ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024
Junior Achievement Singapore cordially invites your students to participate in our ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024, a challenge focusing on addressing the challenge of the dengue endemic.
Dengue is a risk in many parts of Asia. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), as of 11 Dec 2023, there were 35 active dengue clusters in Singapore. Of the 3.5 billion people around the world living in dengue endemic countries and at risk of contracting dengue fever, 1.3 billion live in dengue endemic areas in 10 countries of the South East Asia Region. . The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified dengue as the most widespread and rapidly increasing vector-borne disease in the world.
A scientific working group that advocates for dengue vaccine introduction strategies in Asia, Asia Dengue Voice and Action Group (ADVA) and Junior Achievement (JA) are launching an ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024, an inaugural initiative in five countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) with a focus of engaging our youth to experience international collaboration first-hand while developing innovative solutions, enabling them to gain a broader understanding of the dengue endemic.
The ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024 provides a platform for students to develop ideas to address one of the world’s most critical environmental issues we are facing today – the dengue endemic. Our aim is to inspire and empower future generations, introducing young students to the challenges faced by the dengue endemic and to encourage them to come up with innovative solutions to prevent and control dengue outbreaks for the communities around them. An individual and collective community action to prevent mosquito breeding to reduce the Aedes mosquito population is much needed.
Theme of the Challenge:
Teams compete and solve for the challenge by establishing innovative and potentially viable solutions to address the dengue endemic challenges.
Teams can select one of the 3 topics below as their challenge:
1. Outreach
Using a media tool kit developed by your team, design an outreach program to educate the community on the dangers of dengue and how to prevent dengue infections.
You will:
2. Surveillance and Epidemiology
Design a surveillance system for detecting the vector (Aedes Egypti) in and around your school campus.
You will:
3. Vector Control: Prophylaxis/Prevention
Create a presentation or paper that describes top recommendations or a best strategy for the optimal design of buildings to protect occupants from mosquito bites.
You will:
Students Learning Objectives:
Student Participation Criteria:
1. Ages: 16 - 19 years old
2. Grade level: Sec 4 / JC / ITE / Polytechnic
3. Course of study: Any discipline
4. No of students per team: 3 students per team
Phases of the Competition:
Awards:
All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. Teams will be competing for the following awards at the Singapore Finals:
1st Place: Trophy & represent Singapore at the Asia Pacific Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2nd place: Trophy
3rd place: Trophy
Best Presentation: Trophy
Most Innovative Idea: Trophy
Asia Pacific Grand Finals 1st Place: Trophy + iPad
Dengue is a risk in many parts of Asia. According to the National Environment Agency (NEA), as of 11 Dec 2023, there were 35 active dengue clusters in Singapore. Of the 3.5 billion people around the world living in dengue endemic countries and at risk of contracting dengue fever, 1.3 billion live in dengue endemic areas in 10 countries of the South East Asia Region. . The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified dengue as the most widespread and rapidly increasing vector-borne disease in the world.
A scientific working group that advocates for dengue vaccine introduction strategies in Asia, Asia Dengue Voice and Action Group (ADVA) and Junior Achievement (JA) are launching an ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024, an inaugural initiative in five countries (Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand) with a focus of engaging our youth to experience international collaboration first-hand while developing innovative solutions, enabling them to gain a broader understanding of the dengue endemic.
The ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024 provides a platform for students to develop ideas to address one of the world’s most critical environmental issues we are facing today – the dengue endemic. Our aim is to inspire and empower future generations, introducing young students to the challenges faced by the dengue endemic and to encourage them to come up with innovative solutions to prevent and control dengue outbreaks for the communities around them. An individual and collective community action to prevent mosquito breeding to reduce the Aedes mosquito population is much needed.
Theme of the Challenge:
Teams compete and solve for the challenge by establishing innovative and potentially viable solutions to address the dengue endemic challenges.
Teams can select one of the 3 topics below as their challenge:
- Outreach
- Surveillance and Epidemiology
- Vector Control: Prophylaxis/Prevention
1. Outreach
Using a media tool kit developed by your team, design an outreach program to educate the community on the dangers of dengue and how to prevent dengue infections.
