Project ECO 2024 Public Health : Secondary School

Project E.C.O 2024 – Public Health - Secondary

CHIJ St. Joseph’s Convent – Gold

The project aimed to foster shared responsibility for cleanliness in the school canteen. After conducting survey through observations, the team introduced the "Adopt-a-Table" initiative, where lower Secondary classes maintained and monitored the cleanliness of their adopted tables, promoting ownership and shared responsibility rather than reliance on cleaners.

The team introduced the initiative to their peers during assembly, highlighting the Year of Public Hygiene, their survey findings and their tagline “Return, Throw, Wipe” to motivate their peers to contribute towards keeping the canteen clean. As part of the project, each class’s Eco-Steward submitted photos of their adopted tables for rating, promoting active participation in canteen cleanliness.

The initiative laid a strong foundation for cultivating student ownership of the school environment. To build upon current efforts and progress, the team led a community clean-up activity and proposed strategies such as a peer monitoring system to encourage collective responsibility that would extend beyond school to homes and communities.

 Nanyang Girls’ High School – Silver

The project team’s five-month long project aimed to educate about dengue fever and its impact on Singapore's public health. Prompted by rising dengue cases, the team conducted a survey to assess the level of dengue awareness among the public. The survey found that 50% of respondents felt that it was important to start educating children from below 10 years old about dengue. Hence, the team embarked on a project to develop a comprehensive programme for pre-schoolers

The programme was successfully implemented at New Life Preschool @Bukit Panjang and included interactive activities such as storytelling, larvae hunt, colouring activity and quizzes. The children demonstrated increased understanding of dengue prevention steps. A booklet with information on dengue prevention was also distributed to the parents.

To further extend their reach within the school community, the team created an Instagram page and sent schoolwide emails to share about dengue prevention and public hygiene related messages.

The team planned to share their personal experience and learning points with other environmental ambassadors in the school, and would continue to create infographics and spread awareness on public health topics via their social media account @project.ecobuds. 

 Yuan Ching Secondary School – Bronze

The project team embarked on two different projects aimed at improving class cleanliness in school and promoting dengue awareness in the community.

A Class Cleanliness Competition was organised to foster responsibility and community ownership. The initiative included an awareness campaign through school briefing on the current state of cleanliness in classes, inter-class competitions, and regular assessments. The project aimed to promote long-term behavioural changes and a lasting impact on school cleanliness culture.

To raise dengue awareness within the Taman Jurong community, the team briefed students in the Environmental Science Club and rallied them to conduct door-to-door visits to distribute informative pamphlets and repellents to residents. They educated residents on dengue prevention steps like B.L.O.C.K. and S.A.W. and reached out to 262 units. The team would continue to explore this outreach as an annual event and tap on social media platforms (Instagram - @ycss.eclub) to document learnings and inspire new students to join them.