Reflections

Here is the individual and group reflections for our group

Ng Yu Peng :
 As this was my first year in Hwa Chong, I had no idea about the Projects Competition. However, through the briefings, I began to have a faint idea of what it was about. Then, I saw that one of the categories was Future Trends, which I learnt was basically future problem solving. Having done a similar project in primary school, I decided to do this category.

Now, first things first, I had to find a group. Many people had already formed their groups, so I had to search among those who were not yet in groups. Fortunately, this was not too difficult. Quickly, in the morning, I asked Enoch who I knew did not have a group yet, and asked if we could be in the same group. He agreed and we asked around, quickly forming a group with Ethan and Yoong Kwan. Next, we had to find a mentor. At first, we did not know who we should get as a mentor. Then, the first mentor we tried to approach was extremely popular so we could not get him. However, during one of the project briefings, we found that our History teacher was one of the available mentors, so we asked her and she agreed.

Then, we got the scenario and started analysing it. At first, it was a little hard for us to grasp the phrasing of the problems. Also, research was another problem. Some problems which we came up with, we could not find research for. At least, coming up with problems was not exactly hard, since there were many obvious loopholes in the scenario given. We quickly came up with a Fundamental Problem and were not stressed much about the Prelims. However, I have to admit that I hardly did anything for Prelims and most was done by our group leader, Enoch. 

Then came the presentation day. We all walked into the room, nervous and all, but at least we were not the first group to present. I only started memorising what I had to say in the morning, so I was not exactly at ease. However, when it came to our turn to present, I surprisingly was alright when I spoke, although a little shaky. Then, when our presentation was over, the judges told us that our presentation was not too bad. Hearing this, i felt extremely comforted, but was more glad that it was over. One week later (was it?) the results came out and to our joy, we made it pass the prelims! However, although we could relax for a few months, we still had to do our semi-finals eventually.

So, we had to come up with 5 potential solutions to our fundamental problem for our semi-finals, as well as rate them based on 5 criteria and decide on the best solution. Before the June holidays, we came up with a few solutions, which seemed easy, but then we ran out of ideas. Then, we decided to work on the semi-finals during the June holidays. However, we did not spend our time well. We did nearly nothing, if not nothing, during the holidays, and had to rush everything after them. Even worse, we realised that our Fundamental Problem was terrible as it had more than one key verb phrase in it. We only realised this 2 days before the semi-finals, so we scrapped all our work done before and started afresh. Obviously, it is never good to start a project a few days before the deadline. Had we started earlier, we could have been much less stressed out. We then stayed up on the day before the semi-finals, to 2 a.m. on the day itself, before sleeping. But at least we finished and I did my part.

On the day of our semi-finals, we were all extremely nervous. As the seconds and minutes passed, and groups finished their presentations, we were closer and closer to our turn. Then, when it was our turn, we just wished each other good luck and went onto the stage. Unfortunately, we met technical difficulties and the projector would not display what was on our computer screen. The next group went first and we used their laptop for our presentation as they were our classmates. Although our verbal presentation was still alright, the judges pointed out many problems in our content. They said that some of our solutions were "inhumane". Hearing this, my confidence of getting into the semi-finals was diminished and we went back to our seats with the laptop.

Then, one week later, the results were out. Unfortunately for us, we did not make it into the finals. However, we at least got a decent mark for the semi-finals, so our work was not completely wasted. 

Through this project, our group experienced troubles, and overcame them, but ultimately was not good enough. Had we started on our semi-finals presentation earlier, we might have been able to make it into the finals. Not only did our time management cause us our chance to finals, but also caused great stress. We should also have been more collaborative, meeting up more often with each other and with our mentor, instead of doing our stuff individually. Also, I should have played my part during the Prelims. Also I would like to thank my groupmates for the continuous encouragement!  Overall, this was a great experience and will be very valuable for my next 3 years in Hwa Chong!

