This course introduces innovative pedagogies to students, engages students in critical examination of the current education system at primary and secondary level and offers experiences for students to practice innovative pedagogies in real, situated contexts. This course places emphasis on practice of theories in real life situations and in a practical manner. Students will work with a community partner of their own choice based on interests and chosen topics in a 3-month placement. After this course, students should be able to select and design innovative pedagogies both suitable and practical for specific contexts regardless of their teaching level or teaching environment. On-going support and facilitation with be provided by the course instructor throughout the course while mentoring and guidance will be provided by community partners during the placement. Students’ performance in the course will be evaluated through a variety of means including in-class presentation, reflective writing, and invention and design of T&L materials. Designed materials will be adopted and used by the community partners.

In this project, undergraduate and post-graduate students will work together as a task force to exchange teaching and learning ideas concerning lesson and curriculum design with the FT teachers of partner school in India. The collaboration this year aims to provide valuable learning opportunities for student teachers to work across subject boundaries, to contribute to the development of work of our community partners (Happy Tree Social Services) and stimulate critical thinking and reflection on educational issues through sharing perspectives and experiences in an international experiential learning trip to Delhi, India. Students in this course will be mentored by the course instructors, Happy Tree Social Services (our local NGO that we have partnered with) and the teachers on site in India. Undergraduate and post-graduate students will also co-mentor each other which will be a truly innovative part of the course and will help reinforce the constructivist theories that underpin the UG and PGDE Teacher Education programmes at HKU.

This elective course is designed to develop in UG Education Majors the knowledge, skills, beliefs and awareness needed to be an effective mentor and advocate for disadvantaged youth to address social and educational inequality. The course integrates regular university-based interactive seminars on mentoring skills with an experiential learning component in which each participant mentors a secondary learner, supporting and advocating for the learner academically and socially on a regular basis across two semesters.

Student-teachers will meet with the secondary learner-mentee on a one-to-one, face-to-face basis for eight to ten meetings and also contact their mentee electronically (e.g. whatsapp) once a week to provide social and academic support. The mentor-protégé meetings will be primarily outside of school to broaden proteges’ experience and horizons. Two excursions in Hong Kong will be organised for all mentors and mentees to visit a part of Hong Kong unfamiliar but of interest to the mentees, or undertake an activity which is new/unfamiliar to mentees.

Mentees (protégés) from secondary schools will benefit socially and academically from having a personal mentor as they navigate the challenges of secondary education and adolescence. The school will benefit from having additional support for their students, many of whom live below HK’s poverty line. Student-teachers in the Faculty of Education enrolled on the course will develop mentoring skills and a deepened understanding of society which will contribute to their overall development as education professionals.

The programme sets out to build a long-term relationship between the Faculty of Education at HKU and a rural school in Cambodia which houses children impacted by trafficking and poverty. The focus will be to co-construct a curriculum to develop resilience for the children there with the teachers and volunteers of the school by adopting a ‘train the trainers’ model of professional development. Through this sustained relationship we aim to attend to both the rural Cambodian and the HKU communities by developing global leaders with social awareness and empathy. Research demonstrates that teachers’ resilience enhances their job satisfaction and teaching effectiveness, and at the same time, allows teachers to nurture resilience in their own students to cope with the challenges of the 21st century. Since 2015, the Faculty of Education of HKU has endeavored to advance teacher education by designing dynamic experiential learning programmes both abroad and here in Hong Kong. The current program highlights one of the key approaches that contextualizes the knowledge of teachers’ resilience in working with a vulnerable target group and carefully incorporates Kolb’s (2015) reflective learning cycle into the program. Student teachers learn to integrate academic theories and actively experiment through continuous observation, trial-and-error and reflection. Students also receive structured input sessions and reflect through ongoing guided reflective exercises.

The course “An Experiential Approach to Learning and Teaching in a Regional Educational Institution” (BBED6742) has widened the learning horizon of BEdBSc students in 2015-2017. In SETL 2015-16, our nine participants particularly valued the opportunity to deepen their understanding of the real-world problem (mean score – 88.9), the field experience (86.1) and the support from the HKU supervisor (91.7) and Thailand mentors (88.9). Based on the recent GHELF project 2016-17, HKU students have indicated strong expectations on this program, particularly on teaching science in an overseas context.

