“I wanna combine a plate with ice-lolly stick, so that the melting water from the ice-lolly in summer won’t make my hands sticky.”
“I want to create a robot to help me do my homework.”
There were more fancy ideas coming up in the Little Inventors Workshops presented by the students and Resident Fellows from Henry Fok Pearl Jubilee College (HFPJC), who organized the service learning trip at Si Yuan Experimental School in Hunan Xinhua, China, from 18th to 24th Dec 2017. 14 HFPJC students and Resident Fellows took this opportunity to provide community service to the Si Yuan students (the majority of Si Yuan students are from extremely poor families who need assistance, care and love), as well as to participate in civic engagement and broaden their views of global awareness.
The HFPJC team tried to inspire the Si Yuan students’ creativity by bringing in the Little Inventors Program into the Si Yuan Experimental School. This Little Inventors Program was initiated by a British inventor, artist and designer Dominic Wilcox. In the Little Inventors Workshops, the HFPJC team provided chances for the Si Yuan students to draw their ideas which may be chosen by the Little Inventors Organization to turn into real objects or animation.
In the Little Inventors Workshops, HFPJC student Wang Bin Rui from FBA showed the Si Yuan students the ways to create new ideas and the significance of creativity. “I believe that there is a dream of being an inventor in every kid’s heart, and what we are doing is making it come true”, he said.
Activities such as Dream-catcher Workshop, Little Inventors Workshop, English Quiz Games, English Public Speaking Classes, Environmental Protection and Hygiene classes as well as Introduction to Macau and UM classes enhanced the cultural exchanges between the HFPJC students and the Si Yuan students. Si Yuan students were able to gain knowledge of different areas, enhance their oral English, their hands-on ability, and their interest of learning. Moreover, they received recycled soaps sponsored by the charity organization Clean the World AISA (潔世亞洲) in order to promote eco-friendly lifestyle.
This trip was part of the larger HFPJC’s service learning training program, which is composed of handicraft workshops, charity bazaar, service learning trip, exhibitions, and collaboration with numerous community partners, including Yan Ai Foundation Limited HK (香港言愛基金) and Clean the World Asia. The objective of this program is to enhance the learning competencies in leadership and service as well as citizenship with global perspectives, and to enhance RC’s collaboration with different organizations on community service projects in the mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau.