20S01

The main aim of our project was to interact with the elderly at NTUC Health Senior Day Care (Punggol South). It was done through a zoom call held on 27 April from 1020 - 1105am.

On the zoom call, we did a total of 3 different activities which includes a virtual tour and introductory video of the new infrastructure; Jewel Changi Airport, Hand exercises and a game; Guess The Price.

Through the first activity we introduced the elderly to a relatively new infrastructure Jewel, which they might not have been familiar with before this event. The 10 minute video showcases different areas and activities that can be experienced in Jewel. Although the video was not produced by us due to time constraints, after deep research and findings we managed to find the video that best suits our aim.

The second activity consists of different simple hand exercises conducted by our two sports enthusiast classmates. During the duration that they were given, they taught the elderly on how to gain better control over their hands. This will also enable them with the ability to exercise their hands during their free time on their own.

The last activity; Guess The Price, was a game to evoke fun and interaction with the elderly through exhibiting how prices have changed in Singapore today. Through the activity, they took turns in guessing the prices of different items found in local Fairprice Supermarket.

We were all very grateful that the elderly that we worked with were so open and took the initiative to engage and participate with us. Initially we were all caught off guard and disorganised when they suddenly joined the zoom call. This was due to our lack of rehearsals of how the whole event would actually proceed and technical difficulties we faced regarding the audio of our zoom meeting.

Quoted from one of our classmates “I felt really heartened to know that these elderly seem to really enjoy our activities even though we might not have been the most organised and well prepared bunch and I think we should really thank the organisation.” We were really grateful that the organisation themselves were intuitively giving us a helping hand by explaining to the elderly onsite. Their effort really helped us in carrying out the zoom call smoothly.

Some improvements we felt that could be done is firstly for our first event; the introductory video, we should cut down the duration. We should have included some commentary done by our classmates in the video so that we eliminate the boredom of a mundane video. We should have also introduced our rationale and objectives behind showing them the video; which was to expose them to a new environment and infrastructure which they might not have experienced before.

For the hand exercises, we should have engaged more than 2 people. We should have gotten a different person to narrate and explain the activity and different exercises to the elderly while one person just focuses on narrating.

The Guess The Price game could have been done better if we first gave an introduction to them on our rationale so that they will not be clueless on why we are playing this game. Nevertheless, they were very excited during this game.

Overall, we all had a great time and were positively influenced with the excitement and energy that the elderly gave off through the zoom call.