Raffles Institution Year 2 Research Education

Design for Change School Challenge 2011

Title:

Preventing myopia in Singapore

By Team from 2C

Team Leader : Wang Zi Yan_____ (2C) Team Member : Wu Bo Dong_____(2C)

_Foo Yi Han______ (2C)

Teacher-Mentor: ____Mrs Suhaimy_____________________

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Acknowledgement

We would like to thank our RE mentor, Ms Suhaimy for assisting us during RE and giving us pointers and tips. Also, we would like to extend our thanks to those who made our project possible-especially those who participated during Action Week. This project would not have been possible if not for everyone who helped us in one way or another.

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Table of contents

Chapter 1 : Why this DFC journey? a) Brief description of why your team has chosen to take part in this DFC Challenge b) Objectives of your project c) What change are you campaigning for? What bother you a lot? d) Brief overview of your solution/project (brief description of project – what is it about, what are

the issue/issues your team is looking into, how your team carry out the service, who is involved, where is the service, duration of service, etc)

Chapter 2 : Background research

a) What sort of research/findings/issue is involved in the project? b) Who/what is affected? c) Analysis of severity of current situation? d) What are the various solutions for the issue/problem? e) How did you arrive at the solution?

Chapter 3 : Preparation for Action Week Briefly describe the action plan

a) Work Allocation (what need to be done and who did it) b) Timeline of tasks c) Resource Management (Finances/Funding/ Manpower/Time) d) Risk Management e) Who is involved? f) Survey, interviews, observations

Chapter 4 : Our Action Week

a. What are the actions carried out in the Action Week? (Be specific) b. Description of the processes of our actions – activities/ materials etc. (show pictures c. Impact of our actions – support with evidence like photos/feedback/comments from

participants etc.

Chapter 5 : Reflections a. What objectives were met/ not met? Why? b. Our thoughts

1. „I can’ reflection – think about how much have you and your team has displayed this attitude and belief in the cause?

2. Strengths & weaknesses of team 3. Challenges or difficulties encountered within the team 4. Learning points (See next page for guiding questions) 5. Improvements to be made

Bibliography (APA style)

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Chapter 1: Why this DFC journey? We decided to choose the Design for Change project for our 2011 research education program after much thought as it gives us the opportunity to interact and serve the community on a problem that we personally feel is having a very big impact on the society. It also gives us the chance to learn loads about the topic that we chose. The objective of our project is to reduce the number of potential myopic victims and help those with myopia to stop their eyes from deteriorating. So, we hope to change the society‟s attitude towards myopia. I there are quite a number of people out there who do not really care about seriousness of myopia and the way they treat their eyes. As a myopic victim myself, I used to put my schoolwork and computer games way ahead the welfare of my eyes, which I turn caused me to put glasses. Our basic form of promoting the spread “anti-myopia” is through the use of posters and leaflets. They are crammed with information but are systematic so anyone who just decides to take glimpse can get an idea of what is going on. We are going to organize outdoors games and matches in order to encourage people to go out and play, instead of spoiling their eyes at home on a screen.

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Chapter 2: Background research

We kicked off the research phase by starting to surf the net for information on myopia. We started searching on basic information about myopia, like what it is, how it works, how it affects the eyes and methods to cure myopia. After, acquiring the basic information in myopia, we started on the impacts of myopia on the society, like how it can worsen to other eye diseases and what society is doing about myopia. We also conducted surveys and interviews to understand better on the society attitudes towards myopia. We will explain more about the surveys and interviews later on in this report. Finally, we moved on to research methods which can be used to prevent myopia on non-myopic victims and steps taken to prevent myopia from worsening, like eye exercises and using eye-care products. From our research, we found out that the main victims of myopia are young kids and teenagers. For example, 60% of children in Singapore are myopic by the age of 12 and the age of 18, 80% of them are myopic. As shown, in our research, our main focus in this project should be young people. I think that the myopia in Singapore is a very serious issue, especially in teenagers, as mentioned earlier. We also found out from our research that serious myopia can lead to a disease called Retinal detachment, when the retina becomes separated from the eyeball. This is a medical emergency as it can lead to blindness. The example above is just one of the many diseases that myopia can lead to. Therefore, we consider the myopia, a serious problem in Singapore. According to our research, there are several steps which can be taken to prevent myopia or prevent it from worsening. First, always make sure that your eyes are at least 30cm away from a book or electronic screen. Secondly, have a diet everyday with 2 servings of fruit and 2 servings of vegetables. Thirdly, make sure that you have at least 8 hours of sleep every night. Last but not least, visit an optometrist or optician for an eye check at least once a year.