Built on the previous success, this project will aim to:

• broaden the student engagement by inviting BEd/BEng students to join this program so that they can collaborate with BEdBSc students in teaching and learning (interdisciplinary learning);
• emphasise STEM education in the immersion period (interdisciplinary learning/internalization)
• extend the field experience to teach grade 6 so that our participants can better understand the importance of transition between primary and secondary levels (innovation)
• produce quality teaching (STEM) materials for the Thailand school to use (innovation and impact)

The UGs will attend a few sessions to understand issues and trends in science (STEM) education. During the immersion period, they will be supported by HKU instructors and Thailand mentors to develop curriculum materials, and organize
science/cultural activities for both primary and secondary students. This proposed study will broaden the HKU student learning experience as discussed above.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education adopts an integrative, cross-disciplinary approach for pupils to acquire the knowledge and skills necessary to tackle real-life problems. To achieve this goal, it is essential to develop HKU STEM-related major students to become proficient STEM educators. This project will adopt a multiple-track approach to provide the flexibility for students to decide which area(s) they would like to focus on, and hence reflect more critically on their roles in STEM education. They will work closely with teachers, academic unit, non-governmental, governmental and commercial stakeholders to support the ultimate beneficiaries – the school pupils. All HKU students will have the opportunities to learn from mainland or overseas STEM industries/STEM learning centres to broaden their understanding about the issues related to STEM education.

“This project aims to support HKU undergraduates (UGs) in:

• developing better understanding of scientific research, environmental monitoring and environmental education in a different regional context (Vietnam), and hence reflecting critically on their roles as educators and responsible global citizens;
• interdisciplinary collaboration as HKU BEdBSc and BSc will work together in learning and teaching activities;
• collaborating with overseas experienced university educators, representatives of Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park (BNBNP, Vietnam), college students not only in scientific research and education, but also in cultural exchanges.

In this project, HKU will work closely with the iRES, a non-governmental organization that has been established to engage young people in carrying out research and to support them in becoming proficient STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) educators in the future. Through the iREs Biodiversity Ecosystem Environmental Science Expedition that has been implemented for more than five years, the two co-founders have established strong network with Vietnam universities, the National Park and local/overseas colleges in bringing their students for environmental education on-site.

Within the three months (Jun-Aug 2018), the UGs will join training sessions and work with the community partners both in HK and Vietnam. They will supervise the college students in carrying out environmental monitoring in BNBNP. ”

This Experiential Learning Project will be incorporated into two seminar courses in the Department of Architecture – ARCH7264 Contemporary Urbanism – Adaptive Reuse and Regeneration (Fall 2017) and ARCH7563 Community Building Workshop (Summer 2018), both courses taught by the Project Coordinator. The goal of the project is to expose students to the real life issue of the lack of affordable housing in Hong Kong, and guide them to participate in a live project developed by the Project Lead in collaboration with the NGO Society for Community Organization (SoCo) to improve the living qualities of low-income working families that are cramped into Subdivided Units in old high-density neighborhoods in Hong Kong’s city centers.

“Strategic Landscape Planning for the Greater Mekong” builds on five years of design-based experiential learning across mainland Southeast Asia by the Division of Landscape Architecture. This year, focusing on the regional impacts of China’s Belt and Road Initiative in northern Laos, students will spend one term engaging in issues of environmental conservation and development vis-a-vis landscape architecture to define problems and produce innovative planning proposals. During this process, students will develop and deliver a 120-page research report to civil society and international NGOs, conduct fieldwork, individually design future scenarios through large-format maps, models and video, and have their work juried by a cross-disciplinary panel of experts. Students will actively participate in the expansion of Landscape Architecture into regional development arenas, paralleled by high-impact work on sustainable development by their HKU teachers. Supported by a multidisciplinary team of landscape designers connected to policy experts and scientists through the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), this work offers an urgently needed model of design-research collaboration. It has been disseminated to governments in Myanmar, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam, the Asian Development Bank, construction firms, civil society and agencies across Southeast Asia.

