Reflections

Choo Hong Wei

This year's project's day competition has been a very different one for me. In all four years of secondary school life, this is the first time I have actually entered the Finals. Given that this is also our last year at the high school side, I think that it is rather encouraging as we have been given a sort of confirmation and encouragement regarding our project work. We have all given plenty for this project and although we might need some time to start on work, when we do it we treat it very seriously and complete what we have to do within a short span of time.

Our group consists of really close friends as we wanted to make the last project's day we have meaningful and fun for us. A couple of us had had bad experiences with groupmates who were either un-cooperative or uncontactable; hence, we wanted to make sure that we would not push the blame to any one person as a group and can still function as a single unit. For the prelims, we though about a couple of ideas but found the tour idea the most interesting and engaging for us. It would force us to cooperate more as compared to the typical style of splitting up the work, which actually helped us to remind each other of the deadlines and not procrastinate too much. Basically, for the prelims, our group thought of the concept pretty easily and were clear in the direction we wanted to go in. After affirmation from the judges regarding our project in the prelims, we got down to doing actual work for our project.

Although we started quite late for the semis due to term 2 tests, we met up a couple of times during the holidays with our mentor and were able to complete most of the things needed. One limitation was the printing of booklets in time for a tour with the lower secondary students, hence we compromised and conducted one with our peers to gather honest feedback. However, we did up the remaining resources for our project which was basically the finalised booklet and the website containing our online tour. We approached the semis date nervously as a couple of our stuff were not finalised, but we managed to complete everything a day before the semis and entered with confidence. Fortunately for us, we passed the semi finals and are now at the finals.

Overall, I think that our group has worked rather well together and whenever work is allocated to a couple of members to work on together we will never say no. Each of us are responsible enough to complete our given task and I think this is in part due to the friendship shared between us. The journey has given us an opportunity to work closer with each other and I believe all of us has enjoyed the journey so far. Hopefully, we would get past the finals and continue striving for the grand finals.

Huang Cheng Hao

Our project has been a fruitful and enjoyable one so far. Since project work emphasizes on teamwork, I have learned how to cooperate with my teammates and work together to bring our project to greater heights. There are times when we had to give up some of life's pleasures to come together and work on the project, such as coming back to school during the holidays to meet up. However, I had to balance our project work, our bulky school work and my CCA commitments which put me under a substantial amount of pressure. Nevertheless, I feel that it turned out to be beneficial as it benefitted my time management and pressure-handling capabilities. All in all, it groomed me into a better person.

Before the prelims, we had come up with a number of project topics to propose to our mentors, however, many were rejected and eventually, we decided to take on our current project, Green Trail at Hwa Chong. We were very eager and enthusiastic about this project as it seemed like one with great potential, which in turn motivated us to do our best. I was tasked with the responsibility of making the Prezi website for our presentation and I was rather confident that I could do a good job, which eventually, turned out pretty well indeed. We worked hard to make sure we get pass prelims and we were rewarded with a successful pass.

After the prelims, we were on our way to the semi-finals. This period of time was very tense as we motivated and determined to get into the finals, but at the same time, we were very worried that we might fail, especially since most of the group members and I have never progressed to the finals before. Hence, we worked hard to produce what we promised and came up with our products. I put in a lot of effort to ensure that my part of the project was done, which was the website. I spent quite a substantial amount of time on the webpage creator to get a good feel of how to make a good website and in turn, make a good one for the group. We met up with our mentor numerous times to update him on our progress and receive some suggestions from him to better our project. Our hard work has paid off when we received news of our project score, and I was indeed very glad and excited about what was to come, the Finals.

My team has worked hard so far, finishing most of what we have promised to do in our project before the semi-finals. Hence, what was left to do was just some simple touch ups on our project. I refined the website and Prezi in hope of making it more presentable and impressive to the judges. 

Undeniably, the project journey from the start of the year till now, has been very enjoyable for me as I managed to spend time with my group mates, fostering stronger friendships as we work as one to better our project. In addition, we managed to taste the fruits of our labour as our hard work has paid off and we managed to produce a rather good project, which is a great success in my opinion. Though there we ups and downs during journey up to the finals, I had a great time working on this project. NOt only has the project benefitted me as a person, I learned much more about the school through the project, which I have not been exposed to in my 4 years in school.

