3. Chapter 1: Why DFC?
Our group has boldly decided to undertake this DFC project as we felt that through
this project, we would be able to bring about good to the society, helping the less fortunate or
solving societal problems. This would be a great way to give back to our country after all the
funding and support we have received from her in teaching us.
The objective of our project was to curb or reduce gaming addiction which is an
increasingly prominent form of addiction in our society today. Although this problem mainly
manifests itself within children or young adults, it is still a rather serious problem and could
lead to the breakdown of our entire society as the saying goes that the young are the future
pillars of our country. Hence, we decided that it would be good to do a part in controlling and
preventing such a disastrous condition.
For our action, we have decided to organize a one day anti-game addiction
camp/workshop for Primary 4 pupils from several schools, promoting sports as a healthier
replacement for video games as a source of fun and enjoyment.
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4. Chapter 2: Background Research
First, we researched on the symptoms of gaming addiction and found that they led to
many various social and health problems, such as frequent family quarrels as well as obesity.
We agreed readily that this was true as we also could feel for it through our personal
experience.
Generally, this form of addiction affects mainly teenagers(Source: http://i-am-a-
gaming-addict.com/gaming-addiction-who-does-it-affect)although groups of adults as well as
children are also affected quite severely. This condition is also more prevalent within males.
The situation in Singapore with regard to gaming addiction is growing more severe by day,
although still less serious than that of developed countries like the United States of America,
with almost 10% of the children showing pathological gambling ways just in the state of
Idaho itself.( Source: http://www.localnews8.com/news/28027512/detail.html) In Canada
also, addicted gamers form 80% of a counsellors workload in a certain counselling
organisation.
(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Prevention_and_correction)
Online sources state that different countries have different methods of curbing gaming
addiction such as gaming addiction clinics, counselling, treatment facilities etc.
(Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction#Prevention_and_correction)Ho
wever, we felt that action should not be taken only when the condition has slipped into total
disaster as prevention is ultimately better than cure.
We also conducted a survey which yielded similar results.
Hence, we decided to go to the root of the matter. After consulting our parents and
asking around several friends, we decided in unison that most of us came into contact with
video games around primary school time. Due to the immaturity and lack of a certain level of
education in Lower Primary students, we have hence decided to target the 1st level of Upper
Primary students, the Primary 4s.
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5. Chapter 3: Preparation for Action Week
Generally, we allocated ourselves into 3 different sectors: Logistics, Activities as well
as External Relations cum Admin.
Logistics was in charge of the food catering, camp shirts as well as prizes for the
camp. Quotations had to be obtained for the shirts and the food and the shirt design was also
put under the logistics section.
For Activities, the section is in charge of organising the different activities for the
camp as well as settling the small details such as the venue of activities etc. Activities would
also be needed to type and print instruction sheets for each activity as well as the objectives
of each game.
Generally, our planning of time was quite messed up at first. We decided to postpone
our event in the end due to some personal commitments of a group member as well as a lapse
in foresight. However, in the end, we decided to set a date and placed weekly goals for each
passing week. Every week, we would get about a few things done, for example, getting
responses from the schools in 2 weeks and getting the quotations for the food and shirt
vendors in a week.
Regarding the matter of finance and funding, we charged the participants each $15 for
a shirt, a buffet lunch, as well as prizes which were given out at the end of all the activities.
For the aspect on manpower, we decided to get volunteers, calling all our interested friends to
join us too. We gave them a short briefing cum training and also did a dry run. Our event was
placed during the school holidays, therefore, there was not much problem with the timing.
Due to the fact that our event includes young participants from primary school levels,
we had to take notice of their safety and well-being during the entire camp too. Hence, we
took extra precaution in taking care of them and appointed 2 facilitators to follow the groups
around during their activities. Mr Daniel Chua was also present to ensure the smooth flow of
events.
We had a short survey before deciding all of the above actions to be taken so as to
find out the reasons for addiction and the common definition of addiction as defined by the
general public. The audience of our surveys are completely random and not picked purposely.
The survey report is attached in the appendix.