First year students of architecture will travel to the ancient village of Peitian, Fujian province to collaborate on the construction of a “Living Museum ”. This project focuses on creating a place for Peitians disappearing intangible cultural heritage, and centers on the continuing decline of its craftsmen – whose skills and traditions are in danger of dissolution. Initially, through a series of material workshops and site visits with carpenters and other craftspeople, students will experience, examine and document the tools and processes associated with Peitian’s vernacular architecture – contributing to a growing archive of local material practices. Students will then develop construction details and prototypes based on integrating these practices with digital tools and will work together on the design and construction of the museum. In the final phase, and in collaboration with the wider community and teachers, students will become part of a process of creating a programme for the new community space, through the design and realization of a series of exhibits, installations and workshops.

“Amidst the new dynamics in the changing context of Hong Kong, there are local issues relating to the advancement of global concerns. The possibilities and potentials of where, what and how people live and adapt to green habitats are critically significant to providing and designing liveable settings and habitable spaces for the people here and now. With the global paradigm shift, the Green Way of living/learning is forming and shaping our cultural preferences—an engagement of the natural resources, an intervention of green living, a new perspective of green architecture, as well as an open system for sustainable environment. Thus, the concept of human landscape is to allow students to rethink and react to our way of life in the highly urbanized city of Hong Kong.

The focus of the course will be a tripartite-model manifested as ‘theory-proposal-action’ guided by both practitioners and local community towards a revival of human landscape. It aims at providing students a learning platform between theory and action to appreciate and design green habitats for both human beings and urban wildlife through the following perspectives,

1. Green Living Concepts and Architectural Expressions
2. Living Ecology and Co-habitats
3. Sustainable Systems and Green Communities”

Students in this experiential learning project will immerse themselves in an unfarniiiar culture and business environment in a nearby developing country. For around one month, they will live with local families in homestays and they will work with local governments and small businesses. The students wilt share basic business management principles like accounting and marketing to selected businesses, and in some instances will partner with local government-run economic development programs. These principles will enable the owners to better provide for their families and help grow the local economies. Students will contribute to a reflective blog, and will prepare consulting reports for the businesses with which they work.

“This course aims to develop our dental students as a global citizen and professional of the future. In particular, it allows students:

1. To experience the provision of dental service in an outreach (rural and/or less privileged) environment;
2. To improve communication skills, especially when meeting people of different social and cultural backgrounds;
3. To plan and execute an oral health-related project and raise the awareness of the targeted population;

And, for the overseas target population:

1. To improve the oral health awareness of the target population in order to reduce their dependency on professional dental service in the long run; and
2. To educate local oral health care-givers in maintaining a preventive strategy.”

This project is a continuation of the pilot project funded last year under this scheme. The goal of the project is to engage Engineering students from HKU through a series of project-based experientiai learning activities that lead to a finai weeklong visit to Dagon University in Myanmar. A key objective of this project is to ailow students from the two locations to understand and appreciate the role of technologies in developing a sustainable urban living environment in spite of their geographical and socio-econornical differences. It serves as a unique learning experience for HKU students as they have to develop, prepare and deiiver the teaching materials, as well as to construct the proiect with students in Myanmar throughout this process. Learning from last year’s experience, we intend to focus this year’s project on the theme of urban farming and food production. The focus on farming and food production adds an important dimension to the project where HKU students, who are mainiy brought up in weil developed urban settings, and Dagon University students, who are living a deveioping country, can engage in intellectuai exchanges through technologies that aim to address a common global problem on food production.

This course will use a field-based approach to provide students with an advanced understanding of marine and estuarine ecology in both tropical and temperate regions. Students will compare these ecosystems in Hong Kong and Australia, experiencing their similarities and differences. The course is experiential learning, using hands-on field sampling techniques to familarise the students with scientific techniques used in ecological sampling, environmental assessment and field ecology. It will also integrate cultural aspects of contemporary and Indigenous Australian culture and understanding of the environment which will be compared to the more developed environment of Hong Kong.

This capstone project aims to transfer the knowledge skills of HKU students in the field of nutrition. biological science and environmental science to the people and students of Cambodia. Specifically, the project aims to promote both public health nutrition, health science and agricultural practice to the general public of Cambodia. The HKU students, mainly from science-related disciplines, will be obliged to transfer the teaching and project tools to the Cambodian university students, as well as for use in the field study in the rural villages. This project is already supported by the tertiary education, government and third sector in Cambodia with whom we already have long term connections. The project will help improve the Cambodians’ livelihood which is heavily dependent on agriculture and garmenting industries.