You will:
- Identify the objectives of the outreach program
- Define verifiable outcomes in relation to these objectives
- Plan the overall strategy for achieving such objectives and outcomes
- Decide what types of media to target in your plan
- Craft messages and design media for tool kit that are appropriate for the channels identified by your strategy
- Deploy the program in the community and verify the results
- Refine messages and/or strategy according to how well you performed (per the verified results)
2. Surveillance and Epidemiology
Design a surveillance system for detecting the vector (Aedes Egypti) in and around your school campus.
You will:
- Learn about the range and reproductive characteristics of the Aedes egypti mosquito as well as other species of mosquitoes
- Learn what ovitraps are; make and design your own ovitraps
- Deploy the ovitraps around your school grounds based on what you learnt about the Aedes mosquito
- Come up a with method of counting mosquitoes trapped, which can be used to estimate the total mosquito population on your campus
- Determine the total number of ovitraps needed and locations of the traps for optimal coverage
- Visualise the data collected and create a heat map of the mosquito vector on your campus for vector control measures
3. Vector Control: Prophylaxis/Prevention
Create a presentation or paper that describes top recommendations or a best strategy for the optimal design of buildings to protect occupants from mosquito bites.
You will:
- Learn about the range and reproductive characteristics of the Aedes egypti mosquito as well as other species of mosquitoes
- Discover the vector control options available commercially in your location, and recommend the best practice of deployment based on cost and efficacy
- List, test, rank and recommend consumer methods of mosquito bite prevention (eg. mosquito nets, anti-mosquito repellent, ultra high-frequency sound emitters, citrus-scent patches, electric swatters etc.)
Students Learning Objectives:
- Enable students to gain a broader understanding of the challenges of the dengue endemic.
- Equip students with the skills and knowledge necessary to be advocates of dengue outreach.
- Further develop idea-generation and teamwork competencies, as well as collaboration techniques.
- Empower students to be problem finders and change makers.
- Provide an opportunity for students to display their innovative ideas and passion while being mentored by ADVA volunteers to complement their learning journeys.
- Encourage students to contribute to dengue awareness education in schools and in the community.
- Inspire students to be involved in expanding the dengue advocacy network
- Inspire students to pursue career in dengue-related fields.
- Develop the skills in areas such as:
- Problem Solving
- Creative Thinking
- Entrepreneurship
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Presentation skills
Student Participation Criteria:
1. Ages: 16 - 19 years old
2. Grade level: Sec 4 / JC / ITE / Polytechnic
3. Course of study: Any discipline
4. No of students per team: 3 students per team
Phases of the Competition:
- Registration – Register your team of 3 students via the LINK
- Workshops – To enhance the learning experience for the ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge, 2 workshops (Dengue 101 & Design Thinking, and Pitching & Presentation) will be required for all participants. Teams are assigned their mentors during the first workshop. The workshops will be conducted physically in person. Workshop attendance, workshop feedback, mid-project submissions and introduction videos are all mandatory. These are all part of the final scoring criteria for the competition.
- Singapore Finals - All teams will showcase their innovative ideas at the Singapore Finals. Each team will be given 6 minutes to present and 4 minutes Q&A at the end of the presentation. Top 6 teams will be selected to advance to the final round of the competition to be held in the afternoon.
- Asia Pacific Grand Finals – The 1st Place Team will advance to represent Singapore at the Asia Pacific Grand Finals of the ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge to be held at the 7th Asia Dengue Summit on 5th – 7th June 2024 at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Awards:
All participants will receive a Certificate of Participation. Teams will be competing for the following awards at the Singapore Finals:
1st Place: Trophy & represent Singapore at the Asia Pacific Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
2nd place: Trophy
3rd place: Trophy
Best Presentation: Trophy
Most Innovative Idea: Trophy
Asia Pacific Grand Finals 1st Place: Trophy + iPad
Timeline:
Dates (2024) |
Activities |
Mon 25th Mar |
Registration Deadline |
Sat 6th Apr, 9am – 4pm |
Dengue 101 and Design Thinking Workshop |
Sat 27th Apr, 9am – 12pm |
Pitch & Presentation Workshop |
Sat 11th May, 9am – 6pm |
Singapore Finals |
Wed – Fri, 5th – 7th Jun |
ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge Asia Pacific Grand Finals (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) for the Winning Team |
We believe that the ADVA / JA Dengue Slayers Challenge 2024 will provide students with a unique opportunity to use their knowledge and creativity to shape the future of our world and we hope you will encourage your students to participate.
