“Educators are designers too. When I encounter a problem, I define it, scope it, then brainstorm solutions and test them one by one,” says Mrs Judy Swee, drawing the link between her passion for teaching and enthusiasm for Design Thinking. And it is this connection that led the Head of Department of Discipline at Bedok Green Primary School (BGPS) to initiate and organise the inaugural Design Thinking Conference for primary schools in the East Zone.
The event, which took place on 3 April this year, was attended by 170 teachers and students from 18 schools – a resounding turnout that far exceeded Mrs Swee’s expectations.
A group photo to commemorate the successful execution of the conference, which brought together primary schools in the East Zone School Clusters.
A casual chat that ignited a passionate cause
Despite its success, the conference’s origin was humble. It all started from a chat between Mrs Swee, who also heads the Student Leadership committee, and her fellow teacher Miss Chin Ching Shia.
Mrs Swee recalls the two of them being at the Design For Change Challenge last year. This is an annual competition where students meet and engage with industry and community partners to come up with impactful solutions to solve real-world problems. “I asked if she would mind hearing me out on this idea that I had, and since she was my captive audience, she couldn’t say no,” jokes Mrs Swee with a hearty laugh.
Mrs Swee’s “Instead of sending students out for competitions, why don’t we organise it ourselves?” pitch captured Miss Chin’s imagination, and by the end of the conversation, the both of them had brainstormed a bunch of ways to make this happen. The major objective: fun.
A group of students building their prototype during the event.
Going all in for the fun of it
“I really wanted the students to have that joy of learning without the stress of being in a competition,” explains Mrs Swee on why she settled on a conference format. She then pitched the idea to her school leaders. “Besides asking me how big I envisioned the conference to be, to which I answered, ‘100 people?’, my school leaders were nothing short of supportive of the proposal.”
“We recognised that an event like this can fulfil many e21CC outcomes if done right. By extending the invitation to schools in the East Zone, we would also get a more diverse profile of students, which we believed would lead to more creative ideas and innovative prototypes to ultimately benefit a wider group of students,” says Mr Benjamin Yong, principal of BGPS.
With Mr Yong’s agreement, there was little holding back Mrs Swee as she embarked on making the conference come to life – even if she only had two other teachers on her team, Miss Chin and Ms Nur Hidahny Binte Mustaffa, the new Subject Head for Student Leadership at BGPS. Together, they tapped on Student Councillors and support from the Parent Support Group to bring the event to fruition.
Ms Nur Hidahny Binte Mustaffa (centre), who joined BGPS in 2025, came on board to help Mrs Swee (left) and Miss Chin (right) with the programme.
Riding through highs and lows
Miss Chin, who describes working with Mrs Swee on the event as “a thrilling roller coaster ride in the best way possible!” was awed by Mrs Swee’s resourcefulness. “She coordinated with multiple external partners to ensure that everything ran smoothly behind the scenes. Even when we faced last-minute issues like lack of resources or mixed-up details, she remained calm and was ready to tackle problems together with the team,” says Miss Chin.
When initial sign-up numbers were slow, Mrs Swee reached out to her fellow Discipline Masters from other schools to help her spread the word. Even though the Design Thinking Conference was not related to their scope of work, they forwarded emails to colleagues to help garner interest for the event.
“It’s truly a grounds-up initiative that wouldn’t have grown into what it is today without the support of my school leaders and everyone involved, as well as those who helped spread the word,” says Mrs Swee, who tapped on her experience in partnerships.
Reaching new heights
A pair of upper primary students helped emcee the event.
Eventually, two months of work culminated in a comprehensive programme line-up for the conference.
An opening address by Mr Benjamin Yong, principal of BGPS, was followed by a briefing on how to use an observation tool called HoloTracker. This helps teachers track students’ Design Thinking dispositions and provide constructive feedback, when the students attempt to build a prototype that tackles one of these topics on sustainability in their groups:
- Reducing food waste in schools
- Creating a system or machine that helps to sort, recycle, or reduce waste in our community
- Creating sustainable modes of transportation that reduce pollution
There was also a keynote address by Eyeyah!, an educational platform, that touched on design thinking protocols before students embarked on the prototype building. Selected groups subsequently presented their prototypes to the entire audience before the event concluded.
Student participants from BGPS receiving the Certificate of Participation from Mr Yong.
Mr Ameer Ahamed Khan S/O Amanullah Khan, HOD of Science from Chongzheng Primary School (CZPS), felt that the conference was “a good opportunity for students to further explore design thinking protocols, as well as learn about new innovation tools and strategies from other participating schools”. He went away encouraged to further explore how to incorporate Design Thinking into CZPS’s pedagogy.
Many students also expressed their enjoyment at the end of the event. Lim Yee Jie, a Primary 6 student from BGPS, said, “I particularly loved the Bingo game during the networking break where we went around to get to know students from other schools and made new friends.”
A calling for change
To Mrs Swee, who said that she became a teacher “because I always knew that I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children”, the Design Thinking Conference felt like one of the most memorable destinations she has journeyed to in her 25-year-long career.
“One of my greatest satisfactions was seeing the enthusiasm on the students’ faces, and how they enjoyed the simple Bingo game that they played during the networking break. Not to mention, how the students and teachers came together to work on their prototype,” she says.
The dynamic sharing of Design Thinking ideas brought forth happy faces, while the prototype-building segment of the event showed students engrossed in the activity.
Now that the first instalment of the East Zone Design Thinking Conference is done and dusted, Mrs Swee hopes to keep the momentum going by making this an annual event. She acknowledges that she will need to think of different ways to keep the conference fresh, but it’s clearly a challenge that she will take on with much gusto.
“I want people to know that something organic that started from the ground up can have a significant positive ripple effect – that we are capable of enacting change,” adds Mrs Swee.
Her biggest takeaway from all these? “Don’t wait for things to happen. Be courageous and the change agent to effect the changes that you hope to see.”
Photos courtesy of: Mrs Judy Swee
.jpg)