The project investigates the social and cultural history of Hong Kong and the city’s development as a global hub through a case study of the involvement of Swire in the development of Quarry Bay from the 1920s to 2010s. Students will be trained to carry out archival research at the state-of-the-art archive hub of John Swire & Sons (H.K.) Ltd. in Hong Kong and its digital repository at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Students will also attend professional training workshops for the development of cultural tours and tourist maps and given mentoring to co-organise a public exhibition with the Swire Properties Community Ambassador Programme in the lead up to Swire’s 150 anniversary celebrations in Hong Kong. There are four community partners and stakeholders with strong network in local and international communities specialising in tourism, publishing, history and business culture. Students will consolidate their learning through a critical reflection on the representation of Hong Kong through cultural tourism. In addition to bringing the students closer to the local community in Quarry Bay (through interviews and cultural tours), this project will benefit the overseas community through the examination of British companies’ involvement in Hong Kong.

This multi-disciplinary initiative is built on a 2016 pilot project between Faculty of Social Sciences and Department of Comparative Literature about the fair trade stories for tea pluckers with a focus on mother child well-being in Sri Lanka. Website, Videos and booklets have been produced for marketing purposes as a result. In 2018, the project will expand its deliverables to include new elements of oral health and child protection/safety by having students from the Faculty of Dentistry. Building on the students’ field deliverables in 2016, the students will spend their first part of internship to assist “Save the Children” to track the maternal child health project progress by capturing how tea pluckers’ life changes. After getting a whole picture of the context, the students will work on second deliverable with a focus on oral health promotion for mother and child which will be led by dentistry students. For the third part of this two-month internship, students will work with the tea pluckers and tea estate managers, with a special focus on the child protection/safety issues. The students will use their systematic need analysis skills, as well as the creative writing skills from their respective disciplines to develop creative community promotional materials for the child protection/safety issues. Results will be presented in the final community meeting. Students from 2016 will also help with the pre-trip orientation in 2018.

Building on the previous collaboration, this project in the rural area of Vietnam will continue to provide an overseas and multi-disciplinary collaboration platform to optimize the current respective flagship internship courses from Comparative Literature, Social Sciences and Civil Engineering. This year, the three disciplines will work together to address different development issues from the past two years: hygiene, water and sanitation. At the end of this two-month partnership with World Vision Vietnam (WVV) and the local community in Tien Lu District, there will be a new toilet in the secondary school built, a need assessment report on water and sanitation, and promotional materials for promoting locally appropriate hygienic practice in the area. 20 students from these three very different disciplines, under the supervision of WVV would take turn to lead the successful delivery of these three field deliverables. The project would make an impact on the local community in terms of “hardware” construction and “software” for community mobilization for promoting water and sanitation among the secondary school (Grade 6-Grade 9) students. Prior trainings on global development model, country information, needs assessment, ethical issues in experiential learning, narration and project management will be conducted.

This project will give the Social Sciences students first-hand experience to understand the strength and weakness of “access to credit” as a solution to the poverty issues in Bangladesh. By collaborating with an international NGO, the students will conduct an impact assessment on the effectiveness of a micro-finance project after receiving specialized trainings on the exercise. The students will be able to apply their social science research skills to the impact assessment project and recommend possible improvements. It is expected a tracking system will be set up as a result of the project for the community to follow up in future. The multi-media clip and case studies prepared by the students will document the best practices to be shared with the community. The partnering NGO will use the result to further improve the program at operation and strategic levels.

“The students will travel across South East Asia for in-depth, multimedia reporting on specific topics related to Sustainable Development, and as agreed to with the instructor as guide.

Through the process, students will learn about the issues related to Sustainable Development in Southeast Asia; they will deepen their reporting, news-gathering and storytelling skills in a real-world setting; they will enhance their knowledge of the Southeast Asian region; and they will develop high-impact, publishable reports that will highlight issues in the areas of (but not limited to), the environment, women’s issues, migration, climate change and the economic and social impact of China’s Belt and Road initiative. At the end of the reporting trips, students will accumulate work samples for their portfolios that will enhance future employment prospects.”

