Farewell!

Hey guys,

Yesterday was my last day working at NP.

Next week, I'll be working at PebbleRoad as a consultant.

I'll certainly miss you guys. *blows nose*

Anyway, do keep in touch. Here are my contact details:
email: colemanyee at gmail dot com
mobile: 96227481
msn: misteryee at hotmail dot com
blog: http://metacole.wordpress.com

Remember - make meaning :)

coleman.

Some More Reflections ...

suggested that we should have a little talk during our lecture to expose other students to the blog as well as to open up the tips to save the environment. Since we were doing a blog we faced the problem of setting up an email account that could direct the emails straight to the blog itself thus we seeked the expertise of Cole. I feared that not many ppl would bother going to the blog but the outcome was a bit better then i thought it would be. What i liked about the group was that even though we were different in so many ways we managed to get our ideas across and mount an event together.

~ student from FMS

[Afternote: Here's their blog http://envrocks.blogspot.com/]

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

Reflections ...

I&E is an enriching module in which I learnt many things in the process of organizing activities (although writing assessment is really a tedious and annoying task for me). In the process of idea creation, even though our group had suggested many rough plans, there were hardly any plans considered workable under time constraint due to its complexity, as well as up to lecturer’s standard because some are not that innovative as required. This was overcome by another round of brain storming from more realistic view. I leant to think further, deeper when justifying the feasibility of each idea. Our mentor taught us how to facilitate a group meeting of idea formation by asking appropriate questions, having a clear and structured mind, recombining existing ideas and thinking from different perspectives. Hopefully, i could grasp the skills of facilitating. I am more towards an introvert who do not like to talk to strangers because I fear of rejection and I am not very confident about what I would like to say. To overcome this, I have to change my mind set and be more confident in myself and try to approach unfamiliar people. I like the atmosphere of my group which is not pressurizing and more relaxing and optimistic. If I have a chance to organize an activity with other people again, I would take initiative, be more active and well-prepared.

~ Student from CBE

I have realised that this module was actually more interesting than i had first assumed. It didnt turn out to be such a drag. Although i still feel that this modules requires too much effort and time for a pass/fail IS module. Some of the problems we encountered included not having sufficient support for our event, which resulted in us deciding to scrap the event. This taught me that sometimes its better to just cut your losses and end that particular foray rather than, thinking too much time has gone into this and so, continuing. Another problem we faced was the surprise of finding many other volunteers in the Wards in our actual event, making it hard for us to organise the patients to start our chinese chess competition. We ended up switching to bowling as the equipment was already on hand and the patients were supposedly more interested in it. This taught me not to give up or lose steam over setbacks, as there is usually an alternative or a way to over come them. Initially each time our plan ended up changing I would feel "sian", and lose enthusiasm over it, and this could be felt throughout the group. What I like about my group is that they are all pretty laid back people. I myself am quite laid back and i don't really stress or panic too much about many things. If I had a group that was overly enthused about the module I would probably have not have worked well with them. My group didn't panic at any stage even when we changed plans very late into the module. Thinking back I think i should have clarified more details about the event with The Achievers. I was under the assumption that on the 13th of Jan it would only be us at the wards, and not a whole bunch of other volunteers. I'm still not certain whether it was my own assumption or whether my contact with The Achievers made it seem so by selectively leaving out certain information.

~ student from ACC