Applied Learning Programme (ALP) DREAM @ YTPS

Applied Learning Programme - DREAM@YTPS

Overview of Applied Learning Programme (ALP) – DREAM@YTPS

Aligned to our school vision of ‘Reflective Learners, Gracious Citizens’, DREAM@YTPS seeks to Develop Reflective learners, Empower creAtive Minds through student agency and empowerment.

The ALP programme is designed to facilitate students working in teams, whilst activating their problem-solving skills, and creative and critical thinking to come up with plausible solutions to problems, from an empathetic lens. This is achieved through the Design Thinking process and tools. These engineered experiences enhance students’ social-emotional learning, develop 21st century competencies, and help them see the relevance and inter-connectedness of what they learn as students apply them in real-life situations.

Key Programmes

DREAM@YTPS through Design Thinking

DREAM@YTPS adopts the Design Thinking process to nurture confident and self-directed learners. Students develop 21st century competencies progressively from Primary 1 to 6 through an interdisciplinary thematic approach and STEAM + AI (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence) learning experience. Students share their ideas and work together on authentic problems to come up with their own innovative and practical solutions to meet the needs identified, share what they think and work through the process, together as team, to decide on the solution that would best address the problem.


The themes are encapsulated using the school value of CARE as an acronym – Caring for The Aged & Respecting the Environment, to address the future challenges of aging population and sustainable development. Students develop a greater awareness of the needs of the different stakeholders in the school and community, with DREAM@YTPS serving as a platform for the development and demonstration of values. In this way, this programme will nurture them to become active contributors and concerned citizens in the future.
	Through Design Thinking, students ask questions and conduct their research for the various themes such as “Caring for Pets, Upcycling, Waste Management, Elderly Care and Sustainable Living”. In defining the problem, students will develop a greater awareness and ownership of challenges in society that they can help to solve. They make links across different areas of knowledge by generating, developing, and evaluating ideas and information for application to a real-world project task. During the process, students collaborate in a team and communicate their ideas in both written and oral forms in front of an audience. This project helps them learn independently, reflect on their learning and find creative solutions for problems they see around them.

The themes are encapsulated using the school value of CARE as an acronym – Caring for The Aged & Respecting the Environment, to address the future challenges of aging population and sustainable development. Students develop a greater awareness of the needs of the different stakeholders in the school and community, with DREAM@YTPS serving as a platform for the development and demonstration of values. In this way, this programme will nurture them to become active contributors and concerned citizens in the future.

Through Design Thinking, students ask questions and conduct their research for the various themes such as “Caring for Pets, Upcycling, Waste Management, Elderly Care and Sustainable Living”. In defining the problem, students will develop a greater awareness and ownership of challenges in society that they can help to solve. They make links across different areas of knowledge by generating, developing, and evaluating ideas and information for application to a real-world project task. During the process, students collaborate in a team and communicate their ideas in both written and oral forms in front of an audience. This project helps them learn independently, reflect on their learning and find creative solutions for problems they see around them.

Design Thinking Process – Students-in-action

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To extend and deepen students’ learning, students are provided with opportunities to challenge themselves in the application of the Design Thinking or STEAM approaches in new and different scenarios through external competitions and workshops. Some examples are STEM Playground Challenge organized by Science Centre, 3D Design and Printing workshop @ School of Science and Technology (SST), National Thinkers Challenge and Sony Creative Science Award @ Science Centre.

STEM Playground Challenge @ Science Centre

Students were excited to participate in the Science Centre STEAM Playground Challenge 2023 with two challenges - Bridge making and Boat making challenges. For STEAM Playground Challenge #1 (Bridge making challenge), YTPS was awarded 5th place! We obtained 2nd place for STEAM Playground Challenge #2 (Boat making challenge).

In 2024, YTPS was awarded 3rd place for Reel Tank Challenge, in which our students successfully built a tank to move forward for at least 3 seconds!

STEAM Playground @ Science Centre Challenge #1: Bridge Making

STEAM Playground @ Science Centre Challenge #2: Boat Making

National Thinkers Challenge

At the 2023 National Thinkers Challenge, our Primary 4 students won the Best Presentation Award with the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to promote healthy living in Singapore. Their proposal included the use of AI to track daily calorie intake and generate suggestions on healthy meal choices. It will also demonstrate how to cook nutritious meals and use geolocation to recommend nearby food stalls with healthier food choices.

In 2024, our Primary 4 students won the Most Relevant Award for designing an application to support CCA, PE, Art and Music curriculum as a vision of their future school. Their proposal aims to provide for each student a customized profile (identifying strengths and areas of improvement), personalized feedback, tailored exercises and progress tracking to encourage self-directed learning.

3D Design and Printing Workshop @ SST

Our Primary 5 Sparkle and Art Club students were ably guided by Year 4 students from the School of Science and Technology (SST) to create models with Autodesk Tinkercad, bringing their designs to life! Our designs ranged from coasters to pencil holders and even our YTPS school building!

Bat Repellent Project with SUTD

This is a collaboration project with SUTD, Singapore University of Technology and Design. Smorphi robots are introduced to our students by SUTD lecturer and staff and this selected group of P4 students embarked on a journey to tackle the problems created by the unwelcomed bats which started to live in our school hall.

The students were able to work together to explore possibilities and generate new ideas. Some of their ideas were using electric bells, laser, motion detector, generate sound with certain frequencies to irritate the bats so that they will move away from the school hall and find a new home.

STEAM + AI Carnival

To let students have a platform to reinforce their learning, as part of our 25th Anniversary celebration, our school celebrates the future of learning in this STEAM +AI Carnival led by our student ambassadors. As trailblazers, problem solvers and changemakers, our student ambassadors shared their involvement in STEAM and Artificial Intelligence (AI) projects and how they adopted the design thinking approach to solve challenges or generate innovative ideas to solve various real-world problems.

Our student ambassadors were thrilled to showcase their innovative projects to our guests like parents, various schools’ key personnels and even our guest of honour, Mr Alex Yam. Our students have a natural passion and curiosity to discover their interest in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) and AI. Hence this was a great opportunity and platform for them to share their rich learning experience passionately!