Experience hands-on learning at RP SHL

By Shannen Leong

Students in awe of the “climbing wall”, one of the hands-on stations at RP SHL’s open house. (Photo: Leong Shi Ming Shannen)

Instead of just sitting in the lecture hall and listening to a lecturer talk, Republic Polytechnic School of Sports, Health, and Leisure (RP SHL) offers experimental hands-on facilities that help learning come alive. In SHL’s open house, there were a few of these activities which allowed visitors to get to experience a small portion of what life in SHL would be like.

SHL is the niche school in RP, being the only polytechnic in Singapore that has a school dedicated to sports and health. SHL offers 5 courses and the courses use hands-on learning for the students to get a tinge of what it is like in the working world.

The benefits of having hands-on activities allow students to develop knowledge from the facilitators who can advise on the activity so that they can do the task correctly next time when they are in the workforce. They would also be familiarised with the equipment and integrate easily into the working world.

Vernice Tan, 17, Woodlands Ring Secondary graduate stated, “the facilities were very interactive, and I learn best with hands-on learning. These SHL facilities entice me and spark my interest in SHL courses.”

Two of the facilities showcased were golf putting station and climbing wall station.

The golf putting station showcases an indoor golf coaching station and it features how students in Diploma in Sports Coaching (DISC) students coach on golf putting skills.

Wei Zi Qi, a second-year DISC student concluded that the facilities in her course were “extremely useful in her learning” and allowed her to gain “industrial insights”. She also mentioned that the golf putting was one of her highlights in her two years at RP as it allowed her to learn at an easier pace.

Another station is the climbing wall station similar to rock climbing. This station trains the student's physical and mental capacity. In this area, teamwork is extremely important as well. The team members have to ensure that the climber is harnessed properly, and they have to carry out safety precautions together to ensure the safety of the climber.

These hands-on facilities at SHL help students integrate better into the working world and SHL’s open house shows that learning can be done not just in a lecture hall but in an outdoor environment with many different facilities.

Learning is changing rapidly in this day and age and SHL is ready for that change.