Ho Yoong Kwan :

Independent studies is something I have never experienced before. It was the first time I had to do a project work for more than 5 months, and it seriously required lots of patience,
Firstly, the first hurdle I had to overcome was finding teammates. At the start of the year, I was not familiar with my classmates and classroom surroundings and environment, thus I was afraid that I would not be able to find teammates. It was really challenging as everyone I had asked already had teammates and I began to feel left out. This incident has taught me one thing: the importance of being sociable. Fortunately, my classmate, Enoch, asked me to join his team. I was elated as I wouldn't be having problems finding teammates again. After recruiting me, he recruited Ethan and Yu Peng, both from my class. We finally had a proper group.
Secondly, after forming a group, we started to relax and put our foot off the pedal. After a few weeks, we then began to start finding a mentor. We first asked for Mr Daniel Siew, however, our efforts were in vain as he was already fully booked. We began to search for teachers and luckily, after a few unsuccessful attempts, we found a mentor - Ms Shanthi, who coincidentally was our cheerful and knowledgeable history teacher. At least our mentor wasn't strict. This incident has taught me that we shouldn't be passive and relax after we have finished something. Once we start to relax, we will have problems in the future, so we shouldn't be passive but continue working hard.
Thirdly, coming up with the problems and fundamental problem was very challenging. As we had very busy schedules, we could only meetup at night online and we hardly did anything because most of us were procrastinating and did not bother thinking. This has taught me the importance of teamwork. Everyone in a team should work together to overcome challenges instead of procrastinating as it gets us nowhere.
Fourthly, creating the solutions was also very difficult, however, my teammates and I found time in our busy schedules and collaborated well to create the solutions.
After much reflections, here are the areas for improvement for myself.
1. Time management. The management of time is very crucial when doing projects work. Too little time allocated to it will result in undesirable scores. I should manage my time more wisely instead of spending more time on homework and neglecting independent studies.
2. Procrastination. Whenever I feel lazy, I do not bother doing projects. This is a major problem as it will greatly affect my project work. I will definitely try my best to contribute more to my group the next time we do projects work.
3. Socializing. I should be more sociable at the start of the year, this will ensure that I will not face problems when finding a group.
Here are the areas I'm good at and should continue to improve,
1. Perseverant. I'm a very perseverant person and once I start doing something, I will not stop until I get the job done. This quality allows me to find lots of research for the problems and solutions with perseverance and I will not give up until I find the perfect research which will back up the problem or solution.
2. Creative. I'm a very creative person and this allows me to create original solutions and problems. I should continue to use my creativity in other projects to create original and awesome ideas.
All in all, independent studies is an amazing experience which has taught me lots of skills. I have gained lots of experience and learnt a lot. This is just the beginning and I will strive for the best next year!

Ethan Chew :

The IS (Independent Studies) project was interesting as it was the first time I was doing such a major project that would affect my studies in either a good or a bad way. I was doing future trends with my group mates Enoch Kwok (the Leader), Ho Yoong Kwan, and Ng Yu Peng

At the start of the year, we started on the prelims, where we had to come up with 5 problems and a fundamental problem with research. We met up during the IS period and talked on the problems, though sometimes distracted by other classmates. We did the problems on Google slides where we were able to work on the problems together. We had trouble finding research as the internet was full of information and we had to pick out only the ones that were important. We also had to spend a while discussing the fundamental problem and had to change or improve it a few times as our mentor, Ms Shanthi, told us that the fundamental problem was not able to cover enough problems. We were finally ready after a few months of hard work and the day of the prelims finally came. I was to present the 4th and 5th problem. I got a stage fright and muttered some words too softly. After the presentation, I was told to speak louder and that one of our problems was a little far fetched, the one about taxes.

For the next two weeks after the prelims, we took a break, before starting work on the semi-finals. We had trouble coming up with the solutions as some ideas we not feasible and had to be scraped. We met the same problem of the research being insufficient and took a long time to find something relevant. Two days before the Semi-Finals, We finished of the criteria. It was hard as we had to make a criteria that is able to be ranked and there would be no ties in the decision matrix. One day before the Semi-Finals, a terrible thing happened. Our fundamental problem was too specific and had to be changed! Due to that, we also had to change the solutions too! We re-did all the solutions, working from 4pm to 1 am, without stopping. Our presentation was finally ready by the next day, double-checked and finalized. This time the presentation was in the Drama Center. It was a much bigger place compared to the tiny classroom where we held our first presentation. I presented the 3rd and 4th solutions, and I managed to overcome my stage fright. We did our best and hoped for the best. However, the results were not so pleasant.  We got 23 points, 2 marks away from passing! I felt dejected and upset that we had not got into the finals. We did an appeal and are now waiting for the results, hopefully we pass.

