doing research work, and culminated in Research Group presentations on the treatments of various types of wastes:
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biological wastes (including hospitals’ medical wastes / sewage)
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chemical wastes (including food/industries' wastes)
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electronic / manufacturing wastes (including heavy metal factories)
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nuclear wastes
Japan is renowned for being a highly efficient and environmentally-friendly country, with her people truly committed to keeping their homes, communities and country clean. They maintain their high standards of being environmentally-friendly even as tourists when they visit other countries. That is how truly educated they are. In Singapore, very often does one get to read in the local newspapers about how civic-conscious the Japanese are, able to maintain a clean and green country and why we should emulate them.
Following a successful 2012 outreach programme to share our Year 2 Waste Management students’ projects with Year 1 students within RI and outside RI (with Primary 5 pupils at Ai Tong School), the Lower Secondary Science Unit continued seeking opportunities for Year 2 students to have outreach exposure which could train them in effective teamwork & project management and help improve their presentation skills when presenting projects to different target audiences. Hence, the idea of learning from, and sharing with their counterparts in the Singapore Japanese Secondary School (SJSS) was hatched.
Raffles Institution’s Head of Science 1 Mr Joseph Chong and Assistant Department Head of Lower Secondary Science Mrs Chan Lian Ching, approached SJSS in Oct 2013, to suggest a collaboration project on the sharing of Lower Secondary Waste Management Projects between students of both schools.
They were warmly welcomed by the Principal of SJSS, Mr Tatsuya Saikei and the then-International Education Coordinator Ms Sayuri Onaka. RI’s first meeting with SJSS was a great success and it paved the way for not only the 2014 Collaboration Project, but future ones as well.
