Hong Kong’s dynamic Life Education Activity Programme sparks children’s curiosity on health, the body and beyond

Do you know how fascinating your body is? Know what food best meets your body’s needs? Want to gain more medical knowledge and uncover lots of interesting information? Then turn to the Life Education Activity Programme, or LEAP, established in Hong Kong in 1994, which provides drug prevention and healthy lifestyle programmes for primary and secondary students, including those in special needs schools. 

LEAP works in partnership with schools, teachers and parents, along with the government’s Education Bureau, the Narcotics division of the Security Bureau, and the Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office of the Department of Health. Business conglomerate Swire has been a major sponsor of the programme almost since its inception, while celebrity ambassadors include fashion designer Vivienne Tam and actor-singer Andy Lau. 

To expedite the learning process at the primary school level, LEAP arrives at schools in colourful mobile vans known as Life Education Centres, which are adorned with mascots Harold the Giraffe and his friend Holly the Horse. The class walks up the retractable stairs into the van and enters an interactive learning universe. There, students discuss valuable life lessons and address subjects such as cyber-bullying and peer pressure. They also learn about contemporary conditions such as computer vision syndrome, or CVS, which results from focusing the eyes on a screen for long, continuous periods of time. 

LEAP’s fleet of nine mobile classrooms are fully equipped with state-of-the-art technology including audiovisual aids, illuminated body systems, a “talking brain” and a transparent anatomical mannequin known as TAM, who teaches students how the body works with the help of a magic wand and is able to illuminate different organs of her body. 

Meanwhile, class instructors (of the human variety) discuss topics such as allergies, food and nutrition, helping the children learn and inspiring curiosity. The teachers also show children different parts of the brain, explaining how they function, and highlight subjects such as the benefit of lesser-known vitamin K and its role in clotting blood. 

Intriguingly, this vitamin is absorbed into our body, which the liver then uses to produce blood-clotting molecules that help to clog the blood when someone falls and grazes their skin. The body absorbs trace amounts of vitamin K from broccoli, spinach and cauliflower, and it can also be found naturally in our digestive tracts. 

Hands up, those of you who didn’t know all that about vitamin K. There’s the LEAP advantage at work.

Images: Copyright © 2018 Life Education Activity Programme. All rights reserved

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