The team conducted a project on preventing myopia in Singapore through the Design for Change School Challenge. They aimed to raise awareness of myopia and encourage preventative behaviors. Through research, they found myopia highly prevalent in youth and linked to serious vision issues. Their action plan included distributing brochures and demonstrating eye exercises during Action Week. Surveys found high awareness but a need for proactivity. During Action Week, all participants answered a quiz correctly and pledged actions. The team achieved their outreach objectives but faced time management challenges. They learned the importance of this issue and need for authorities to do more prevention.

1. Raffles Institution
Year 2 Research Education
Design for Change School Challenge 2011
Title:
Preventing myopia in Singapore
By Team from 2C
Team Leader : Wang Zi Yan_____ (2C)
Team Member : Wu Bo Dong_____(2C)
_Foo Yi Han______ (2C)
Teacher-Mentor: ____Mrs Suhaimy_____________________

2. Acknowledgement
We would like to thank our RE mentor, Ms Suhaimy for assisting us during RE and giving us
pointers and tips.
Also, we would like to extend our thanks to those who made our project possible-especially
those who participated during Action Week.
This project would not have been possible if not for everyone who helped us in one way or
another.
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3. Table of contents
Chapter 1 : Why this DFC journey?
a) Brief description of why your team has chosen to take part in this DFC Challenge
b) Objectives of your project
c) What change are you campaigning for? What bother you a lot?
d) Brief overview of your solution/project (brief description of project – what is it about, what are
the issue/issues your team is looking into, how your team carry out the service, who is
involved, where is the service, duration of service, etc)
Chapter 2 : Background research
a) What sort of research/findings/issue is involved in the project?
b) Who/what is affected?
c) Analysis of severity of current situation?
d) What are the various solutions for the issue/problem?
e) How did you arrive at the solution?
Chapter 3 : Preparation for Action Week
Briefly describe the action plan
a) Work Allocation (what need to be done and who did it)
b) Timeline of tasks
c) Resource Management (Finances/Funding/ Manpower/Time)
d) Risk Management
e) Who is involved?
f) Survey, interviews, observations
Chapter 4 : Our Action Week
a. What are the actions carried out in the Action Week? (Be specific)
b. Description of the processes of our actions – activities/ materials etc. (show pictures
c. Impact of our actions – support with evidence like photos/feedback/comments from
participants etc.
Chapter 5 : Reflections
a. What objectives were met/ not met? Why?
b. Our thoughts
1. „I can’ reflection – think about how much have you and your team has displayed this
attitude and belief in the cause?
2. Strengths & weaknesses of team
3. Challenges or difficulties encountered within the team
4. Learning points (See next page for guiding questions)
5. Improvements to be made
Bibliography (APA style)
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4. Chapter 1: Why this DFC journey?
We decided to choose the Design for Change project for our 2011 research education
program after much thought as it gives us the opportunity to interact and serve the
community on a problem that we personally feel is having a very big impact on the society. It
also gives us the chance to learn loads about the topic that we chose.
The objective of our project is to reduce the number of potential myopic victims and help
those with myopia to stop their eyes from deteriorating.
So, we hope to change the society‟s attitude towards myopia. I there are quite a number of
people out there who do not really care about seriousness of myopia and the way they treat
their eyes. As a myopic victim myself, I used to put my schoolwork and computer games
way ahead the welfare of my eyes, which I turn caused me to put glasses.
Our basic form of promoting the spread “anti-myopia” is through the use of posters and
leaflets. They are crammed with information but are systematic so anyone who just decides
to take glimpse can get an idea of what is going on. We are going to organize outdoors
games and matches in order to encourage people to go out and play, instead of spoiling
their eyes at home on a screen.
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5. Chapter 2: Background research
We kicked off the research phase by starting to surf the net for information on myopia. We
started searching on basic information about myopia, like what it is, how it works, how it
affects the eyes and methods to cure myopia. After, acquiring the basic information in
myopia, we started on the impacts of myopia on the society, like how it can worsen to other
eye diseases and what society is doing about myopia. We also conducted surveys and
interviews to understand better on the society attitudes towards myopia. We will explain
more about the surveys and interviews later on in this report. Finally, we moved on to
research methods which can be used to prevent myopia on non-myopic victims and steps
taken to prevent myopia from worsening, like eye exercises and using eye-care products.
From our research, we found out that the main victims of myopia are young kids and
teenagers. For example, 60% of children in Singapore are myopic by the age of 12 and the
age of 18, 80% of them are myopic. As shown, in our research, our main focus in this
project should be young people.
I think that the myopia in Singapore is a very serious issue, especially in teenagers, as
mentioned earlier. We also found out from our research that serious myopia can lead to a
disease called Retinal detachment, when the retina becomes separated from the eyeball.
This is a medical emergency as it can lead to blindness. The example above is just one of
the many diseases that myopia can lead to. Therefore, we consider the myopia, a serious
problem in Singapore.
According to our research, there are several steps which can be taken to prevent myopia or
prevent it from worsening. First, always make sure that your eyes are at least 30cm away
from a book or electronic screen. Secondly, have a diet everyday with 2 servings of fruit and
2 servings of vegetables. Thirdly, make sure that you have at least 8 hours of sleep every
night. Last but not least, visit an optometrist or optician for an eye check at least once a year.
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6. Chapter 3: Preparation for action week
Our plans are mainly to give out brochures educating people about myopia and other
related eye diseases such as glaucoma. Also, we planned to conduct demonstrations to
people to show them how to do eye exercises to relax their eyes. Zi Yan and Bo Dong will
give out the brochures, while Yi Han will demonstrate the various eye exercises to the
students. As Bo Dong has competition during the first few days, Zi Yan and Yi Han are
responsible for publicizing our project at the main atrium in the afternoon. In preparing for
the Action Week, we carried out research on eye exercises and more on myopia and related
eye diseases. We carried out surveys to check the people‟s awareness on myopia.
We found out that actually many people were
aware of myopia, despite the high
myopia rate in Singapore. We
concluded that people just needed to be more proactive in order to prevent myopia.
Actual Responses
Q9. What are the steps you feel that can be taken to reduce the number of myopic
kids?
‘‘Encourage more outdoor activities. Reinforce awareness among parents and children
about the importance of eye care.’’
‘‘More can be done to cultivate good eye care habits right from the start and not at primary
school level. Spreading of eye care messages and habitual cultivation helps.’’
Q8. Do you think the authorities
are doing enough to prevent
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myopia in schoolchildren?
15
In conclusion, the public generally
10
have a clear concept on what is
5
myopia. What is lacking is only the
proactive steps taken to prevent it.
0 6
Yes No

