The proposed experiential learning project will revolve around a trip to Tokyo, Japan. Students will partake in three activities while in Japan:
1) participate in a soundscape workshop, organized by Dr. Keiko Torigoe, president of the Soundscape Association of Japan and professor at Aoyama Gakuin University.
2) partake in soundscape studies research of the Tokyo urban environment
3) conduct fieldwork on musical life in Tokyo, Japan (e.g. attending various events, concerts, etc.)
The goal of this project is to introduce students to various methods of fieldwork and ethnographic research. It will also introduce students to the interdisciplinary theories and methods of sound studies and ecomusicological research, wherein students will be expected to document the Tokyo soundscape in systematic and creative ways. This will involve participant observation and other forms of fieldwork exercises. The project also presents an opportunity to forge links between the students at HKU and students and academics in Tokyo, particularly through the work of Dr. Torigoe and the Soundscape Association of Japan.

In this experiential learning project, students will explore sustainable development through global lens and the specific contexts of Hong Kong and Sri Lanka. Under the guidance of staff from Inspire Village, a sustainable educational farm in Sri Lanka, as well as the course coordinator, students will devise and execute a series of co-curricular activities for young learners in the farm. Students will co-teach their curriculum with local youth leaders and under-go consultation sessions, peer-evaluation, self-reflection, and trial-and-error to aid their development. The project aims to improve sustainability literacy among students from different cultures and benefit the local community stakeholders. Students will gain a practical understanding of sustainability, lesson design, and reflective learning. The project will deliver course deliverables and evidence of impact.

“Critical Landscape Planning for the Dawna-Tenasserim Landscape” builds on ten years of design-based experiential learning across mainland Southeast Asia by HKU’s Division of Landscape Architecture. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, investment withdrawal and project reorganization across Southeast Asia has led to a significant backsliding of environmental and social safeguards in the planning process. This year, we renew our focus on landscape planning strategies for a series of long-delayed development projects in a global biodiversity hotspot along the Thailand-Myanmar border. During this effort, students develop and deliver a 150-page research report to domestic civil society and international NGOs, conduct fieldwork, individually design future scenarios through large-format maps and models, and have their work juried by a cross-disciplinary panel of experts from sociology, ecology, and geography, in addition to
designers and planners.

A summer elective is proposed as an architectural history and theory field study, in which architecture students from Hong Kong will travel to Venice to create an atlas of the lesser-known islands of the Venetian archipelago guided by the community partner Biennale Urbana, a non-profit architecture and urbanism research and education collective based in Venice. At the conclusion of the elective, students will present their investigations in the form of a collective atlas mapping the lagoons of Venice and make a proposal for the conservation, reuse and reinvention of the enormous repository of abandoned spaces within this archipelago. This work forms part of an ongoing summer elective series on the geography, architectural history and contemporary revitalization of islands.

The students travel to Armenia to learn all aspects of archaeological fieldwork practice. In the mornings, they assist the team, which includes experienced HKU students and Armenians, with the excavations of trenches on our archaeological site, the 3000-year-old Vedi Fortress. In the afternoons, they join the team to organize and record data about the uncovered artifacts. While the students are learning about the human past and about how to do archaeology, they are also helping introduce archaeology to schoolchildren and helping us prepare our tourism plan for the region. Select students compose blog posts to unveil archaeology to the international public.

In Hong Kong, over one-third of divorced single-parent households live below the poverty line, which limits their access to dental care due to cost concerns. This often leads to delayed dental care or refused medical attention. To address this issue, HKU dental students will provide oral health workshops and dental care treatment to both single-parents and their preschool children. The project will involve dental scaling, preventive treatments, and simple restorations in compromised outreach settings. Additionally, HKU students will empower local teenage volunteers to promote oral health and care for less-privileged families in Hong Kong.

Tai O is a remote village with over 30% elderly and over 40% household living below the poverty line. Remote location and poverty are the main barriers for elderly in Tai O to access dental care. During the project, HKU dental students will provide dental examinations, preventive and simple restorative treatments to the participating elderly. In a train-the-trainer approach, teenagers in Tai O will be empowered by HKU students to take leading roles to promote self and community oral health, participate and assist in the delivery of oral care. Through oral care delivery and home visits, HKU students can understand the social issues citizens in Tai O are facing.

This field course will provide students with hands-on experience in scientific research. The main component of the course is the project “Reconstructing the environmental history of Chanthaburi Estuary”. Chanthaburi is in an estuarine with a long history of human occupation and recently saw a bloom in intensive shrimp farming. This activity causes eutrophication and pollution of nearby waters and impacts associated ecosystems. The students will collect estuarine sediments to investigate historical changes in the diversity and faunal composition in Chanthaburi. The paleontological reconstruction of past subtidal communities can show the impacts of eutrophication and climate change in the Chanthaburi estuary.