Through this project, the University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Law became the first university in Asia to join Amnesty International’s Digital Verification Corp (“DVC”). HKU law students joined Amnesty’s global human rights investigation team which includes students from University of Berkeley, University of Pretoria, University of Essex, University of Toronto and University of Cambridge. During the second semester of the 2017-18 academic year, HKU law students engaged in a process of discovery, verification and analysis of information related to potential human rights abuses and war crimes. DVC members worked with Amnesty experts to learn how to use open source research methods to verify information (including photographs, video footage, satellite imagery and social media posts); use tech tools and open source methods to discover new information for use in human rights advocacy, news stories, and legal cases; store and archive verified information and reports relating to potential human rights abuses; and build crucial critical thinking skills for analyzing open source evidence within a legal framework. Over the first three months after joining the DVC, HKU’s DVC team conducted research into and drafted legal analysis on human rights abuses in Syria.

As part of this innovative and impactful global initiative, the annual DVC Summit was designed to bring together, face-to-face, the leaders among this global network of students and experts committed to advancing the knowledge and skills of open source investigations. At the 2018 Summit students from all the partner universities had the opportunity to meet in person for the first time, share knowledge and experiences, evaluate and strengthen the project, build community, design a governance model, and determine next steps. The 2018 Summit was held at the University of Cambridge. The HKU DVC team aims to bring the DVC Summit to HKU in June 2019.

Ying De Group is a registered charitable organization. It is planning to a project called Ying De Winter Service Trip (2017-2018 年度英德小組冬季旅程). It is a 5-month project which consists of one internal preparation trip, two pre-trip workshops for participants, one external service trip, and post-trip debriefing sessions.

The committee members is going to complete a preparation trip during the reading week in October 2017. Various activities will be done in the 7-day service trip to Yingde City, such as village visits and class teaching at a local school. Pre-trip workshops and post-trip sharing sessions aim to help participants in consolidating their learning experiences and reflecting themselves through this servicing opportunity. All the proceeds raised (after deducting the costs) will be used to subsidize Yingde students who have financial difficulties to continue their studies.

We plan to organize a two week trip to the Mindoro Island in the Philippines during semester 1 (tentatively in December), where we shall work with the NGO “Ecotone Resilience”, in partnership with Hong Kong startup “Scoutbots” to make a 3D map of the Coral Reef in the area using a swarm of robots that we shall build ourselves. Using the massive amount of data that we will generate, we will work with environmentalists and researchers to determine a safe coral protection baseline, which will serve as a guideline to the government when designating tourist areas in Mindoro. We shall be collaborating with the large number of scientists, researchers and conservationists already present in Mindoro.

Mindoro is being developed into a tourist destination over the next few years. There is a main road being constructed into the area that we shall work in. For now, it is remote and inaccessible by car. Mindoro is a part of the Golden Triangle, which has the highest biodiversity of marine life on the planet. The area is a prime reproductive region for fish and thus, is the birthplace of the Philippine marine ecosystem. Mapping the sea-bed and coral reefs would enable researchers and conservationists to better understand the coral structure, biodiversity and vulnerability of the corals to environmental degradation.

Further, The data that we generate as well as the Scoutbots platform is open source and shall go a long way in initiating, supporting and growing similar projects across the world for negligible cost. The students at HKU shall benefit through experiential and practical applied learning as well as international transdisciplinary project experience.

We are working closely with Mr. Cesar Harada, an entrepreneur and senior TED fellow based in Hong Kong as well as Dr. Helep Yap, a Professor at The Marine Science Institute, University of the Philippines.

“We are organizing a 2 week trip to Hanoi in Vietnam during the summer semester (July 2018). We will collaborate with Hanoi International School to help us monitor the pattern of pollution in the Red river. Hanoi is located in the Red River delta having an area of 900 km sq., 7 urban districts and 5 suburban districts and a population of 2.7 million inhabitants. The red river is the largest river in the northern part of Vietnam. It enters Vietnam in the Lao Cai Province and forms a portion of the international border between China and Vietnam. Unfortunately, according to recent research all of Hanoi’s urban lakes and waterways are heavily polluted. The present situation in the Red River Delta is a warning for other Arsenic (As) affected regions where groundwater is extensively pumped from uncontaminated aquifers underlying high arsenic aquifers or zones. “”No single spot in any of the rivers within the city area can be classified as Type 1 (meaning no or light pollution),”” says a local newspaper.

