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1. Description of Our Community
Singapore is a small city-state nation having an area of 752 square kilometres. In fact, we are ranked the 44th smallest nation in the world. The population of Singapore is about 4.5 million. Singapore is a multiracial country made of mainly 4 ethnic groups. They are the Chinese (76%), Malays (13%), Indians (9%) and the Eurasians (1%).
Singapore has no natural resources, everything from the food we eat to the shirts we wear, the material to build our houses, the vehciles we travel on, are all imported. Even water, the very life-sustaining resource, is partially imported from our neighbour, Malaysia. Although water shortage has not occurred in Singapore in recent years, it was common 3 to 4 decades ago. When the dry season stuck in the past, the local water catchment areas (reseviours) run low and the taps run dry. Water Rationing (delibrate cutting off of tap water supply a few hours a day to conserve water) is common in those times. At one time, the tap was dry for 12 hours. The water shortage problem in Singapore is not new, and Singaporeaons started to look for ways to obtain new water sources in as early as the 1970s. A pilot water reclamation plant was started in 1974, but implementation plans were shelved because of huge costs and unreliable technology. It was not until 1998 that the project was revived through a joint initiative between Public Utility Board of Singapore and the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources of Singapore.
2. Summary of Our Project
The project looks into firstly, the reasons behind sourcing for alternative water resource, which is Newater. It also walks us through the history behind Newater, the concept and development of Newater.
We will also present the current water consumption of Singapore and the projected consumption 20 years down the road. The project highlights the current 3 National Taps (sources) of water and shows the future National Taps. The usage of water and the technology of producing Newater, including the step-by-step processes of making Newater, will also be featured here.
We then analyse how Newater affect Singapore politically, economically and socially. Finally, we look at how Newater can be further used and the prospect of Newater in the future.
Last but not least, the final part of the project touches on tips to conserve water.
3. Our Computer and Internet Access
A. Percentage of students using the Internet at home:more than 50%
B. Number of workstations with Internet access in the classroom:more than 6
C. Connection speed used in the classroom:dedicated connection
D. Number of years our classroom has been connected to the Internet:4-6
4. Problems We Had To Overcome
Our main problems were the formation of our team and shortage of meeting time and project time. As we were primary school pupils advancing to the secondary school level, we had just joined this new School. We like to do this project because we were interested to work on a project and we liked the project theme. We also wanted to contribute something to the school as well as to the community. The team members met to discuss the project only in January 2011. Our project team members are very committed to the project as we all came from the same Co-curriculum Club. We allocated tasks fairly and quickly. We learnt technology skill like Photoshop and Flash. Sometimes we had to bring our work home. As the deadline drew near, we had to rush and spent our one week break working on the project. This proved that we had endured through this major problem that could easily dissuade us in further doing of the project. It was a feat we could not call small.
5. Our Project Sound Bite
Our interest in this project gave us the motivation and strength to persevere. As we had volunteered to participate in this project, we had to commit our time to ensure we complete the task. We have learnt many things when working for the CyberFair Competition that we could not do so in the normal classroom like teamwork, research skill, communication and IT skills. We also learnt a lot from the organistion we are working on the project, that is the Public Utility Board. When we visited the Newater Vistor Centre, we learnt to be more observant of the display and facilities there. We also pay attention to the tour officer there. We realized that teamwork is very important as everyone must do their part. We learnt to research for information from various resources like the internet, newspaper and we also consulted personnel working in the Newater Visitor Centre. The tour officer from the Newater Visitor Centre was very helpful to provide us with the necessary information. We learnt technical skills like Photoshop and apply the skills immediately on the photographs taken.
6. How did your activities and research for this CyberFair Project support standards, required coursework and curriculum standards?
In Singapore, the Ministry of Education recommended the Baseline ICT Standards, which is a comprehensive list of ICT skills competencies, to be integrated into core subject areas and project work. In participating in the CyberFair Competition, the pupils were able to accomplish the following skills areas such as (1) Learning to operate in an interactive media environment, (2) Learning internet navigation and use search engines independently, (3) Learning to create, edit and format text with word processor, (4) Learning to produce and manipulate multimedia content like flash and PhotoShop, and (5) Learning online communication skill like wiki. At the same time, they learn to respect Intellectual Property and practice safe and responsible use of the internet.
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