BSocSc(SCS) students hold road show presentation to showcase learning from capstone projects
Joyce, left, and Kelly explain how they utilised AI-generated animation and voice-over in producing the 5-minute video clip that summarise their learning from the half-year capstone project.
The presentation board showcases the journey primary schoolers have gone through in the Lung Yeuk Tau capstone project supervised by Kelly, Joyce, Catky, and Fiona. The project enhanced primary school students’ understanding of the Lung Yeuk Tau community through field trips and artwork making. The final exhibition about the learning results solidified primary students’ understanding of the Lung Yeuk Tau community and the related Chinese custom.
To deepen their understanding of the community, students taking the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Sociology and Community Studies (BSocSc(SCS)) programme offered by the Department of Social Sciences and Policy Studies (SSPS) need to do a capstone project with a community partner. In the capstone projects implemented between January and July 2023, two groups of students from the programme (Notes 1 and 2) led community education initiatives in partnership with The Salvation Army Centaline Charity Fund Queen's Hill School and The Yuen Yuen Institute MFBM Nei Ming Chan Lui Chung Tak Memorial College respectively.
On 25 and 26 January 2024, BSocSc(SCS) students in charge of the two community projects held a road show presentation at the Central Plaza of the Tai Po campus to showcase their learning from the capstone projects. At the two-day presentation, students explained to the EdUHK community what they have achieved and their reflections regarding taking part in the projects. In additional to presentation boards illustrated with photos, graphics and text, the presentation also included 5-minute video clips summarising the respective capstone projects and students’ reflections.
Five SSPS students—Kelly Kwan, Joyce Chin, Catky Lam, Fiona Chan, and Andy Chan—formed a group to carry out the capstone project collaboratively with The Salvation Army Centaline Charity Fund Queen's Hill School. This project aimed to spark the interest of primary students in architecture, history, and traditions and customs of walled villages. The five Students from SSPS guided the primary schoolers on a tour to the Lung Yuek Tau heritage trail and trained them how to make artwork that reflect the traditions of the Lung Yuek Tau community. They also taught the primary school students how to present their artwork, their findings and other factual information about the trail in the final showcase exhibition.
“The visit to the trail, the making of artwork, and the experience of being a docent for the final exhibition have deepened primary students’ understanding of the history and custom of the Lung Yuek Tau community. As a result, primary students acquired a deeper appreciation for traditional culture and developed a stronger sense of belonging to the community,” Professor Stephen Chiu Wing-kai, Chair Professor of Sociology and BSocSc(SCS)’s programme leader, explained.
The other capstone project was implemented with the help from The Yuen Yuen Institute MFBM Nei Ming Chan Lui Chung Tak Memorial College. In this project, secondary school students were divided into small groups according to their interests. Students from the BSocSc(SCS) programme mentored and taught the secondary schoolers how to conduct research, lead field studies, and carry out interviews. They also supervised each group to capture footage during fieldwork and create video clips summarising their findings about pet-friendly facilities (Andy Law and Kenneth Wong’s group), disability facilities (Chilam Wong’s group), the use of public spaces (Keion Lam and Harry Tam’s group), and playground facilities (Mabel Kwan’s group).
Mabel shares how she supervised a group of five secondary school girls to investigate playground safety and effectiveness of the adventure facilities of the playground. She explains the steps the secondary schoolers have gone through, from conducting research to producing video and finally establishing findings, in the project.
Kenneth and Andy's group supervised a group of secondary school students in investigating pet-friendly facilities in a park. Inspired by the project, a woman who is an educational professional from mainland China graduated from a MEd programme at EdUHK, asks Kenneth if it is feasible to conduct a similar project in Shenzhen.
“After interacting with the secondary school students and understanding their personalities and abilities more, I found that they felt bored by classroom learning and preferred the interactive learning approach. I redesigned the training accordingly by strengthening the interactive elements. In the end, the interactive approach stimulated students’ interest in exploring the community. They have become more actively engaged in learning. They asked me more questions, and shared their opinions on various issues relating to playground facilities in the community,” Mabel explained to visitors at the two-day exhibition held at the Central Plaza of the University.
Several capstone projects for the 2023/34 academic year have already started. These include a project to educate students from a primary school in Sham Shui Po about their community through board game design. In another project implemented with the assistance from an NGO, students from SSPS lead secondary schoolers to design and curate at an exhibition about the community development and community services of Fanling. The other project carried out jointly with a secondary school plans to introduce Chinese Medicine to the local Chinese and ethnic minority students of the school. Similar community-based learning project about Lung Yeuk Tau will also be conducted with new batch of students from SSPS and the primary school in Queen’s Hill.
The design of capstone project is to help students to apply the knowledge they acquire from classroom learning in an actual community setting.
The BSocSc(SCS) programme strives to arrange opportunities for our students to work with different partners in the community and make contributions to it. Through these collaborations, the programme aims to equip our students with curation, presentation, research, and supervision skills. “The design of capstone project is to help students to apply the knowledge they acquire from classroom learning in an actual community setting. We also believe practical skills they learn from the capstone project are important in their future endeavours whether they become teachers, community workers, NGO workers, or seek work in other professions,” Professor Chiu said.
Notes:
- Members of the capstone project implemented jointly with The Salvation Army Centaline Charity Fund Queen's Hill School: Andy Chan Kwun-wai, Fiona Chan Wing-sum, Joyce Chin Yuet-shan, Kelly Kwan Wai-lam and Catky Lam Ka-yi
- Members of capstone project implemented jointly with The Yuen Institute MFBM Nei Ming Chan Lui Chung Tak Memorial College: Chilam Wong Tsz-lam, Keion Lam Kei-on, Harry Tam Wing-hang, Andy Law Tsun-hin, Kenneth Wong Tsz-hong and Mabel Kwan Mei-po
