Ping-pong ball scooper or a jug that will never spill? All the signals the D&T Awards are on us

Style and design and Technologies (D&T) trains students in design and style imagining and prototype-generating. So when the yearly awards rolls around, assume to see wild pops of creativity and colour just about everywhere in the students’ entries. Listen to what some of them have to say about their inspirations and inventions.

By Kenneth Kwan Yu Heng and Chen Jueying 

Layout and Engineering (D&T) learners throughout Singapore produced a trip to the Ministry of Training headquarters at Buona Vista just lately to view the winning entries of this year’s D&T Awards.

They ended up there to choose up new thoughts way too, with the ultimate intention of solving genuine-entire world troubles with their creations.

“As designers, we must make it less complicated for people to recognize the world, to encounter the environment,” claims Bedok Look at Secondary University graduate Bakri Bin Borham, whose invention “Spills No More” won him the Inventive Creation Award.

The once-a-year awards, organised by MOE, Nationwide Institute of Education and learning and the Design and Know-how Educators Culture, are specified out in various categories to recognise fantastic style and design, creativity and innovation. They encourage pupils to interact in a considerate style and design-thinking course of action when deriving significant solutions to daily complications. D&T is an examinable subject matter supplied at secondary university degree, where pupils engage in developing and prototyping suggestions and answers utilizing technological know-how.

In the course of the exhibition, which was held from 31 Could to 6 June 2023, the foyer of the MOE HQ was awash with colour and daily life as the various gadgets and gizmos on screen stands invited passers-by to contact, browse and visualize how they could enhance their life in so many approaches, maybe surfacing challenges they never knew they had or could resolve.

Schoolbag meets some of the award-winners, who share the inspiration at the rear of their innovations as perfectly as their enthusiasm and hopes for the future of D&T. 

Resourceful Creation Award: Spills No Additional – to pour liquids without having spilling

Bakri Bin Borham’s creation was motivated by his grandfather’s friend, who is a Parkinson’s patient. Immediately after observing that the man had issue pouring and ingesting h2o due to the tremble in his fingers, Bakri imagined of how he could make the daily activity much easier for him and other Parkinson’s people.

The result is Spills No A lot more, a set of two holders in 1, made centered on the concepts of a gyroscope . One holder is for slotting a jug or tumbler, and the other holds a cup – no subject what angle the tumbler is tipped, and even when the hand is shaking, the cup stays in a horizontal place to capture the falling drinking water.

Bakri enjoys D&T lessons as they persuade him to locate new views to appear at complications, occur up with options, as effectively as come across inspiration from the globe all over him to better the methods. Evidently, the classes furnished him a platform to showcase his talent and creativeness. He believes that D&T pupils can continue to leverage on the skills learnt in the topic and make a distinction in the planet by way of their inventions.  

Inventive Innovation Award: WriteRight – to write even with a solid on

If you’ve at any time fractured your arm, you’d recognize WriteRight. This invention will help those whose arms are in a solid to compose with bigger ease. WriteRight was created by a team of 12 months 2 students from River Valley Large School, comprising Tai Jing Han, Alvin Tan Zhi Qian and Grace Tan En-Yu.

Grace experienced hurt her arm additional than once and was not capable to produce properly just about every time, which established her back particularly in the course of assessment time. The team investigated on the form of assist that an arm in a plaster cast would involve. This led to the structure of WriteRight’s triangular form, to permit the immobilised hand to grip the device for crafting, and a pen slot slanted at a specific 57-degree angle for the pen to be operate throughout paper most effectively.

Asked about their major takeaways from, Grace shared that her largest takeaway from D&T classes was to prepare her initiatives meticulously to avoid shock changes at the closing levels. She also discovered to be more affected individual with herself, she shared with a snicker.

Innovative Innovation Award: Turtle Tea Lid – no extra fishing about for the teabag tag

Ever struggled to fish the tag of a teabag out of a cup of boiling incredibly hot tea? Abigail Er Shi En’s creation, the Turtle Tea Lid, secures the tag so it will not fall into the tea. The tea lover also worked in other features this sort of as warmth retention, the potential to in good shape diverse sizes of cups, and get this – a melancholy to maintain your favourite cookie to appreciate with your tea.

“Style has intrigued me for the longest time and nevertheless continues to intrigue me.” 

– Abigail

The icing on the cake: The sweet design, to seem like a turtle made a decision to perch on your cup to provide teatime enterprise. “As a university student who took D&T in secondary college, and a polytechnic university student now having style and design, I genuinely hope to go after structure in the long run,” says Abigail, a graduate from Swiss Cottage Secondary University. “It is certainly a occupation in my belief that will never go obsolete.”

Not only do D&T lessons provide college students with an option to assume creatively, they are also an avenue for them to take a look at their interests in both equally layout and technological innovation, she adds.

Abigail loves the palms-on features of the classes, which makes it possible for her to figure out how items perform, and how they operate to improve our every day life. 

Inventive Innovation Award: Whall-E – picks up eraser dust with a smile

Pupils dislike producing eraser dust mainly because of the cleansing up they have to have to do right after.

Enter Whall-E, an invention by Yau Fu Pin, a Christ Church Secondary College graduate, to make tidying up enjoyment and quick. The whale-on the lookout gadget lets the consumer roll nano tape across a desk to select up dirt. Its ergnonomic rockable form was thoughtfully prepared to address more area space with every single stroke and deliver a relaxing training for the wrist far too.

When the deed is done, the adhesive tape and gadget can be washed for reuse after reuse, making it atmosphere-helpful as well.

Soon after taking up D&T as a matter, Fu Pin saw his budding desire in style soar with each individual lesson. D&T helped him see how structure could be made use of to fix various and unforeseen problems – and how to work as a crew to remedy them with each other, he claims.

Artistic Adaptation Award: Ping-Pong Ball Picker – leaves extra time for teaching

“We hope that our juniors can go on to use the capabilities that they have learnt from D&T, to remedy actual existence troubles and make our planet a greater location.” 

– Yu Xiang