voyeurism

the Life2Well Project: a thrilling moment :-)

we are thrilled, and so very humbled.

thanks be to God alone for His grace.

the Life2Well Project to be showcased during the official launch of the [email protected] Blueprint

my team and i invite you to consider attending the official launch of the [email protected] Blueprint on the 25th of May within the campus of the National Institute of Education (NIE), and we would be thrilled to interact with you during the 4 pm showcase.

come hear from my students themselves as they introduce you to two projects, namely:
- Learning at the intersection of AI, physiology, EEG, our environment and well-being (The Life2Well Project); and
- Investigating aquatic ecosystems with Computer Vision, Machine Learning and the Internet of Things.

places are limited, so please do consider our invitation, thank you :-)

To attend, kindly register by 18th May 2022, Wednesday.

The Life2Well Project shared with Senior Minister Teo Chee Hean

my team and i were thrilled to have the opportunity to share our work on Learning at the intersection of AI, physiology, EEG, our environment and well-being (The Life2Well Project) with Senior Minister and Coordinating Minister for National Security Teo Chee Hean.

the opportunity was so graciously afforded to us by the Senior Leadership team of the National Institute of Education.

we are also very grateful to the staff and students of Serangoon Garden Secondary School, without whose presence the activities of the afternoon would have been greatly diminished.

our sharing was titled An example of student-driven inquiry of their own well-being and within their local environments, as facilitated by the Internet of Things and Data Science.

:-)

my students' projects shared at the Redesigning Pedagogy conference 2022

i am very happy to share the following projects from my students will be shared during the Redesigning Pedagogy conference 2022 :-)

Using computer vision and machine learning with a view to building children's vocabulary

Kaushal Rajesh, Alastair Pek, and myself

30th May 2:00 pm to 3:30 pm, Virtual Room 1.1

This paper describes an independent research project carried out by a pair of junior college students under the mentorship of a Research Scientist at the National Institute of Education. Our project aimed to design a working device to aid kindergarten children in learning about common household equipment such as tables, chairs, and so on. We hoped that this device would help to solve the problem of kindergarten children not being able to learn during the Covid-19 pandemic due to the closure of kindergartens. We trained an Object Detection model and ran it on a Raspberry Pi with screen, speakers and camera connected to it. We took photos of different household equipment and labelled them using software in order to train these images for our Object Detection model. We made use of the Google Open Images and COCO image datasets to sift out the related images of the objects we wanted to train in the model. Overall, the use of the software such as TensorFlow helped us with the training of the different types of objects for the model and the use of Text-to-Speech software allowed us to incorporate the use of sound to project the pronunciation of the objects. Eventually, there are many more aspects we could explore with our prototype. We could make it so that it can say out the object names in different languages to help teach Mother Tongue to kindergarten children.

Learning dynamics in physics with Lego Mindstorms robots

myself, and Shao Wei Koh

30th May 3:45 pm to 5:15 pm, Virtual Room 2.15

In the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (SCGCE O-Level) Science and Physics syllabus, Dynamics is a required topic to be read by students. In a bid to pique students' interest on this topic, we have developed an activity involving Lego Mindstorms® to introduce the topic in a more hands-on and novel way. Students will be able to witness for themselves the effects of forces (provided by the Lego Mindstroms®) on objects. Palm-sized moveable robots built and coded with Lego Mindstorms® exert forces on an everyday object such as a tissue box. We conducted experiments to determine the relationship between the percentage-power and the force exerted by each robot. A pair of such robots were used in push and pull experiments on the tissue box. Depending on the students' familiarity with Dynamics, they can be tasked to code the robots and / or predict the observable effects on the tissue box as the pair of robots act on the latter. This activity is work-in-progress and is planned to be conducted with students from a local secondary school during the first half of 2022. Data gathered will be analysed to assess the effectiveness of the activity in inciting students' interests in the topic of Dynamics.