The workshop in San Cristobal, Galapagos, will focus on urban and rural settlements and their impact on surrounding ecosystems, as well as conservation management strategies. Students will attend expert lectures, engage in field trips, interact with stakeholders, and conduct field research. By analyzing the unique relationship between humans and their environment in San Cristobal, students will develop proposals that address the challenges posed by development, tourism, population growth, and climate change. HKU and USFQ students will collaborate in multidisciplinary teams under the guidance of their faculty. Deliverables include a presentation showcasing research, analysis, and critique; design proposals that tackle conflicts between conservation and development; an exploration of the evolving socio-ecological relations; a final report with revisions; and an individual reflection.

Multiple Literacies x Experiential Learning is a new curriculum feature and learning framework for the BASc programme in
Interdisciplinary Studies. It integrates multiple literacies through collaborative, field-based encounters among students of different cohorts (Year 1 to Year 4), to facilitate students’ understanding of the social-natural world. The main learning goals are:
1) Mapping complexities of phenomena (contextualisation and interactions);
2) Diverse perspective-taking (finding commonalities/differences, and awareness of biases);
3) Creating/discovering common ground among discipalines.
The five literacies* include:
1. Artistic, Creative and Aesthetic
2. Linguistic, Literary and Communicative
3. Social, Cultural and Political
4. Sustainability, Environmental and Ecological
5. Scientific, Technological and Quantitative

*A more detailed description of these literacies is attached as an additional document.

This activity will be carried out at a primary school in Guangxi Province, China. Members of the team and volunteers will conduct quality education programmes, knowledge lectures, academic counselling and extra-curricular activities at the target school with the aim of helping students to broaden their horizons, learn about themselves and feel cared for by the community. Through this programme, HKU students can enhance their learning abilities, develop leadership skills and increase their sense of social responsibility. While conveying the spirit of volunteerism, BTP will also actively promote cooperation and exchanges between Hong Kong and Mainland in the cause of public welfare and education.

The Yonder Narnia Project (YNP) is a volunteer-driven educational program that aims to bring learning opportunities to rural communities in Yunnan Province. Founded in 2010 by Beyond the Pivot (BTP), the project collaborates closely with the Teaching Corps in North-west Yunnan, a nongovernmental local organization expert in rural education. Over the years, YNP has successfully conducted 17 teaching initiatives, primarily focusing on primary schools in Ninglang, Lijiang, China, with 15 of these events taking place in that area. Last year, we led more than 20 volunteers and successfully completed the project, making a satisfactory impact both on local schools and on our volunteers. The successful track of previous trips made YNP a trusty project and should be funded.
We offer a range of extracurricular courses to elementary and middle school students in Yunnan Province, from arts, natural science, to various extension activities such as career experience, disease protection, and health. By participating in these classes, local children can acquire knowledge and gain a deeper understanding of the world. Our volunteers also help students develop more effective learning and living habits.
As for the training, we have planned workshops during the second semester to make sure student volunteers are equipped with abundant knowledge of teaching. Experienced voluntary teachers will be invited to deliver speeches on teaching methods. 2-3 hours per week will be ensured for student volunteers to prepare curriculums for local schools, which will help them learn how to collaborate with others and deliver engaging lectures. The summer project will last two weeks and provide HKU students with precious opportunities to devote in volunteer work and have a glimpse of rural areas in Southern China.
Every year after the project, volunteers’ teaching diaries, photos, and learning records of local students are collected as deliverables. The most typical works will be presented on social media to raise awareness of the importance of education in rural areas of China. YNP’s efforts in the past few years have reached some acheivements, gaining an increase in the number of HKU students interested in voluntary work. HKU has also acquired a good reputation in Teaching Corps in North-west Yunnan and domestic schools. They all expressed the willingness for long-term cooperation with HKU students.

In Tanzania, the prevalence of dental caries in primary dentition was high, with 98.4% of decayed teeth being untreated. Adolescents and those from rural areas also had higher odds of dental caries experience. Most Tanzanian children and adolescents suffer from constant pain and discomfort from dental issues, hindering fundamental functions of the oral cavity hence their quality of life, e.g. struggling to eat and speak, experiencing discomfort that interferes with sleep, and feeling uneasy participating in important childhood activities such as playing and schooling. Moreover, the high proportion of untreated decayed teeth indicates limited access to oral healthcare in this community. The dentist to population ratio in Tanzania is around 1:120,000 people, compared to a recommended ratio of 1:7,500 by the WHO in developing countries. The proposed project provides dental students with opportunities to bring dental services and education to these underserved children, improving their oral health and overall well-being.

