Elderly Challenge - Observation 4

My granny's anti nausea wristband

Yesterday, my granny came to Singapore to stay with us for a week. Today, we went out to have lunch. As my granny has diabetes, she had to be careful with whatever she eat. She also cannot eat food that are too hard for her dentures, for example fried food and crunchy vegetables. She also cannot eat spicy food. When my mum cook dinner, she had to cook the vegetables longer to soften them for my granny. I am wondering if hawker centers could provide “Elderly Meal”, just like Kids Meal. When my dad drive us around Singapore to show my granny around, my granny has this anti nausea wristband then will prevent her from getting motion sickness, which I thought is quite a nice invention. In the past, before my granny has it, she always have to eat something sour like lemon to prevent herself from vomiting.

Elderly Challenge - Observation 3

During my stay at my grandparents’ house in Malaysia, I observed that both my grandparents move around the house very slowly, need more support to move around. That is also a new handle for my granny to hold on when she walk up and down the stairs. The handle was built for her safety as she had previously fall down the stairs before. She always make sure that the chair is in the right position before she sit down. She also told me that when she wear slippers nowadays when she enter the kitchen and the toilet so that she will not slip and fall due to puddles of water. As she grow weaker, she don’t carry heavy stuff anymore, leaving it to my uncle and aunt who stayed with my grandparents. She also squat down to get things and get up more slowly. She still do light housework like feeding the chickens and brewing coffee as she will feel bored if she has nothing to do. When she was still fit, she could cycle to the streets to buy stuff. However, she can no longer cycle so my uncle will drive her to the streets whenever she need to buy some things.

The handle for my granny.

My granny's slippers.

Holiday work - Part 1: Understanding the ‘The Elderly Challenge’

FOUR key recommendations of the report:

• Housing for Seniors : There were be different types of housing to meet the different needs of seniors to get them to live as a part of the family and community.

• Accessibility for Seniors : Improvements should be made to the environment to allow the seniors to move around more easily.

• Caring for Seniors : Healthcare and Eldercare services should be more affordable, more efficient, have a variety services and accessible to seniors living in the community easily.

• Opportunities for Seniors : More activities should be organized to encourage the seniors to be more active in the community, allowing them to make friends.

ONE way that the CAI report is recommending to make our public housing more elderly-friendly :

The CAI report is recommending that the government should consider introducing guidelines for the provision of accessibility and safety features in the homes for seniors, through a review of the Code on Barrier-Free Accessibility, to create a more elderly-friendly environment.

TWO ways on how we can ensure that the quality of elderly care here in Singapore is affordable :

• The government should top up Medisave accounts of less well off Singaporeans where there are budgetary surpluses to ensure that seniors have the means to afford healthcare services.

• MOH should review the ElderShield scheme, to improve the coverage for elderly Singaporeans who require long term care.

THREE things that you can do, as an SST student, to help overcome these elderly challenges :

• I could design some equipment to help the seniors to move more easily around their environment. For example, I could design wheelchairs which allow seniors to move up and down then stairs conveniently so that they could have access to places with stairs.

• I could arrange activities for the senior to make them more active in their social life. For example, I could invite them to our school to share about their experiences so that we can learn from them and they would feel happy that they had contributed to the community in some ways.

• I could treat seniors around me such as my neighbors and grandparents and help them whenever they need help. For example I could help those who are wheelchair-bound to get around.

Personal Reflection (NEwater visit)

From today visit, I learnt what are the 4 nation "taps", how household used water is being treated into portable water (NeEwater) and how clean is NEwater.

After visiting the NEwater Visitor Center, I understood that with the advanced technology, lots of things are made possible. I also understood that the importance of water.

Something that I have learned interesting today will be that 15% of Singapore's from NEwater.

As a citizen, I can help with water conversation by not wasting water. Ways to make full use of our precious water will be turning off the tap while brushing our teeth and use a basin of water to wash our dishes instead of under a running tap.

Personal Reflection (8th Mar 2010)

For today's lesson, I learnt that to create a presentation of good quality, every team members must put in their best efforts. I also learnt that identifying our targeted audience can allow us to come up with a better design. Another thing that I have learnt is that noticing each details of the problem can allow us to come up with a solution that works better.

After the lesson, I had understand that a design had to be simple so that the people can understand to operate it quickly and easily. I also understood that a design have to fit the way people want to do it in order for it to be accepted by the targeted audience.

One interesting thing that I learnt today is that if we look at different perspective of views, a design can be improved better to benefit the world.

Photography..People..

snap this picture while Serene is trying to take hers..

trying to take a picture of the school while Reuven thought that I am taking picture of him..

might as well take his at the same time..

taking picture of Arthur and Yifan while they are taking picture of something far out there..

End of our Taking-picture-of-other-people Session..

Photography

Different types of photography

• Street photography
• Sports photography
• Documentary photography
• Aviation photography
• Fusion Photography
• Rollout photograph
• Astronomical photography
• Still life photography
• Wildlife photography
• Landscape photography

Equipments needed for Photography

• Camera
• Reflector
• Tripod for greater stability during long exposure

Aperture

• Adjustment of the lens opening
• Measured as f-number
• Controls the amount of light passing through the lens
• Has an effect on depth of field and diffraction

Focus

• Adjustment to place the sharpest focus where it is desired on the subject

Shutter Speed

• Adjustment of the speed of the shutter to control the amount of time during which the imaging medium is exposed to light for each exposure
• May be used to control the amount of light striking the image plane

ISO Speed

• Are employed on modern digital cameras as an indication of the system's gain from light to numerical output and to control the automatic exposure system.
• Higher the ISO number the greater the film sensitivity to light; the lower ISO number, the film is less sensitive to light
• Correct combination of ISO speed, aperture, and shutter speed leads to an image that is neither too dark nor too light

Metering

• Measurement of exposure
• Control the highlights and shadows

White Balance

• Control the color temperature

For more information on color temperature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_temperature

Composition

• Rules of Thirds - dividing the image by 2 vertical and 2 horizontal lines, the 4 intersection of these line will be the most interesting places for main subject(s)

For examples for Rules of Thirds: http://www.photo96.com/blog/?p=371

Sources:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3ASearch&search=photography+type&go=Go *

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photography