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Chapter 3: Preparation for action week

Our plans are mainly to give out brochures educating people about myopia and other related eye diseases such as glaucoma. Also, we planned to conduct demonstrations to people to show them how to do eye exercises to relax their eyes. Zi Yan and Bo Dong will give out the brochures, while Yi Han will demonstrate the various eye exercises to the students. As Bo Dong has competition during the first few days, Zi Yan and Yi Han are responsible for publicizing our project at the main atrium in the afternoon. In preparing for the Action Week, we carried out research on eye exercises and more on myopia and related eye diseases. We carried out surveys to check the people‟s awareness on myopia.

We found out that actually many people were

aware of myopia, despite the high myopia rate in Singapore. We concluded that people just needed to be more proactive in order to prevent myopia. Actual Responses Q9. What are the steps you feel that can be taken to reduce the number of myopic kids? ‘‘Encourage more outdoor activities. Reinforce awareness among parents and children about the importance of eye care.’’ ‘‘More can be done to cultivate good eye care habits right from the start and not at primary school level. Spreading of eye care messages and habitual cultivation helps.’’

Q8. Do you think the authorities are doing enough to prevent myopia in schoolchildren? In conclusion, the public generally have a clear concept on what is myopia. What is lacking is only the proactive steps taken to prevent it.

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Chapter 4: Our action week On action week, we gave out brochures to people telling them about our project. Students and teachers came to our booth to read on about our project, and they were impressed with our project as they never thought that myopia was inherited. They were also given quizzes about the other booths and our booth. Some actual feedback were ‘ I never thought that myopia was due to inheritance!’ ‘ The poster was well done, very informative.’ There were also quizzes given out to people regarding our project. The result is as follow. Out of 30 participants, all of them answered the quiz correctly, again confirming our belief that people have a high awareness of myopia. Also, during action week, we taught participants about eye exercises and also gave out brochures regarding eye exercises. Here is an excerpt of the brochure.

Eye exercises:

The Temple Massage

With the pointer finger of each hand, massage your temples (the side of the head on the level with the eyes) in the depression that you will find there. If you wear glasses, the depressed location is right underneath each side of your glasses frame.

The Nose Bridge Massage

Use the finger and thumb of one hand to gently pinch and massage the uppermost part of the nose. Again, if you wear glasses, this is right under where the center of the glasses sets upon your nose.

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Many of the participants also pledged on our posters to take action against myopia, therefore, we can conclude that our project is successful. We only served to warn people about the seriousness of myopia, and it is up to them whether they want to take action against it or not. „This exhibit is really, really informative, and I felt that the information is very useful in helping me understand about myopia and its related problems. It is the same in primary school…people would come, and put up stuff about myopia and the like, but there is no proactive action taken against it.‟ – One of the participants.

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Chapter 5: Reflections

Throughout this entire project, we have experienced firsthand-the coordination, and cohesiveness that went into this entire project. Our aim was to promote the awareness of good eye care, by personally engaging each and everyone during the Awareness Week. We achieved our objectives, judging by the reaction of the participants. They appeared fairly knowledgeable about the topic when being presented with a quiz. Together, as a team, we worked together to make this project a success. There were times when our confidence and beliefs got tested, but we still strived together as a team. Our team, overall, was strong in areas such as the spirit of volunteerism and also resource management. However, nothing is perfect, and one area in which our team fell short on was time management and prioritisation, partly due to our packed schedules. Also, due to our ineffective time management, we had to frequently meet up in school to catch up on our research. Our busy schedules did not help either, and to some extent there were minor arguments on when to meet. Fortunately, on hindsight, our weaknesses had minimal effect on our Action and Awareness Week preparation. Through this project, we have been very fortunate to serve and give to the community. It has made a difference in our lives, being satisfied to be able to interact with the community throughout the entire course of this project. Unfortunately, nowadays, with the busy schedule, it is very easy for young people to say “I don‟t have time for that.”. To some extent it did affect us a little, but at the end of the day, when there‟s a will, there‟s a way. We have also learnt a lot during this project. We recall when one student asked us “So why myopia?”. These three words made us reflect and think, why? Why not other topics? We decided that myopia was a problem. We (3 of us) are all myopic, thus able to understand the feelings of those affected by myopia. Our project taught those with perfect eyesight to cherish their eyesight. Future research may evolve around what can be done to prevent myopia. However, while our project was successful in getting the message across, it depends on the mindset if the person on whether he wants to care for his eyes. This will have to be taken into consideration when doing future research concerning myopia. Based on our survey, we found a pressing need for authorities to ramp up their efforts to prevent myopia.

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