Ventilation rates in classrooms as an example of authentic inquiry in STEM

Xinyue Wu, Yuling Dong, myself, and Boon Hian Tan

31st May 2:15 pm to 3:45 pm, Virtual Room 4.15

Ventilation has always been closely linked to thermal comfort, which affects productivity of building occupants. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened attention has been brought to the ventilation of classrooms, an important factor in evaluating the risk of school-based transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This study investigates the ventilation rates of different types of classrooms in a school, located in the Bukit Timah area of Singapore. Using an Arduino sensor with a carbon dioxide sensor and the model of carbon dioxide decay, it was found that the air changes per hour (ACH) is ideal for all classrooms above ground when the windows were open, regardless of whether the fans were turned on. On the other hand, when the only ventilation is the air conditioner, there was low and insufficient ACH for any classroom regardless of its location. For rooms which were partially underground and enclosed, this problem was resolved similarly by turning on the fans and opening the windows, where cross ventilation yields ideal ACH. The exception was the case when two of these partially underground rooms were combined into one, where the ACH was only at a bare minimum even when the windows were opened and fans were turned on.

Thinking global, acting local: catalysing conversations on climate change through inquiry with Ipomoea Aquatica (Kangkong)

Ansley Koh, Yi Ming Quek, and myself

1st June 11:00 am to 12:00 pm, Virtual Room poster

This paper describes an independent research project conceptualized and conducted by a pair of secondary school students under the mentorship of a Research Scientist at the National Institute of Education. Global warming, and increase in temperature due to excessive greenhouse gas emissions, is a threat to plants. A warming of 1.5 - 2℃ in the tropics is predicted to cause crop yield reductions in the region, including Southeast Asia, and increase the risks for both heat waves and flooding. An intermediate possible scenario of global warming would be the Representative Concentration Pathway 4.5 (RCP 4.5). It is predicted that by around the mid-century period (2040 - 2069), the mean temperature in Singapore can increase by up to 2℃, to a mean temperature of 29.6℃ in a RCP 4.5 scenario. The temperature change can impact plants like food crops and heat-vulnerable plants, threatening our food supply and increasing the risk of extinction of vulnerable plant species, which are unable to adapt to the increasing temperatures. Ipomoea Aquatica, more commonly known as the Kangkong, is a heat-tolerant tropical vegetable, farmed in Southeast Asia and used in local dishes. Our experiment aims to observe whether this tropical plant that has adapted to be heat-resistant can grow well in global warming temperatures. We exposed the Kangkong to the predicted increase of 2℃ for three weeks. A range of climate variables was recorded through the use of Arduino sensors near the plant. Physical changes to the Kangkong plants were also measured and noted, such as the heights of the Kangkong in each set-up. By the 17th day, the Kangkong in the control set-up permanently overtook the one in the experimental set-up in height.

The Life2Well Project shared with the Vice Dean, College of Education, Seoul National University

today our team participated in our first face-to-face academic exchange with visitors from overseas since the onset of the pandemic.

it was fitting that the first visitors my colleagues and i have been able to host are our friends from the College of Education, Seoul National University :-)

the delegation is led by the Vice Dean of the College, and my colleagues and i at the Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education took turns to share our work.

our team chose to share our work on Learning at the intersection of AI, physiology, EEG, our environment and well-being (The Life2Well Project).

we wish our visitors a meaningful and fulfilling stay in Singapore!

The Life2Well Project shared at the inaugural Commons of the Office of Education Research NIE

today our team was privileged to be invited to share our work on Learning at the intersection of AI, physiology, EEG, our environment and well-being (The Life2Well Project) during the inaugural Commons of the Office of Education Research, National Institute of Education.

the Commons is intended to be a regular platform for learning and sharing among faculty from the various research centres under the aegis of the Office, with a view to promoting cross-disciplinary conversations and exchanges of ideas.

our team is very grateful to the Assistant Dean, Research Support of the Office, for so ably facilitating this afternoon's inaugural session.