Mianhuasha Project is a project under BTP registered under HKU. Last year, we initiated a new project with rural public welfare Mianhuasha Libraries whose donations come from all walks of life in Xinning County, Hunan Province in 2016. Mianhuasha Libraries focus on children in rural Hunan who lack profound teaching and other educational resources. It is a common phenomenon that some student’s parents fail to be back home for many years and children are cared by their grandparents or other relatives. To some extent, their feeling and needs sometimes may be ignored and not well responded. Meanwhile, the education is limited and constrained in that area. The founder of libraries invited us to explore more ways to support them and encourage them to complete further studying.
In response to this situation, last year we designed general knowledge courses, like poems, reading techniques, STEM courses to expand their horizons and lead them to establish their future path, and courses of improving self-confidence, gradually encouraging them to study hard with a specific aim and further to break the “poverty loop”. And we conducted sexual education to teach them appropriate manners and how to protect themselves. Meanwhile, apart from teaching activities, we also provided emotional support by organizing some games related to teamwork and friendship among pupils. Besides, we set up WeChat group to respond the needs in a long term. Last time, we were supported by Law Sun Fund.
The summer camp in last summer vacation was a success. Our event ended last year with the volunteers receiving praise from parents. Even a month after the event, we still have parents asking in the group if we will organize this event again next year! In October, Mianhuasha Library agreed to continue cooperate with us.
This year we are planning to establish the student file for each student who attends our program and make “home visits” to visit students’ parents to deepen communication and interaction, in addition to continuing the arrangement from last year. We never forget why we started. We would like to do what we can to provide companionship, improve self-confidence, broaden their horizon and also teach social skills about politeness, for them to go and maybe want to go to complete further education. We hope students can learn some skills, gain friendship among their fellows, have enthusiasm to further study, and have the intention to explore their inner world.
As for the participants, they will participate training sessions organized by BTP to learn basic education theories and some practical skills on how to design a class to ensure the comprehensibility. They will also learn how to interact with primary school students effectively.
Volunteers will be more driven to give back to society and may even choose to pursue a career in social work since they will have a greater knowledge of the spirit of social service. Volunteers can show off their knowledge and hone their lecturing skills while working with young pupils. They can even become teachers. Additionally, participants will have experience dealing with a few “emergencies”: how to change the path when the desired result wasn’t achieved, a topic that will be covered in reflection sessions.

Beyond the Pivot (BTP) is a Hong Kong-based NGO (91/10725) initiated by students from the University of Hong Kong (HKU). It’s established as a platform for volunteers and social workers to spread the spirit of benevolence and raise their awareness as global citizens. By spreading the spirit of servicing, we are devoted to improving the living conditions in developing areas while promoting local education and healthcare. Established in 2010 as a branch of BTP, SinCere has had 8 years of teaching experience in Dazhou, Sichuan with two unique characteristics including 1+1 model (working in both primary and middle schools) and creative courses. Volunteers are recruited as temporary teachers in local schools to take part in students’ learning experience. Under current pandemic and due to some difficulties of communication, we plan to focus on teaching one primary school in Guangan, Sichuan, and try to build up a long-term relationship with children in various formats including face-to-face and online teaching. In order to better fulfil local students’ education desire, we have developed academic seminars, science experiments, developmental training and inspiring speech contests, which have helped them develop their interests and expanded their horizons. In response to the psychological shift started during adolescents, a tree hole mailbox has been set to local schools where students could feel free to write about their concerns to volunteers and special attention would be paid to comfort them and to ensure their wellbeing. In addition, we have asked volunteers to join in the classes’ regular shifts to tighten their relationship with the students and to relieve their loneliness by reinforcing their trust bond. Besides, we plan to pay more attention to students’ career paths this year thus we have prepared professional lectures to guide them to choose their suitable careers and help them find their dream occupation to pursue while encouraging them to improve their academic performance. In addition, physiological health education will also be delivered to raise their awareness of personal hygiene. According to interviews with local students, they reported to have more confidence in pursuing their dreams after communicating with volunteer and are more capable of dealing with the sudden change in their body and mental development. Their academic performance has improved significantly with the learning strategies introduced and are better at handling multi-task homework. Not only could local students get improved, volunteers also learnt deeper about the spirit of social service and were motivated to make more contributions to the society or even pursued social work as their occupation. While teaching younger students, volunteers could demonstrate their learnt knowledge and improve their ability of delivering presentations in HKU. Deliverables including posts from our official account, students’ reflection, volunteers’ teaching diaries and evaluation videos are available if needed.