What had gone wrong? I belief it was something that many other groups also did not have, proper time management. We should have started on the solution earlier and met up more often so as to finish the presentation at least one week before the judging and spend the rest of the time practicing and checking. This way we are able to spot any mistakes in the presentation and correct them in time. Proper time management is very important as it helps us to plot our working schedule and be able to meet the deadline. We also need to learn how to prioritize what is more important. We should have discussed the fundamental problem before the solutions, instead of after as it affects all the solutions and any last minute changes to it would result in having to change everything. Prioritization means that we have to do what is of upmost importance first followed by the rest of the things. Lastly, we needed to learn to work better as a team. I am not saying that we could not get along well, as we got along just fine. I am saying that we needed to learnt to be more willing to accept each others ideas and mix our ideas together so as to come up with a better solution. This project is definitely not the last project we will be having and thus we need to learn from our mistakes and work on it in the future. My group members were nice and I hope to be able to work with them again in the future.

Enoch Kwok:

Embarking on this journey for the past 8 months has been truly an eye opener and humbling experience for me. The experiences and lessons I learnt throughout this journey are not one but many and they have really taught me to change my attitude and responses to problems. For example, when I realised that what we have prepared was inaccurate for semi finals, I had to persevere with my group mates and change parts of our presentation, instead of simply giving up. Also, when we embarked on our project, I had to think deeper and more critically to indicate and identify the main problems and think creatively to solve them. I will remember these values and hopefully do better in next year’s project.

When we first begun with our project after receiving the future scene, we looked at the potential problems and the whole jeez of it from a different and unique point of view, which was different from most groups are pretty risky. While most groups focused on pleasing the rest of Singaporeans, our group decided to tackle it by ensuring the elderly does not exploit the privileges. Our identified fundamental problem forced us to think differently and even deeper about these potential problems, analysing the future scene to a greater extent. To me, this was an issue as since we were not experienced with projects, we had a harder time doing so. To tackle this problem, I allocated different parts and aspects to my group mates so each of us could focus on just one or two and achieve the best possible analysis of potential problems, thus forming solutions. Also, to increase the quality of analysis and opinions, we looked at the reasoning that other groupmates gave and gave our own opinions, improving them. Lastly, our mentor gave wise and helpful advice for us to further improve and change parts of our project. This was quite effective as even though we were stuck with a more difficult situation, our identified problems were better than most groups. However, I felt we could improve more by meeting up face to face more regularly instead of just discussing online. This could have helped us prove our points more directly and clearly without misinterpretations.

Throughout this project, we faced many problems such as laziness and procrastination that built up over time. Up to the point at prelims, we were still very diligent and met up regularly to work on the next stages of the project. However, after we passed our prelims, each of us let our quality of work slip as it was also exam period. We were busy with not only our studies, but also our CCAs. Personally I have training 4 times a school week, in addition, I had revise for test and do my homework. This period caused us to neglect our IS for a while. After the tests and just at the start of June holidays, I swiftly took action as group leader and ensured our routine went back as normal so we could progress in our project in semi finals. This kind of helped as we were finally back on track however another group mate and I had to constantly call others to meet up. Although we still could meet up online, we hardly met up in person to discuss. As a result, the quality decreased and the speed of progress decreased. This was really daunting as the cooperation of other group members affected the rest of our performances. So whenever I meet up with any of the group, we will encourage each other to not slacken and continue meeting up faithfully. While some of us helped lesser during the holidays the rest of us worked even harder to cover up for them. After the holidays, we quickly finished up our presentation content by making sure we met up at least twice a week either online or in person to finish the project,  with the help of our mentor. If we had consistently met up even during the holidays, our standard of work could have been slightly better and we would have fared better in our semi finals.

