SINGAPORE – Many Singaporeans have fond childhood memories of sketching plants at the Botanic Gardens or identifying hoofed animals at the zoo while daydreaming about becoming the next Young Botanist or Young Zoologist.
And children today still sketch plants and identify animals for Young Scientist Badges, an initiative under which young hopefuls complete tasks to earn points and, eventually, their badges.
In its 40th year, it is Science Centre Singapore’s (SCS) longest-running programme.
To mark the anniversary, it has added another three badges to its collection of 22.
More than one million Young Scientist Badges have been awarded since 1982. The three most popular are Young Entomologist, Young Botanist and Young Zoologist.
Interest in earning the badges surged after the programme was digitised (youngscientist.sscglobal.com.sg) in 2020.
A spokesman for SCS said there were more than 170,000 enrolments from 2020 until now. Previously, about 10,000 signed up every year.
Since going online, parents have been signing up their children, with nearly 40 per cent of enrolments since 2020 coming from individuals, said SCS. Previously, almost all sign-ups were done through schools.
The activities are also designed to involve parents, who can approve up to six stars worth of tasks for each badge for their children.
The kids need to complete 15 stars worth of activities to earn one badge.
In the past, the endorsement of activities was done entirely by school teachers and educators from the Science Centre.
Experts said parents of young children play an important role in their journey of discovering science and the world around them.
Observe your child
Ms Georgette Tan, president of United Women Singapore (UWS), said parents are in a good position to recognise early ability in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (Stem) learning by observing their children at home.
They should watch how the young ones play and tinker, and notice what draws their attention.
Allow them to make mistakes, she added, and reassure them when they fail so that they learn resilience.
Depending on the child’s inclination, he or she could begin on the Young Scientist Badges activities as early as in pre-school, said SCS chief executive Lim Tit Meng, adding that the youngest to ever take part in the programme was four years old.
Young Botanist and Young Zoologist badges are kids’ favourites, noted Associate Professor Lim, who is also from the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) department of biological sciences.
“These involve plants and animals – things that children will come across. So it’s good to start with the natural sciences.”
