Children love to get their hands dirty so what better way to get them to increase their creativity and empathy than doing just that?
At last month's Learning and Teaching Expo, students from 10 local primary schools across Hong Kong presented the seeds of their labor from PMQ's Seed-To Open Minds education program.
"The three-day exhibition showed the works and interactive installations from students who participated in our summer camp and school outreach programs, allowing visitors to understand how students can put design thinking and empathy into practice," said Iris Chow, senior director of branding and programs at PMQ.
The students were divided into junior primary and senior primary groups. PMQ collaborative team of designer mentors led the them to create design works around a specific theme.
For the junior primary in the school outreach program, students were led by LittleUrbanMountain Design to focus on the theme of "Toy Rescue."
"We built a toy recycling cart to give toys a new lease of life," said Chu Yat-nam, a Primary Four student from the Cho Yiu Catholic Primary School team.
"The cart, which looks like a mobile toy stall, is equipped with a canopy to protect it from the wind and rain, and a small light bulb and a handmade solar panel (actually made of cardboard) to add a sense of design."
Said their mentor, Sim Sim: "We hope children learn the concept of empathy during the design. For example, the cart was designed with a relatively lower height for small children who might be disabled to reach out easier; the slogans on the cart were also picture-oriented with simple text."
The five students in the team took three days to design their cart while painting and construction took another three days.
"The whole process of building the cart was all made by our own hands," said Yeung Cheuk-man.
Another team member, Lum Chun-hei, said: "We hope the public will realize the importance of environmental protection from our work, as our cart was itself made of recycled materials. We hope people know that recycling is a fun and colorful way to make new things out of waste."
Senior Primary group students were guided by AaaM Architects to conduct independent exploration of the neighborhood in which their schools were located. "Children were isolated from their community during the epidemic. That's why we raised the program concept as 'Community Reconnection' - in hopes of bringing students the opportunity to find out their surrounding environment," said Bonnie Mak and Naam Yu, mentors from AaaM.
"We decided on our exploration theme as 'Relaxed Cheung Sha Wan," said He Wenbei from Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Primary School.
"Six people in our team conducted independent street interviews, street photography and filming, as well as slides and a vlog to present the relaxing side of our community."
The interviews allowed the students to learn how to interact with strangers.
"We were super shy in the very beginning but gradually we became very enthusiastic," said Zhang Tsz-zune, who played the role of interviewer during the exploration. "We also built up empathy in the process as I learned how to listen to and understand different views from each person."
Empathy has always been a core value in the education programs, said Chow.
"During the program, we would not ask students to call the mentors 'teachers' as we did not want someone to lead students and impart ideas. We rather encourage them to raise their own ideas, ask their own questions, then figure out their own solutions."
This is also good practice for real life.
"An individual's ideas may not be heard, or the ideas may not be chosen in the end," said Chan Chai-yan, the instructor in the program from Cheung Sha Wan Catholic Primary School.
"However, learning how to express oneself and accepting failure is also very important regarding building empathy."
Source: https://www.thestandard.com.hk/section-news/fc/4/259551/Keeping-an-open-mind
