​ASE student started an education initiative to raise awareness about social, environmental and cultural issues towards urban redevelopment in Singapore

An interview with Chua Ying Xuan, Co-Founder

 

Accommodate is an education initiative which uses role-play and simulation to raise awareness about sustainability issues related to land redevelopment in Singapore.

Accommodate is a game where participants get to role-play and discover for themselves the complexity of issues related to land-redevelopment in Singapore, with issues involving environmental, cultural and socio-economic perspectives and multiple stakeholders. Various concepts such as trade-offs, priorities and the need for communication and collaboration during the decision-making process are also experienced.

In this interview, Chua Ying Xuan, co-founder of Accommodate, shares how her organisation has collaborated with schools.

 

1. What are some activities that Accommodate organises?

We conduct workshops for schools and have done so for 4 secondary schools and 1 junior college so far.

During our workshops, participants role-play as ministry officers in a land redevelopment exercise. They will have to compete with other ministries and aim to have the highest indicator themselves while keeping in mind the need to balance all the indicators of Singapore.

Accommodate is relevant to all students who are interested to become active citizens of the nation, who are passionate in our country’s sustainable development. It is particularly relevant to students in the humanities since it would be closely tied to what they are learning in the curriculum. It is also useful for students who are interested to become involved in community initiatives and leaders, as the programme teaches skills like negotiation, empathy and communication.

 

2. What are the most interesting activities that Accommodate has organised?

Accommodate was recently invited by the Urban Redevelopment Authority (URA) for the Urban Planning Festival 2019, where we received our largest group yet. On 6^th April 2019, 49 secondary school students from CHIJ St Joseph’s Convent, Damai Secondary School, North Vista Secondary School and Nanyang Girls’ High participated in our Accommodate Land-Use simulation game.

Students learnt about Singapore’s most recent draft masterplan and its urban redevelopment processes, all in an engaging manner. There were also discussions on mangrove loss, the Greater Rustic Coast, and urban farming in Singapore to deepen participants’ knowledge and interest in Singapore’s developmental plans

 

I learnt that different ministries are interconnected with each other very closely and when one ministry takes an action, another ministry might suffer from it. Hence, it is important for us not to make rash decisions and consider the possible outcomes and trade-offs before making a choice. Even if one ministry is up to standard but some others are not, there won’t be much benefits to Singapore as a whole because at the end of the day, we are still one country and depend on each other to succeed as a nation.

– A participant’s key takeaway

 

3. How does Accommodate hope to continue collaborating with schools?

Accommodate is proposing to run a two-part programme for schools, along with our community partners.

Part 1 – Awareness: A two-hour session of Accommodate in the classroom, where participants are given a macro view of social, environmental and cultural issues in the context of land use redevelopment Singapore.

Part 2 – Action: Bringing students out of the classroom for field trips or volunteering programmes where participants come into touch with the issues on the ground.

 

4. How can readers access more information?

They may access our website or Facebook page.

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Look out for Part 2 of the interview, in which Chua Ying Xuan will share her experience working as the co-founder of Accommodate.