CHAMPIONING PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS IN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

– REPUBLIC POLYTECHNIC LEADS THE WAY WITH ITS SCIENTIFIC THINKING & INNOVATION PROGRAMMES

30 JULY - SINGAPORE – In its latest move to encourage creative thinking as well as innovative problem-solving processes, Republic Polytechnic is championing two programmes targeted at secondary school students, encouraging them to identify daily ‘problems’ which they face and then to systemically work out innovative or scientific processes on how to solve them. The Scientific Thinking (STP) and Innovation Programmes (IP) are initiatives to promote creativity in idea-making, a process which is guided by facilitators from Republic Polytechnic towards producing functioning prototypes with potential commercial implications. The IP and STP culminates this Friday with a project presentation at the Civil Service College at 4pm.

Commented the man behind the Innovation Programme who is also overseeing the STP, Dr WAM Alwis, Director of Academic Affairs, Republic Polytechnic, “The aim of STP and IP is very simple. School children nowadays are very good at solving mathematical equations or science puzzles, but give them a day-to-day problem to figure out and they get stumped. What we want to achieve is to get them to apply the principles and theories that they’ve learnt in class in a real way.”

He added, “We want to start gearing their thought processes towards finding solutions to issues and concerns they encounter everyday. This is something not taught in school and it is a very important skill to develop if we want more entrepreneurial-minded and ‘out of the box’ thinkers around in society.”

While the two programmes are closely tied together in terms of implementation and structure, their aims differ. The IP seeks the application of acquired knowledge to produce innovative gadgets to improve day-to-day living. Part of the objectives of the IP programme is to finetune and develop prototypes for innovation shows and outstanding entries can be even considered for submission to the Tan Kah Kee invention awards.

On the other hand, the STP focuses more on training in the process of conducting scientific projects as well as practising scientific thinking skills. Organised by the School of Applied Science, the STP consisted of a series of workshops for the secondary school teachers who’d signed up, as well as talks for both students and teachers, and project clinics with RP advisors. The fully integrated programme took all participants on a step-by-step process of learning the scientific method towards analysing problems, as well as a framework within which to nurture ongoing innovative exchanges between Republic Polytechnic and the participating secondary schools.

Dr Terence Chong, Deputy Director, School of Applied Science remarked, “We’ve thoroughly enjoyed going through the whole range of entries submitted. This collection of research ideas shows that the curiosity of secondary school students is very much alive. This natural curiosity is what the STP hopes to tap to nurture the interest in science and technology.”

For the STP, a total of 14 student teams from 10 secondary schools submitted entries for judging in July. Out of the entries, three student teams from Tanglin Secondary School, Commonwealth Secondary School and River Valley High School have been selected to present their findings during the closing ceremony of the STP-IP programme on 30 July at the Civil Service College, Institute of Policy Administration & Management. An annex of their project summaries is appended.

Prof Low Teck Seng, Principal & CEO, Republic Polytechnic, is the officiating guest-of-honour for the closing ceremony and will be handing out the certificates as well as tokens to all the participating schools in the two programmes.

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For more information, pls contact:

Lim Le-Anne

Office of Corporate Communications

DID: 6510 3021

Email: lim_le_anne@rp.edu.sg