Earth Craft

Earth Craft (n): Craft work that is environmentally friendly.


Actually, I just made that up. I'm constantly amazed at the level of talent that I come across in our programmes in school (I sure don't remember being anywhere as creative as these dudes and dudettes when I was their age not too many moons ago.).


But it is, little gems hidden in Northbrooks Secondary School. Enough said. I'll let their work do the talking.

It's still too early to tell, but I bet there's going to be a lot of flowers and bees in this one.

The clay guru shares a funny moment with her students.

Whoever can guess what this is get a prize from me :)

I think this look a lot like me!

And this is Roy from my favorite online comic brought to life. I didn't know you could use key like that.

And They All Wear Pink Bags!

I just couldn't find a picture of the schools bags, I asked the girls in my class, 'Why is it that everyone's bags are pink? You see Barbie, Cars, Shrek, and they're all in pink!'

Their reply was just, 'Because we are girls what!' My apologies then, I stand rebuked.

The Primary 5 cohort of CHIJ Lady of the Nativity went through the InnoWorks™ at red dot museum programme to generate and think of new and fun ways to teach maths.

I haven't gone back to the school to take a look at their end products yet, I can't wait for it.

The class that I took was 5 Hope, supposedly the smartest class in the cohort and well, it showed. Despite being obvious smart alecks, they came up with really innovative ways to teach math.

The girls were real darlings (maybe because it was only 2 days, instead of 200 days as a teacher), and again, the visit to red dot design museum proved successful and was really good in expanding mindsets and revisiting mental boundaries.

I remember seeing a team of the girls entering the Bukit View Design Competition (because I snucked a peek at the Bukit View Design Competition entries, but that's another post for another time) but I couldn't be sure, but all the best Team Nativity! We're rooting for ya!

Recycling's The Way to Go

To make our InnoWorks™ programme at for the Secondary One cohort at Dunearn Secondary more interesting, we decided to up the usual challenge to the students more interesting.
Design, pitch, plan the materials and then redeem for the materials that you need to make your product.


And since each team only had limited amount of points and there were limited resources, it was most interesting to see how they would decide which materials to use.


'Eh, let's use the colgate box.'

'Don't want la! The cardboard so flimsy, plastic bottle better.'

'No plastic will not be good for our product, so hard to decorate it.'

'Then I do lor, come pass to me.'

'I still think colgate box is better.'


Once again, the level of creativity and the quality of their ideas and works never fail to stump me. It's these little surprises that I really look forward to with each programme. I'll post about the great ideas by the Secondary Two cohort sometime later this week when I have the time.


Cheeras, happy holidays to all you students out there and have lots of fun! (But don't forget to revise ok? Heh)

Back to Bukit View

Last year, around this time, we did a InnoWorks™ for Bukit View Secondary for their sec 2s.

This year, we were invited back to do the same programme both their Secondary 1 and 2 cohorts.

As as usual, it's always a riot (I mean it in a good way) for trainers because it's honestly is great fun!

Bukit View Secondary has always been well-known in its cluster to be very innovation-oriented. And this is reflected in the quality of their students and how quick they are to come up with great suggestions and improvements for the school environment.

As usual, the red dot design museum is a catalyst and breeding ground for wild ideas. All the best to the students at Bukit View (do they call you Bukit Viewers?), Youth Enterprise Academy would certainly hope to be back to see you all again!

The Importance of Networking

During 1 of the 4 E³ sessions for National Junior College's I&E Club, Dean was going over the fundamentals of networking.

He asked the students how much they knew about networking, and they all thought that they knew quite a bit about the subject. I mean, c'mon, isn't it as simple as meeting new people and making friends? They reasoned.

We decided to put them to the test and did a mock of an actual networking session. It turns out that there was quite a bit about networking that they don't understand. That getting to know someone professionally isn't quite the same ball game as socialising and making friends.

We told them that there were a lot of things they were doing that could be improved on, like how proper handshakes, or how to walk, talk and speak properly. What kind of topic to talk about when meeting someone new.

And then we ran the session again. And this time, both Dean and I were dumbfounded at how much they have improved. In a matter of an hour, the students have stopped being students and were networking, exchanging contacts, getting what they want out of the networking sessions as if they've done it their entire lives.

After the workshop, Dean and I had this conversation.

'Well done, Dean. They improved alot.'

'Yeah, I didn't expect them to be this good after a quick session.'

'These kids are different, it's not like you don't know it already. They absorb what you teach and fling it back at you with equal finesse and they make it look easy while they're doing that.'

Isn't it remarkable?

The Zealots

This isn't the first time we've worked with St Stephen's School, but when Dean and I went down last week to do a little sharing on entrepreneurship during assembly, I must say that the boys were REALLY enthusiastic.

Especially if there were prizes at stakes. Which is a GOOD thing. Maximum participation if I may add. I had a really hard time deciding which hand shot up first everytime Dean asks a question.

The first step to being an entrepreneur is to be proactive, no entrepreneur made his fortune by just waiting for things to happen. It could be that they're young, but looking at these kids, if they keep stepping up like that, they'll be the future landscape-shapers. You'll see.

Also, another point to add, it may not be obvious here. But notice how ALL their school bags are blue?

So does that mean that for an all-girls school, you'll see a lot of pink bags?