Office of Service-Learning & Community Engagement

Singapore is a highly urbanized city endowed with rich native biodiversity. Working closely with the National Parks Board of Singapore (NParks) and other nature conservationists, the Tutorial Group (TG) offers a glimpse into key ecosystems, including lowland dipterocarp forests, secondary forests, mangroves, rocky shores, inter-tidal mudflats, sea-grass meadows and coral reefs. (Er & Chan, 2016).

With a focus on sustainability and preservation, members will collaborate with stakeholders to engage in hands-on activities, educational workshops, and advocacy initiatives. Students will learn about nature conservation issues and partake in the conservation efforts through various educational outreach during the course. By fostering a culture of conservation and responsible stewardship, this tutorial group inspires positive change and promotes a greener, more sustainable future for Singapore.

In an era marked by rapid urbanization, climate change, and global interconnectedness, ensuring food security has become a critical challenge for cities worldwide. Here, we take participants on an immersive experience through the dynamic foodscape of Singapore as the nation embarks on its journey towards food security.

Through Service-Learning, this course is designed to provide participants with a comprehensive understanding of food security issues as well as the various strategies and innovations by various parties to overcome them. In addition to a series of lectures, in-class activities and site visits, participants will have the opportunities to learn alongside our community partners through the design and execution of projects related to food security in Singapore.

This Tutorial Group (TG) offers a glimpse into the ageing issues and challenges faced by Singapore. According to the Singapore Population Census 2020, one in four persons will be 65 years and above by 2030. (MOH, 2020) The massive change in the population landscape in our society can be seen in workplaces and communities through our daily interaction with different seniors.

Through working with an active ageing centre (AAC) and interacting with seniors from the neighbourhoods, students are invited to discuss and consider:

(1) What are the impacts of an ageing population on different aspects of our society, from the economy to the healthcare system?

(2) How to create aged-friendly living environments that enable seniors to age in place?

(3) The role of the community in sustaining health and supporting ageing in communities.

Students will learn about a range of health topics/ issues (that cover different health dimensions including physical, emotional and mental), and how various community organisations are engaging the wider population to support individuals, patients and their families.

This course will expose students to curated health topics/issues, and how this relates to and impacts the lives of communities. Students will explore diverse ways to advocate certain health issues, and engage various stakeholders including patients, their families and the community at large etc., to work towards specific individual and community goals of enhancing their health status and maintaining their quality of life.

Children and youth regardless of their background and abilities should be given the opportunity to flourish in their potential. However, growing up in a time where influences, such as social media, have the power to shape their thinking, how can we ensure these influences are holistic and well supported in their crucial developmental years?

In Singapore, the government together with schools and social service agencies, has holistically put in place various support and intervention programmes. Many of these support starts from pre-school years and extends through formal schooling years with financial assistance, meal provisions, academic programmes, after-school care, and post-care support (for youths discharged from Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) youth homes). Recognising the critical influence of family relationships and support in children and youth’s development, the government has implemented additional initiatives such as MSF’s ComLink (started in 2019), where various government and community agencies partner closely with families taking a multi-pronged strengths-based approach to promote a more holistic development of the family as a unit.

Through this TG, you will observe, participate and co-create some of these approaches that can enrich and influence the development of a child and youth for positive change.

Persons with disabilities – in the form of physical, sensory and intellectual ones, as well as autism – have their education, employment and recreational prospects, as equal members of the community, significantly reduced as a result of these disabilities (source: Singapore’s Enabling Masterplan). Inclusion efforts aim to address this situation, lowering or removing barriers for their equal participation, which might even include our very own mindsets.

In this TG, students get the opportunity to take part in Service Learning initiatives, working alongside Community Partners and persons with disabilities, to find out what are some on-the-ground strategies for promoting disability inclusion. As students experience these efforts, they will be facilitated to reflect on how the theories and practices imparted through this TG can shape agents of inclusion, within this TG and in our everyday lives.

In the early years following Singapore’s independence, pressing demands on national resources to develop Singapore’s economy took precedence over culture and heritage development. The state's nation-building efforts necessitated a move to focus on pragmatic values which led to the dilution of culture and heritage within in the context of principle of collectivism. However, the state recognizes the integral role that culture and heritage have in the nation’s development of its national identity; it fosters the cultivation of a common understanding and bond amongst the people, through shared experiences as the nation navigates through social, economic and political development. 

In line with the state’s nation-building efforts, there is a palpable need for the conservation of culture and heritage as cultural exchanges and appreciation contribute to a broader sense of community that transcends individual differences. Beyond the state’s nation-building efforts, culture and heritage preservation supports various communities in passing down their unique history, traditions, and knowledge to future generations, fostering a sense of continuity and connection across generations.