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6. Chapter 4: Our Action Week
We started the day at 7am and set up all the games and equipment in wait for the
participants. The participants all came on time and we started at around 8.40am. The students
were all very attracted to our presentation and some even took down notes enthusiastically.
Then, we proceeded with the ice-breakers. The students were all extremely participative and
soon got very familiar with each other. Though many of them were new to the idea of a group
cheer, they were also greatly engaged and intrigued by such an idea and were very happy
when they finally crafted their cheers.
Then, we proceeded to the actual activities of introducing sports to them. All the
sports were generally well-received with everyone participating in them actively. However,
we could see that the girls had a greater preference for floorball as well as freesbie rather than
soccer or sepak takraw. On the other hand, the boys were excited about every sport, but were
the most excited about soccer.
After the day of activities, we sat down for a major debrief. We told them the
objectives of us introducing them to sports -- to increase the number of people committed to
various sports so as to reduce the number of people who are addicted to video games. They
understood and nodded happily. We also received positive feedback for the various games
and activities, with the children saying that they really had fun while learning.
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7. Chapter 5: Reflections
Generally, we feel that our objectives have been met this is because we feel that we
have been able to successfully get the message of through to our audience. The message that
gaming addiction is bad for a person, physically, psychologically as well as academically and
that sports on the other hand benefits the person physically and psychologically, resulting in
better results in the academics too indirectly.
We feel that our team has shown the 'I Can' attitude quite greatly when we decided to
undertake and follow through on this task of organising such a camp to guide the mindset and
understanding of primary school students regarding the matter of gaming.
The strengths of our team is that we really have some individuals who are willing to
spend more than their allocated amount of time and go out of their ways to try their best to
complete their parts in style. However, there are quite a few weaknesses in this group. Firstly,
we are not very on task and several of us actually keep deviating from the matter at hand
when we are discussing matters, putting us at a very great disadvantage and making us move
at an extremely slow pace. Secondly, the same few members are also very slack and do not
do much work. They do not have the initiative to start on things that are more than what they
have been allocated and also take an extremely long period of time to get their basic parts
done. Thirdly, a few of us also have too much personal commitments that we are unable to
meet up to datelines. These were also the main challenges and difficulties we faced
throughout this project -- the attitude problems.
Through this project, we have had many learning points. Firstly, we have learnt a
great deal about our own characters. We have realised that we take too long a time to decide
on things due to the attitude of perfectionism as well as constant procrastination. This
resulted in slow progress overall for the project. We are also relaxed and show little initiative
when we feel that the deadline is far away. This turned out to be our worst point and almost
prevented us from completing our project successfully. Lastly, we realised that we work well
under stress too. When we had only a few days left to the submission of the project final
report, we worked hard and hence could complete the report on time for submission and in a
rather substantial quality and quantity. Several of us from the group have also always thought
of primary school students as immature and mischievous, but after the interaction with them,
we have realised that majority of them are actually very mature in thought and know when to
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8. do the right thing. They also display a high level of self-discipline. Hence, we found that we
could actually handle them with great ease.
We feel that our project would not really greatly impact the situation of gaming
addiction in the world. However, we feel that we have made a tiny step in the right direction
and every great success starts with one tiny step. To ourselves, we have achieved something
we have not achieved before and hence we feel proud of it -- we have helped around 90
children to try and stay out of the destructive path of gaming addiction.
In general, we feel that we have taken the starting steps to a gaming addiction-free
Singapore/world. However, whether society really turns addiction free depends on the
determination and willpower of the people in curbing their desire for games. To impact the
society further in the aspect of preventing gaming addiction, we could do further follow ups
by giving talks at community centres and other places, engaging the community as a whole in
various activities to save, cure and prevent people from falling into the hands of gaming
addiction.