Samuel Tan

Initially, it was not easy to think of a project topic which the entire group was interested in, as well as to choose a project that was feasible to conduct as well as relevant to us as secondary 4 students. However, we eventually decided on doing a project on the green initiatives in HCI, in the form of a tour package for lower secondary students. After all, having been studying in HCI for 4 years and being familiar with the school campus we ought to share this information with new students in HCI, and even possibly branching out to promote the initiatives to visitors in the school. By aiming to be a package that not only covered the green initiatives but also allow participants to learn more about the school and perhaps bring home new fun facts and information they had previously not known, this was a way of sharing our knowledge with others. I found this to be a very meaningful project as it was more than a regular assignment for the grades but also a way to represent HCI to newcomers to the school.

Through the process of gathering information and visiting the various places around the school, I was surprised to find out that I had not known about what had been going on in some parts of the school, especially a few of the startup ideas which were only recently implemented and not really known to students. Of course, not only was this a sure sign about the utility of our project, but at the same time also highlighted to me that such interesting information should be shared with the rest of the school. As such, we spent much time during the holidays heading back to school gathering information essential to create a tour package which covered as much information as possible. During this period of time, we were allowed into areas such as the aquaponics lab which would otherwise be not open to students, and through these visits I personally learnt much more about what the school has done in support of the green movement.

While making the booklet for the tour package, I have learnt more about developing resources, especially in terms of designing and formatting and how hard a job it is. It definitely helped me appreciate the work and effort put into creating a simple booklet which we take for granted so often. Furthermore, the information we had to gather such as photos, proposals and plans for green initiatives obviously taught me more about gathering and organizing information efficiently, despite the past 3 years of projects I have experienced. This was especially important when we had to weigh the feasibility of using various sites in our package, as well as when we had to plan as to how we could organize the information to present a interesting and engaging tour package. All in all, this project has undoubtedly helped me learn much more about the development of resources and much more about HCI.

Reynold Yap

It was pure bliss for my groupmates and I when we found out that we had passed the Semi-Finals with an exceptional result and were in the Finals. The feeling of bliss was also accompanied by a sense of accomplishment as it is my whole group's first ever pass into the Finals. With the renewed drive, my groupmates and I continued our push for the Finals and hopefully into the finals. preparations have been made for the project to go smoothly, and 18 August would be the day where we showcase our final outcome.

With the limited time each of us had to meet up and discuss the project, we each played our individual roles as well as we could. The roles expertly given out by our group leader Choo Hong Wei. We would meet up regularly online to discuss and put together our products and findings so that we could present a clear and organised final product at each judging. It was a refreshing and enjoyable experience as we are close friends and working together has not been a problem and could only get better. It was much better as compared to our past experiences in other groups that have had uncooperative and lazy members within the group that would dodge work even when assigned.

I feel that this Green Trail@Hwachong project has been an eventful experience for me and definitely my groupmates too. I have to say that this project idea is original in its own way as it is not only a guided tour around Hwa Chong, but it also encompasses the various green initiatives present within the school. This is a good way for us to express our pride for our school and advertise to as many individuals about our school's brave venture into the green movement. This is also a new experience as almost all our information has to be told to us from our Project's Day Mentor, especially statistics such as cost and setting up dates. Thus, the acquisition of information had to have a different approach and was slower as compared to the usual 'googling' that other projects could have easily done. But the slower method of information acquisition also ensured that our project was an original and fresh one. We have developed our bonds as friends as well as learnt to work together as efficiently as possible. Passing the Prelims let us heave a sigh of relief as we had our suspicions that our radical idea may not be approve by the judges.

With the support from our mentor and the hard work we put into our project, we were glad to have qualified from the Semi-Finals with exceptional results and into the Finals. This gave us added motivation to strive even harder and further together as a group to achieve the ultimate goal of getting into the Grand Finals. A thought so foreign to us when we had first embarked upon our journey together. We have completed our final stages of execution of our project and are waiting to showcase our reaping to the judges. We have had an enjoyable time working together and I know for sure that future projects would be relatively smooth if i were ever given the chance to work with theses same people in the future.

Overall, this has been a great experience for me and I am glad that I have enjoyed my last year participating in the Project Day Competition. Each assignment given out was accepted willingly and happily, each member never shunning at the thought of contributing to our project. this project has truly let us bond together as groupmates and friends.