Registration:
Please register as a team via the LINK by Monday, 25th March 2024.
Questions, please contact:
Ng Hau Yee (Ms.)
Director, JA Singapore
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 96282704
Marissa Lim (Ms.)
Senior Program Manager
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 97514026
About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement (JA) is one of the largest global non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges of young people by educating and empowering them to transform their future and own their economic success.
Through the delivery of cutting-edge, experiential learning in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, Junior Achievement effectively broadens the canvas of possibility for young people and enriches their ability to both engage in their own economic development as well as contribute to the strength of their families, communities, and economies.
The 123 country JA Worldwide network is powered by over 500,000 volunteers and mentors from all sectors of society, reaching more than 10 million students around the world annually. In partnership with businesses and educators, Junior Achievement brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential.
More information about JA is available at www.jaworldwide.org and www.ja.org.sg.
About Asia Dengue Voice and Action Group (ADVA:
The Asia Dengue Voice & Action Group (ADVA) was officially set up in 2013 with a mission to identify opportunities to make practical recommendations in dengue-related areas such as improving surveillance and laboratory capacity for dengue disease confirmation with other relevant dengue initiatives, including V2V (vaccine to vaccination) and the Dengue Vaccine Initiative.
ADVA advocates for a collaborative approach to sharing surveillance data and relevant information to ensure the success of dengue prevention through vaccination across regions. ADVA also reinforces the importance of a united front against dengue, and presents a collaborative model for joint effort in the region to prevent the disease through the introduction and implementation of dengue vaccination.
The group has formulated recommendations with an ultimate aim of translating the science of dengue vaccination into messages for policy makers, general public and health care workers.
For more information, please visit www.adva.asia.
Registration:
Please register as a team via the LINK by Monday, 25th March 2024.
Questions, please contact:
Ng Hau Yee (Ms.)
Director, JA Singapore
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 96282704
Marissa Lim (Ms.)
Senior Program Manager
Email: [email protected]
Mobile: 97514026
About Junior Achievement
Junior Achievement (JA) is one of the largest global non-profit organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges of young people by educating and empowering them to transform their future and own their economic success.
Through the delivery of cutting-edge, experiential learning in financial literacy, work readiness and entrepreneurship, Junior Achievement effectively broadens the canvas of possibility for young people and enriches their ability to both engage in their own economic development as well as contribute to the strength of their families, communities, and economies.
The 123 country JA Worldwide network is powered by over 500,000 volunteers and mentors from all sectors of society, reaching more than 10 million students around the world annually. In partnership with businesses and educators, Junior Achievement brings the real world to students, opening their minds to their potential.
More information about JA is available at www.jaworldwide.org and www.ja.org.sg.
About Asia Dengue Voice and Action Group (ADVA:
The Asia Dengue Voice & Action Group (ADVA) was officially set up in 2013 with a mission to identify opportunities to make practical recommendations in dengue-related areas such as improving surveillance and laboratory capacity for dengue disease confirmation with other relevant dengue initiatives, including V2V (vaccine to vaccination) and the Dengue Vaccine Initiative.
ADVA advocates for a collaborative approach to sharing surveillance data and relevant information to ensure the success of dengue prevention through vaccination across regions. ADVA also reinforces the importance of a united front against dengue, and presents a collaborative model for joint effort in the region to prevent the disease through the introduction and implementation of dengue vaccination.
The group has formulated recommendations with an ultimate aim of translating the science of dengue vaccination into messages for policy makers, general public and health care workers.
For more information, please visit www.adva.asia.