More Reflections ...

When we are able to collaborate with IMH, we were very relieved. After that everyone has discussed and finalise thing quickly. It was a fruitful event for us as it was our first time there. We are able to interact with the special people there and at the same time, our team bonding grew even stronger even though we came from different courses. I felt that through out this learning journey, it has been quite a successful one, as i can see my team has learn lots of stuff, apply it and benefitted from it. Eg, collaboration, creativity, confident, etc..

~ student from BIT

The journey of this I&E module thus far has been a rather unexpected one. I expected to do something simple, something less complicated then my core modules. At this point, it's complexity has been comparable to my core modules. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, for the experience has been rather enlightening. From learning about licensing in Singapore, to making the necessary arrangements venue-wise for a movie screening. At the planning stage of this project, we projected big plans for the event. We planned for the zoo to bring in a python to create that "ooomph" for our event. Students would be able get their photo taken with the python for a small fee. Proceeds would then go to the Zoo. Through this, we could kill two birds with one stone. Raise awareness for our event, and help the zoo financially. However, due to numerous setbacks, namely Ngee Ann's rules about animals, and the Zoo's unwillingness, the plan failed to come through. Nevertheless, we decided to go through with our movie screening with the aim of changing perspectives of people about animal conservation. It doesn't have to be a boring, lecture-like subject. That is what we intend to change. We want to combine fun and entertainment with raising awareness. The screening of animal related movies enable us to point out examples of our points. Interesting facts and trivia about the animals will further facilitate us in achieving our goals. So far, my group has been wonderful. Work is delegated and split accordingly and fairly. Each of us does his/her part and we get things done, in my humble opinion, efficiently. I am happy with the way things are going and I am positive the upcoming event will be a smooth-sailing one.

~ student from MCM

I suggested getting picnic mats to make the room more comfortable for a movie screening, but none of us owned any, and to buy them would be expensive and only narrow down our profit margin, so we decided not to buy them, but Alekx managed to borrow her brother's army mats that managed to create the same comfortable effect. I also placed the seats around the screen in a way that made it seem more cozy, so that people coming to watch our presentation and movie would feel more at ease and have a more pleasant experience with us. We realised a week before our activity that the room hadn't been booked yet even though we thought it had been! So that's when we had to seek help from our mentor to make sure the room was booked for us with enough time to prepare before and to clean up after. Also, our mentor helped us by providing drinks for our event. The main problem that I encountered was that people weren't very willing to go to our event, even though it was for charity. They were all busy with their own plans and all. I learnt that it pays to get to them before they make plans with other people! Another problem we encountered was that our second movie, 'March of the Penguins', was only available on DVD in French and Chinese, when most of the people who'd bought our tickets were English-speaking. This got our feathers ruffled for a while because we were all like, "OH NO!" haha but we learnt to be quick-thinking and to find ways to get around the problem. We decided to screen 'Ice Age 2' instead since a lot of people haven't watched it yet, and it is still in line with our aim of raising awareness of endangered animals. During the activity, I was afraid that nobody would turn up, because a lot of people bought our tickets so the proceeds would go to charity, but weren't going to show up for the screening itself, so I tried to get as many friends as possible to go. I also was worried that nobody would want our popcorn at $2 per packet, so we decided to sell our popcorn with a packet drink at $2, which sounded much more worth it. We also went around during the movie to offer the popcorn deal to viewers. I also feared that people might get bored during our presentation, so I tried to make it more interesting by including little-known, quirky facts about the endangered animal I was supposed to present on. For example, that the Atlantic Green Turtle hatches with a black top shell and white bottom shell, but its black top shell changes colour as it ages. Also, its incubation temperature determines the gender of the turtle. What I loved about our group was that we worked well together without any conflicts. My groupmates were all compromising and willing to listen to each other's opinions and suggestions. They were efficient in carrying out their tasks once they were given, which I found comforting because then there'd be less panicking at the last minute. I'm proud of what we achieved too. The people who came to our movie screenings liked the movies shown and did learn more about endangered animals. Some of our friends also commented on our poster and mentioned how they liked it, so it felt good that our efforts weren't wasted. I guess what we could have done better was to start selling tickets earlier. We did not get as many people as we had hoped to come to our event because they had already made plans prior to our asking them to come, so I think that we could have had a bigger audience if we had printed out our tickets and started selling them earlier. Also, maybe instead of a presentation on endangered animals, we could've played a game with the audience, like, 'Guess the endangered animal', where you list some characteristics of the animal and have the audience guess which animal it is. I think it would've been more interactive and the audience would have enjoyed it more, but it's too bad I didn't think of it sooner!

~ another student from MCM