Xavier Tan Wee Cher16S06IInsights and Reflection

Firstly, our group did not have a face-to-face interview as Mr Desmond Tan,

being Director of the Department of Public Cleanliness of the National Environment

Agency (NEA), was too busy to grant us one. Thus we were only able to have an

email interview with him, which resulted in very limiting answers as we were unable

to request further elaboration. We were also unable to update Mr Tan on our new

solutions and improve it based on his suggestions, due to our form of communication

being slow and inefficient, which also resulted in us being unable to request for a

follow-up interview. In hindsight, we should have interviewed another expert when

we knew that Mr Tan was unable to grant us a face-to-face interview, so that we can

have additional input which can help us further improve our strategies and action

plan. We can contact people such as Mr Han Fook Kwang, who is an experienced

party as can be seen from the numerous articles he’s written for The Straits Times

regarding littering in Singapore. Should he also be unable to grant us an interview,

we can contact a member of the Department of Public Cleanliness from NEA, as

he/she can also provide valuable input. With a face-to-face interview, our solutions

will be more effective as we would have input from an experienced party who has

seen and organized multiple campaigns and events and thus we will be able to

correct any mistakes or shortcomings, making our strategies more effective and thus

be able to better mitigate the problem of littering.

Also, our action plan could have catered to youths instead or as a future

extension since they are the leaders of the immediate future1 and thus the problem

of littering can be more effectively mitigated if they are educated and engaged with

our action plan, as compared to only catering to children from 7-12 years of age. The

game Litter Busters can also be promoted in order to educate them with the anti-

littering message and promote Bitter Litter, and Cleaner Buddy can cater to the

families with youths since the event targets families in general. Posters of Bitter Litter

can be put up in Secondary Schools, Junior Colleges, and Polytechnics in order to

promote the event to youths. However, the youths may find some aspects of our

action plan childish such as the mascot and finger puppets in the forum theatre.

Thus the forum theatre can be replaced with a talk and workshop, since they are

older they will respond better to talks and workshops, and the mascot can be

1 Mauldin, M. (2015, July 23). Embracing the Youth of Today, Preparing the Leaders of Tomorrow. Retrieved October 7, 2015.

Xavier Tan Wee Cher16S06IInsights and Reflection

removed or be emphasized less. Thus, youths will respond better to this edited

action plan as they see it as less childish. This is effective as youths are engaged by

and learn well from games2, thus Litter Busters will appeal to them, and they will also

be educated more effectively. Also, youths learn better with hands-on activities such

as the Cleaner Buddy and workshops3, thus they will better process and understand

the anti-littering message, allowing the problem of littering to be effectively mitigated

in the long run, as they understand the severity of the problem and its

consequences.

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2 What Youth Sports can Learn from Video Games | Changing the Game Project. (n.d.). Retrieved October 7, 2015.

3 Ash, K. (2009, January 30). Hands-On Learning vs. Lecturing. Retrieved October 7, 2015.