:-)

The Life2Well Project: a concept video

over the past month, we have been working on a video which tries to capture the essence of Learning at the intersection of AI, physiology, EEG, our environment and well-being (the Life2Well Project) and its affordances for STEM curricula.

the video is narrated by Nguyen Thien Minh Tuan and Nguyen Duc Minh Anh,

with help from Le Xuan Hai, Dinh Who An, Nguyen Phuc Chuong and Nguyen Phuc Truong, all of whom are from St Joseph's Institution.

additional assistance was rendered by students from Serangoon Garden Secondary School.

we are pleased to share it with you :-)

my student-teacher conducts a lesson of his own design with students visiting from a local school

during the preceding academic semester, a student-teacher from the Natural Sciences and Science Education Academic Group of the National Institute of Education - Koh Shao Wei - attended the General Elective which my team offers (AGE08D Designing Learning Environments with the Internet of Things).

as part of his work for the course, he conceptualised and designed a learning activity for the topic on Forces and Dynamics in Physics Education, using Lego Mindstorms robots.

you can imagine how excited and grateful we were when staff and Grade Eight students from a local school - Serangoon Garden Secondary School - agreed to help us with enacting the activity, to the benefit of Shao Wei (who gained a more embodied understanding of the working out of his lesson planning) and the students themselves. 

having had the privilege to be present during the activity, i felt that Shao Wei did a great job of designing a scaffolded learning activity which bridged the concrete with the abstract (as forces acting on an object are themselves not visible).

representative feedback from the students included:

"i like it when we can do hands-on stuff; it makes learning easier";

"i think doing hands-on activities is quite useful, it helps me visualise"; and

"i wish the whole class could come so that we experience it together".

Shao Wei and i would like to iterate again our gratitude to the Principal, staff, and students of the school for the trust they have extended to us.

:-)

sharing our work on computer vision and IoT at HCI 2022

i am very happy to share that my team has been given the opportunity to share our work on computer vision and the Internet of Things (IoT) at the 24th International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). this year's conference will be held from the 26th of June till the 1st of July.

our paper is titled Investigating aquatic ecosystems with computer vision, machine learning and the Internet of Things. Its abstract reads:

The importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) continues to increase every day in our constantly advancing society. This investigative study aims to uncover the practicality of both AI and ML by utilizing it in a real world context, more specifically, to monitor aquatic behaviour. The aim of this investigation focuses on how ML can be used alongside appropriate hardware to effectively monitor the behaviour of aquatic organisms in response to changes in environmental factors. This paper describes the design, construction, testing and design decisions behind the development of a module which allows us to use ML in tandem with IoT sensors to fulfill the above aim. This investigation ultimately concludes that we were able to successfully conceptualize and create two designs and accompanying prototypes where their strengths lie in the presence of an ecosystem in which sensor data measured can be easily compared to the number of fishes detected by our object detection model to draw relationships between aquatic behaviour and different environmental factors. However it is limited due to the main hindrance of the prototypes’ incapability of maintaining clear visibility of fish in murky waters with high turbidity.

Ventilation rates of classrooms as an example of authentic inquiry in STEM

i am excited and happy to share that a paper co-authored with two of my students will be shared at this year's Redesigning Pedagogy International Conference (RPIC 2022), which will be held from the 30th of May to the 1st of June.

our paper is titled Ventilation rates of classrooms as an example of authentic inquiry in STEM.

its abstract reads:

Ventilation has always been closely linked to thermal comfort, which affects productivity of building occupants. In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, heightened attention has been brought to the ventilation of classrooms, an important factor in evaluating the risk of school-based transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. This study investigates the ventilation rates of different types of classrooms in a school, located in the Bukit Timah area of Singapore. Using an Arduino sensor with a carbon dioxide sensor and the model of carbon dioxide decay, it was found that the air changes per hour (ACH) is ideal for all classrooms above ground when the windows were open, regardless of whether the fans were turned on. On the other hand, when the only ventilation is the air conditioner, there was low and insufficient ACH for any classroom regardless of its location. For rooms which were partially underground and enclosed, this problem was resolved similarly by turning on the fans and opening the windows, where cross ventilation yields ideal ACH. The exception was the case when two of these partially underground rooms were combined into one, where the ACH was only at a bare minimum even when the windows were opened and fans were turned on.