Our aim is to employ self-built robots to measure the visibility level underwater in different parts of the Red River. The water bots will use high definition cameras to capture images of laser quadrant attached. Due to varying numbers of water particles, the fluctuating visibilities will be measured. This will lead to a good estimation of water pollution in that area. We will work with environmentalists and researchers to use the massive amounts of data generated to determine the various causes of pollution. The institute’s research found that Hanoi’s rivers and lakes receive millions of cubic meters of waste water a day from small factories, private homes and small farms and predicted that waste discharge will climb to 440,934 cubic meters a day in 2020.

Mapping out the different pollution levels due to various natural and man-made activities can help us to adopt proper measures to minimize/avoid water pollution. We shall be collaborating with a large number of teachers, students and researchers already present in Hanoi.

The students at HKU shall benefit through experiential and practical applied learning as well as international transdisciplinary project experience in Hanoi.”

“In the proposed volunteer programme, we will be working in conjunction with caregivers of Mae Tao Clinic on a learning and observational basis, under the supervision of health managers and resident clinical consultants. We will be involved in discussing patient cases, performing physical examination for patients, formulating treatment plans, and sharing medical knowledge with local medics, as most staff there have not received formal medical training.

Although “Medics” may not have received formal medical training, under the guidance of volunteer doctors, their hands-on experience on treatment and patient management is very rich and it will definitely be an invaluable experience to observe and learn alongside them. We will receive abundant guidance from the doctors and coordinators in Mae Tao clinic. We will be provided with translation support although we will try to learn basic Burma communication beforehand. We will also be working alongside Connecting Myanmar and Health in Action in observing the health condition, necessities, demographics of Mae Set to formulate a long term medical service station in Mae Sot. These organisations will provide us with connections with local community leaders and doctors who will guide our long-term health project implementation.

Our NGO partner, Mae Tao Clinic, is a clinic in Mae Sot, Thailand-Burma border, providing free health care mainly for internally displaced people and Burmese migrant workers at the Burma-Thailand border. The clinic is funded solely by NGOs and currently only a few doctors work in the clinic on a voluntary basis to serve the population, with the help of other medics. It also serves as a health training hub for staff, medics and volunteers, promoting the exchange of medical knowledges and skills.

By volunteering in Mae Tao clinic, we could gain an unique experience and insight into the medical aspect of Thailand. We will be exposed to many tropical diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis, scabies, lung flukes, that are not common by seen in Hong Kong hospitals. We will learn the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of diseases in an environment that has very limited resources and to overcome harsh medical treatment environments. We will learn about resource utilisation maximization, public health resources allocation paradoxes and some common problems in health care systems of less developed countries. These skills and knowledge are beneficial to us in both in personal development and future medical practice as competent and benevolent doctors.

Meanwhile, we will be able to learn Burma and Thailand language, cultures and histories, connect with people from a different culture and experience a different lifestyle as compared with the hustle and bustle in Hong Kong. We hope to develop a long-term relationship with the people there and formulate a service programme that is sustainable and effective.”

“The Porsonteay Chey Primary and Secondary School, a village school located in Siem Reap founded in 1963, is the target school of this project. We firmly believe that sports is important for children to build their own character into well-rounded and confident adult thus we hope to provide an opportunity for the children to enjoy their rights to play sports. A football team is originally formed in the targeted school, however, as there is no football pitch, the students are unable to join any annual football competition without a place to have proper training.

We hope to gather volunteers in HKU to help construct a 480 m² (16m x 30m) football pitch in a vacant area at the school. The construction includes a proper drainage system, football goals and net. Theconstruction​ ​is​ ​estimated​ ​to​ take​ ​two​ weeks.

Student volunteers recruited from HKU will be working with local high school student volunteers. Apart from that, we would like to promote cultural exchange between the HKU students and students in Cambodia in order to develop an understanding of social responsibility and to care for the community in third world countries as a global citizen. Also, as we would be recruiting students from different faculties, including Faculty of Education, Engineering and Arts. We hope that from this experience, the student volunteers could understand how to operate within respectful working relationships and could ​understand how to effectively share​ ​their​ ​talents​ ​and​ ​passions​ ​through​ ​engaging​ ​themselves​ ​in​ ​the​ ​project.

