Bringing Out the Maker in a Student
As part of SIT's Punggol community outreach initiative, SIT has been collaborating with Greendale Secondary School to develop an eight-week long YouthMaker Programme. The programme aims to engage and provide youth with the know-how to design and build prototypes of their designs at SIT's makerspace, SkillsCraft, located at Punggol 21 Community Club.
Student participants from Greendale Secondary School receiving their YouthMaker certificates from SIT .
Since the roll-out of its inaugural workshop in April 2018, SkillsCraft has been a popular gathering place for Punggol residents to get creative by turning their ideas into reality, through tinkering and building tools that fulfil their specific needs.
Learning 3D modelling at SkillsCraft.
Leveraging on SkillsCraft, the YouthMaker Programme is designed for aspiring youths who see themselves as change-makers with a sense of community purpose. In February 2019, sixteen students from Greendale Secondary School attended the pilot programme that comprised workshops on 3D printing to design thinking. Conducted by SIT faculty and mentored by SIT undergraduates, the secondary school students learnt new skills that enabled them to redesign everyday items.
A brainstorming session during a design-thinking workshop.
The same batch of students were able to pitch the results of their learnings to the 7th International 3D Printing Competition organised by the Singapore Centre for 3D Printing (SC3DP).
One student team redesigned the ordinary stationery holder by transforming it into a unique puzzle. The result – the Shuffle Puzzle – a functional and decorative three-tier modular penholder consisting of varying sizes. Its modular-based feature allows the user to mix and match various combinations of compartments.
The plain exterior allows users to personalise the holder by drawing and colouring or painting over it.
"Based on our casual observation, there's a lack of customisable stationery holders in the market. So we designed a combination of sizes for the compartments that can contain loose items like paper clips and staple bullets, while the medium and large compartments could hold a stapler and pens. The height of each holder is designed to prevent pens or scissors from falling over," said Secondary Four student participant, Odelia Chua.
"Even though our submissions did not win, the applied learning journey gave us an opportunity to explore and further our interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in a fun and engaging way beyond classroom settings. It allows me to work with different people who I don't usually work with," said Secondary Four student participant, Javier Lee.
The Shuffle Puzzle designed by students.