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9. Bibliography
(2011). Association football - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soccer
(2011). Floorball - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floorball
(2011). Gaming Addiction Who Does It Affect | Gaming Addiction. Retrieved 2011, from
http://i-am-a-gaming-addict.com/gaming-addiction-who-does-it-affect
(2011). Sepak takraw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sepak_takraw
(2011). Ultimate (sport) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultimate_(sport)
(2011). Video game addiction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved 2011, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_game_addiction
(2011). Video Game Addiction Growing In Eastern Idaho - Local News Story - KIFI Idaho
Falls. Retrieved 2011, from http://www.localnews8.com/news/28027512/detail.html
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10. Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude towards:
Mr Daniel Chua for giving us advice and guidance throughout the whole process of our
project, understanding our tight schedules and various situation and constantly giving us
extensions.
Mrs Lim Yoke Tong who has also answered many of our queries very helpfully and gave us
valuable advice when we needed it most.
The principals of the various invited primary schools for their fast and good responses to our
appeal for participation.
The primary school students of Nan Hua Primary, South View Primary as well as Princess
Elizabeth Primary who were willing to come down during their school holidays to take part
in our programme, giving us a chance to impart our skills and knowledge to them and hence
making the event a succes.
All survey participants, who completed all the surveys with utmost seriousness and
concentration, giving rise to our relatively reliable survey results.
Last but not least, anyone and everyone who has contributed to this project in one way or
another and made it a success.
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11. Appendix A
Raffles Institution
Year 2 Research Education
Design for Change School Challenge 2011
Teacher-Mentor: Mr Daniel Chua
Team Leader: Lim Kai Bing, Danson 2M
Team members: Lee Vint Seng Hein Lin Htut 2M
Low Kei Feng 2M
Nikhil Puthran 2M
Use this template to record and plan the activities for the Action Week.
Day Date/ Activity/Venue Resources required
duration
1 Wk 3 Awareness Week -- Poster
Getting Volunteers Manpower
2 Wk 3 Awareness Week -- Poster
Getting Volunteers Manpower
3 Wk 3 Awareness Week -- Poster
Getting Volunteers Manpower
4 1 day Anti-Gaming Addiction Manpower
Camp Logistics: Equipment, Venues, Prizes,
food, camp shirts, instruction sheets
etc.
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12. Appendix B
Survey Compilation Results
Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5a
Age Gender Q2 Common Q3 Common Q4 Common Q5a Common
K1 F a a b,c b,c a a b b
P1 F c c e (Phone) e (Phone) a a b b
P2 F d d e (NIL) e (NIL) a a b b
P3 M b b e (PSP) e (PSP) d d a a
P4 M b b c c a a b b
P4 F a | c | a | b |
P4 F d | e (NIL) | a | b |
P4 F b | e (NIL) | a | b |
P4 F e | c,e (iPad) | c | c |
P4 F c | c | b | c |
c,e (Wii,
P4 F b | 3DS) | a | c |
c, e
P5 M e | c,e (Phone) (Phone) b b c b
P5 F d | c | b | b |
P5 F b | e (Phone) | a | b |
P6 M e c b,c c a a,b b b
P6 M e | c | b | b |
P6 M c | e (Wii) | a | b |
P6 M c | c,e (Wii) | b | b |
P6 F a | c,e (Phone) | a | a |
P6 F c | c | b | b |
P6 F c | c | a | b |
P6 F c | e (iPad) | b | c |
S1 M c c c c d | a a
S1 F c | c | a | a |
S2 M b d a,c c a b b c
S2 M d | c,e (Phone) | a | c |
S2 M e | a | b | c |
a,c,e
S2 M d | (Phone) | c | c |
S2 M c | c | b | c |
S2 M c | c,e (Phone) | b | b |
S2 M d | c | b | NIL |
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13. S3 M e | c c b | b b
S3 F b | c | a | b |
S4 M a | c c a a b b
S4 F d | c | a | b |
S4 F b | c | a | b |
JC1 M e | a | b b a |
JC1 F d | c | b | b |
JC2 F a a c c a a b b
Column Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5a
1 Q2 common Q3 common Q4 common Q5a common
a 5 2 4 0 21 7 5 2
b 8 2 2 1 14 4 24 9
c 11 3 29 9 2 0 9 1
d 8 2 0 0 2 1 0 0
e 7 0 16 4 0 0 0 0
13
