Biomedical Engineering Services to Under-privileged People with Physical Disabilities (May & June 2013)

Since 2006, Interdisciplinary Division of Biomedical Engineering (BME) provided orthotics services for underprivileged children with physical disabilities in the Chinese Mainland. Not only have the opportunity to apply the knowledge and skills obtained from classes, students could experience different culture of China and overseas in the process. In the summer of 2013, 15 students from biomedical engineering worked together with the students from the University of Pennsylvania and Washington University in St Louis to assess, prescribe, fabricate and fit orthoses for 50 underprivileged children suffering from cerebral palsy in Meizhou, Guangdong. Through this programme, the children could receive proper orthotic treatment that could help them to prevent further deformities, and facilitate standing and walking. 

Rural Youth Holistic Development Service Programme (25 June- 1 July 2013)

This project aimed to develop leadership skills in rural youth in Sichuan through adventure-based activities that focused on problem solving, communication and teamwork. Before the trip, 20 participants attended lectures to learn about relevant leadership concepts, and received professional training for leading adventure-based activities. This is a pilot service-learning project for the planning of a credit-bearing service-learning subject in the future by the Department of Management and Marketing.

Promotion of Children and Adolescent Development(5-14 July 2013)

This service-learning subject adopted a “positive youth development” paradigm to build up the competence, resilience, and positive self-concepts of underprivileged children and adolescents. The project took place between 5 and 14 July 2013. 40 PolyU students were responsible for organizing a summer camp and a farewell ceremony for 120 migrant children in Shanghai. They formulated and implemented a curriculum for the summer camp which covered four areas: (1) Living English; (2) Interesting Science; (3) Health and Hygiene, and (4) Intrapersonal and Interpersonal Development with the themes of “competencies”, “aspirations”, and “resilience”. The students performed very well in the service. They built up good relationships with the children, brought new ideas and knowledge to them, and developed the children with self-confidence, aspiration and interpersonal competence. They also gained a lot through the service themselves. They recognized their strengths and weaknesses, learned problem-solving and decision-making skills, developed good communication and team work, and built up the passion to care for underprivileged communities.

Advancing Oral English Presentation Skills through Teaching(3-7 June 2013)

In the summer of 2013, 28 students with teachers of the English Language Centre (ELC) went to Shaoguan and provided English reading programme for the primary school children. Students designed and structured 7 teaching kits and hosted a five-day English reading programme for students from primary one to four. They presented reading materials and followed up language activities that they had developed. Apart from the teaching, students were arranged to visit local families in order to understand the lives of local people.