I felt that these strategies I had employed, some were effective, some were less effective but still worked. By calling others to meet up on the document online, this did not receive much attention and some even ditched us and went to bed etc. I felt I could tackle this by organising more face to face meetings so none of us could abandon the rest. However encouragement worked well with the rest. As we were encouraging one another, I felt a bit more willing to meet up and help with the project. I am sure the others felt the same too. Thus I should use more encouraging words instead of demands.

To conclude this segment, teamwork is an important skill I have learnt. Our peers were the ones who would give us the motivation and persuade us to pick ourselves up and persevere through hard times. Also sharing the load as a team is a much more effective method than going solo. In the past, when nobody was willing to work, I would carry all the weight on my shoulders. However I realised that if I actually encouraged and enforced my group mates to help, we could do the work faster and more efficiently. I guess this is a win-win situation where my friends and I do not have to take all the burden but split it to get the work done better.

One of my strengths is the courage in public speaking, presenting our project in front of judges and peers. This had not been a problem to me as I am well equipped with this skill after being trained to do so in primary school. One of my weaknesses is enforcing my leadership. When I wanted my group mates to meet up, I would just send them an email or message or a call. This was ineffective as most of the time, not everyone was there. However, looking back at it, I realised that I could have done this in another way, through encouragement and rewards and words of praise. As my peers encouraged me, I felt more willing to meet up but it did not occur to me that I should have encouraged them to meet up. I will remember this flaw in my leadership and strive to improve myself for subsequent future projects.

All in all, these past eight months have truly been a wonderful learning experience for me. Although we did not get into the finals much as we were dying to do so, I do not blame anyone as it was an eye-opener for me. However, reflecting on it now, I realised what else I could do to further improve my group not just in the results but also attitude wise. I would like to take away all the suggestions for improvements and bring them with me not just in Hwa Chong but for the rest of my life. Lastly, I would like to thank my three group mates who have worked hand in hand together as we go through up and downs and our understanding mentor who really empathises with us and provides constant and great help through our journey and improving our project. I would not have chosen my group mates or mentor in any different way.

Group Reflections:

At the start of the year, we had to find a group. We had just came into Hwa Chong and were new classmates, so naturally it was not easy to form a group. However, we managed to do so by Enoch, who started recruiting us one by one.

Next, we had to find a mentor. Not knowing who to choose we scanned the list of mentors in our independent studies category. After three rejections of our request, we finally managed to find one, who coincidentally was our history teacher. This was an achievement as we were one step ahead of most of our classmates who were still forming groups.

Somewhere in February, we were given the future scene and started working on it. Meeting up every Friday for IS, we worked hard to prepare for our coming preliminary rounds when we had to come up with 5 problems and a fundamental problem with research. During this period, we faced many distractions either from our classmates or even team members. We had to encourage each other constantly and focus to ensure that our progress was consistent and the quality of our work was optimum.

Using technology, we shared our ideas on the web. Some problems we faced were finding our research. The internet is a large compilation of information, that are not always true facts. So we have to accurately and relevantly sieve out the right information for our presentation.

During the period from February to May, we got to know each other better and we worked well as a team. Also with wise and helpful advice from our knowledgeable mentor, we passed our prelims on the first try smoothly.

However after the prelims it was the exam period and we were all very busy. This caused our quality of work and speed of progress to decrease. After the exam period, we quickly picked ourselves up and were allocated different parts of our project preparation. However, during the holidays, we only met online and not in person to discuss our work. By the end of the June holidays, we managed to finish 75% of our preparations. Much to our disappointment, we discovered that we had done part of our preparations wrongly, two out of five of our solutions were inaccurate. Pulling up our socks, we met up twice a week either online or in person until the semi-finals.

At first we were quite confident of passing as we had prepared sufficiently, but after listening to the judges’ comments, we were praying to pass. Much as we wanted to, we didn’t qualify. Although we didn’t make it to the finals, this was a learning experience for us and has taught us many things to apply to our lives.