7. Chapter 4: Our action week
On action week, we gave out brochures to people telling them about our project. Students
and teachers came to our booth to read on about our project, and they were impressed with
our project as they never thought that myopia was inherited. They were also given quizzes
about the other booths and our booth. Some actual feedback were
‘ I never thought that myopia was due to inheritance!’
‘ The poster was well done, very informative.’
There were also quizzes given out to people regarding our project. The result is as follow.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Answered Correctly Answered Wrongly
Out of 30 participants, all of them answered the quiz correctly, again confirming our belief
that people have a high awareness of myopia.
Also, during action week, we taught participants about eye exercises and also gave out
brochures regarding eye exercises. Here is an excerpt of the brochure.
Eye exercises:
The Temple Massage
With the pointer finger of each hand, massage your temples (the side of the head on the
level with the eyes) in the depression that you will find there. If you wear glasses, the
depressed location is right underneath each side of your glasses frame.
The Nose Bridge Massage
Use the finger and thumb of one hand to gently pinch and massage the uppermost part of
the nose. Again, if you wear glasses, this is right under where the center of the glasses sets
upon your nose.
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8. Many of the participants also pledged on our posters to take action against myopia,
therefore, we can conclude that our project is successful. We only served to warn people
about the seriousness of myopia, and it is up to them whether they want to take action
against it or not.
„This exhibit is really, really informative, and I felt that the information is very useful in
helping me understand about myopia and its related problems. It is the same in primary
school…people would come, and put up stuff about myopia and the like, but there is no
proactive action taken against it.‟
– One of the participants.
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9. Chapter 5: Reflections
Throughout this entire project, we have experienced firsthand-the coordination, and
cohesiveness that went into this entire project.
Our aim was to promote the awareness of good eye care, by personally engaging each and
everyone during the Awareness Week. We achieved our objectives, judging by the reaction
of the participants. They appeared fairly knowledgeable about the topic when being
presented with a quiz.
Together, as a team, we worked together to make this project a success. There were times
when our confidence and beliefs got tested, but we still strived together as a team. Our team,
overall, was strong in areas such as the spirit of volunteerism and also resource
management. However, nothing is perfect, and one area in which our team fell short on was
time management and prioritisation, partly due to our packed schedules. Also, due to our
ineffective time management, we had to frequently meet up in school to catch up on our
research. Our busy schedules did not help either, and to some extent there were minor
arguments on when to meet. Fortunately, on hindsight, our weaknesses had minimal effect
on our Action and Awareness Week preparation.
Through this project, we have been very fortunate to serve and give to the community. It has
made a difference in our lives, being satisfied to be able to interact with the community
throughout the entire course of this project. Unfortunately, nowadays, with the busy
schedule, it is very easy for young people to say “I don‟t have time for that.”. To some extent
it did affect us a little, but at the end of the day, when there‟s a will, there‟s a way.
We have also learnt a lot during this project. We recall when one student asked us “So why
myopia?”. These three words made us reflect and think, why? Why not other topics? We
decided that myopia was a problem. We (3 of us) are all myopic, thus able to understand
the feelings of those affected by myopia. Our project taught those with perfect eyesight to
cherish their eyesight.
Future research may evolve around what can be done to prevent myopia. However, while
our project was successful in getting the message across, it depends on the mindset if the
person on whether he wants to care for his eyes. This will have to be taken into
consideration when doing future research concerning myopia. Based on our survey, we
found a pressing need for authorities to ramp up their efforts to prevent myopia.
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