The One Academy Students Redefine Learning Experiences at Leaps of Knowledge 2022

Students from The One Academy have fused fun and knowledge, the two things we thought would be impossible to put together into their interactive projects at the Leaps of Knowledge 2022 education conference organised by FrogAsia and sponsored by YTL Foundation. Over 500 educators from across Malaysia will gather to explore a recreation of education for today’s generation of students. Happening on 8^th October at the JW Marriott Kuala Lumpur, the conference also involves over 20 other partners including The One Academy, which will feature second-year Graphic Design and Digital Media Design students’ industry projects that reflect the conference theme: Recreation.

The theme “Recreation” responds to the needs of education in the current time. It captures and represents two fundamental motifs: ?recreation as in the creation of something new, and rècreation as in scholé - Greek for ‘school’ and ‘leisure’ where the pursuit of knowledge is meant to be enjoyed. In line with this, Leaps of Knowledge aims to inspire everyone to recreate, dream, and think ahead and out of the box towards building back better for education, together.

Bringing to life the value of ‘Thinking Ahead and Out of The Box’, the ‘Playground’ features a variety of experiential learning concepts created by FrogAsia and The One Academy. Built and developed from scratch, these Graphic Design and Digital Media Design students from The One Academy are redefining learning experiences by incorporating elements on their selected topics from the four challenging subjects that secondary school students often struggle with – Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Additional Maths, and turn them into engaging games. Their installations allow users to learn topics in these subjects through group interaction and creativity.

The Biology installation, titled “Wiggle It” allows users to control the movement of chromosomes on a digital screen by moving their entire body to trigger the multiple stages of cell division. “SUS Entrant”, the installation set up for Chemistry is an interactive game using multiple tools that users can use to identify the different acids and bases. The acids, bases and salts are represented in a creative way where they are labelled as chemical aliens. Each chemical alien was designed to have its own distinctive shape, colour, characteristic and personality to make it easier for users as they have a visual representation of these chemicals to remember by.

For the Physics segment titled “Quantum Mechanic”, the students came up with an interactive device that consists of a microphone and buttons allowing users to utilise soundwaves as energy in order to fix damaged light rays displayed on the screen. “Guardians de Hollow” represents the quadratic functions topic in Additional Maths. The team created beautiful eye-catching graphics that are not just exciting and attractive to play with, but would easily be embedded in the memory of the users who interact with them as well.

The One Academy’s Head of the Advertising & Graphic Design Faculty, Evan Yan believes encouraging students to tap into their visual, audio and kinaesthetic abilities can enhance learning. “Exercising different parts of the mind and body enhances engagement in a lesson because it creates a meaningful memory. We hope to exemplify how education can be reimagined in a way that inspires interest and curiosity no matter how challenging certain school subjects may be,” explains Yan.

Cheang Lin Yew, Head of the Digital Media Design Faculty at The One Academy adds, “This has been a great opportunity for our students from both faculties to collaborate and think outside the box as a team. The skills they develop in the process will be very applicable to their workplace after graduation.”

The conference also featured the voice of students with the purpose of understanding their real needs. FrogAsia’s Executive Director, Lou Yeoh believes this is necessary in recreating education. “This takes a change of perspective and trust, which are possible when educators of different backgrounds connect and share ideas. Together, we can push the boundaries of what we know education to be.”

This year’s Leaps of Knowledge is definitely one to look forward to. Utilising The One Academy’s students’ expertise in graphic, coding, design and creative thinking has helped create a meaningful, hands-on learning experience for participants in this educational conference. Each interaction is made to instil excitement and encouragement towards learning new topics despite its difficulty.