In addition, by interacting with local students in Cambodia, we hope to provide participants with an opportunity to develop a personal understanding of cultural competency and actively engage themselves with diverse populations. They could also reflect upon the needs of the target community during the process and develop ways that could fully utilize​ ​their​ ​talents​ ​to​ ​fit​ ​in​ ​specific​ ​needs.

Working in a foreign developing country could be the first step for students to step out of their comfort zone, and to explore their unknown potential and capability. On top of that, this project provides a platform for participants to work with people from different cultural backgrounds, speaking in different languages. Volunteers may need to overcome the language barriers and utilize various resources to solve problems and hence it can train students’ problem-solving and communication skills. During the construction and leisure time, students may develop a memorable friendship with the Cambodian volunteers and children, it would definitely be​ ​an​ ​unforgettable​ ​experience​ ​for​ ​them.

In this project, w​e wish to offer the children in Cambodia a helping hand in youth empowerment by promoting sports education which can provide students with moral, positive and persistent values towards life. According to athlete assessments (Bo Hanson, 2015), sports helps youths to become better contributors to the society by enhancing their interpersonal skills, confidence, listening skills, physical and mental health. In this way, sports participation can also improve students’ learning performance, reduce dropout rate and at the same time reduce crime​ ​rates​ ​in​ ​​society. ”

“Our project, English Video Learning Programme, is a sustainable English Learning Programme and has been running for two consecutive years, previously with the Faculty of Education as a credit-bearing course. Participants are expected to create some multimedia learning materials, namely videos, lesson plans with activities and teaching and learning materials for the students in Cambodia. Since we strive to make the programme sustainable, it lasts for a semester while we constantly send videos for the tutors and schools. The main content of the programme can be broken down into several stages as follows:

1. Pre-programme planning that involves preparing videos and teaching and learning materials
   Participants are expected to participate in video making and teaching material making workshops to learn about making appropriate materials for the students in Cambodia with different levels of proficiency in English.
2. Teaching material support
   Participants will provide guidelines to the tutors in Cambodia on how to fully utilize the teaching materials, and provide assistance to students when their level of English proficiency varies from the level of the teaching materials and videos.
3. HK test teaching
   As a part of our teaching experience, we would co-operate with local charities or NGO to organize English teaching lessons for local students in a bid to enable them to have a trial teaching practice. Teaching in Cambodia is bound to be fraught with unexpected challenges and difficulties, this teaching experience will better equip our participants and enable them to be better prepared for the service trip.
4. Train-the-trainers
   We would collaborate with local university students to provide tutorial training sessions in order to enable tutors to be equipped with better teaching and delivery skills and ensure they understand the objectives of our teaching materials and exercises.
5. Lessons in Cambodia
   Participants will travel to Cambodia in summer in order to consolidate the knowledge students have acquired through our videos by giving lessons.

Through giving lessons, participants learn to cater to the learning needs of the students in an under-privileged environment. Participants learn to teach without technology and with communication barrier. The lack of learning resources is a major problem in our community stakeholders. They do not have quality English lessons, yet they are eager and passionate in learning English as they realize the importance of English for their future career path. Hence, watching videos can encourage students’ self-learning motives to explore more of the topics we give them. On top of that, in the past year, our community partner will send university students to be the tutors of the secondary school students. in this case, the progress of the students will be monitored and assure they gain the support from tutors, which were trained by our participants during the trip to Cambodia. We hope to ensure the students can absorb the knowledge from the videos effectively with the help of tutors. ln this way, our target community partners will be expanded towards the university students as well as the high school students. We try to empower university students to contribute to their society and improve their English proficiency as well.

On the other hand, we hope to develop partnership with another organization Happy Tree and FUSAAC, whom we have collaborated with in the past year. Our participants will volunteer at their orphanages, shelter for kids with HIV and garbage slum at Happy Tree. These elements supplement our English Learning Programme by providing contextualized knowledge of Cambodia. Our participants will do some teaching and play games with kids and distribute resources to garbage slum. They have to plan the programme activities through teamwork.

With the help from the Faculty of Education, our participants will get support through workshop led by professorsl staff from the Faculty to learn how to create educational videos and learning materials, so as to tailor-make all materials to Cambodian students in a professional manner. Our participants will have a unique experience by creating an impact sustainably to the people in need, gaining understanding on social problems in Cambodia and reflecting on their role as a university student and global citizen.”