SPICE Day

Contributed by Yao Lingyun.

Current Situation:
We block out 4 weeks of lessons for SPICE (reduced from previous year). In addition, other Design thinking activities and showcase takes up more time. Time/venues/logistics poses constraints for the colleagues in charge to schedule every thing within the 4 weeks. For colleagues straddling levels, they have to juggle excursions and lesson planning/remedial etc. For students, by the time they learn about the topics in the first 2 weeks of SPICE, the runway is short for the project to be done, much less to go through rounds of testing and revision, which is one of the core principles of Design Thinking. For the Sec 2 teachers, community service days are very tiring as after teaching for the day, they have to rush off for Com-ED.

Improvement:

To have one day (every 2 weeks) time-tabled as SPICE day in Semester 1 instead of blocking out 4 weeks for the programme. a) In terms of number of teaching periods used, the same number of days are used for the programme. (4 weeks = 20 days = 1 day every odd/even weeks for 2 terms). b) There is less pressure on infrastructure and logistics. e.g. Every student can get a chance at Maker's Space / Speakers who are travelling can be booked c) There will be a longer runway for students to learn, practice, reflect and refine on the skills. In fact, more time can be created for curriculum because non-academic subjects can be scheduled on that day. OR if the entire cohort needs to take WA, that day offers flexibility in planning throughout the semester. If, as a school, we believe in Design Thinking, infusing fun into learning, it might be better to spread it out throughout the semester and make it a part of regular, daily life. This idea of dedicating one day to out of classroom learning has been adopted by mainstream schools. I believe that it is worth considering for NYGH.