Nexus & SPARKD: Combining Science, Innovation And Fitness
- Written by Daily Sun
This project combined the expertise of Sarah Cole, Head of Primary Physical and Health Education at Nexus, and Anna Milani, Founder and CEO of SPARKD, the leading brain fitness gym hub in Singapore, to co-create an innovative brain fitness programme for young children. Not only was this a partnership between two industry experts, it was also an opportunity for two good friends of over ten years to pursue a common goal of exploring new realms and investigating innovative ways to improve learning and the overall wellness of individuals.
Before this project, SPARKD's training had only been used in US schools and amongst top athletes and rehab centres within Asia. Milani shares, "SPARKD aims to enhance brain and body performance at any stage and level. We want to bring this type of training and experience to a wider audience – this time, with young children." Through the teamwork of the duo, they successfully used the interactive boards from SPARKD to provide gamified experiences that left the young Nexus learners roaring with laughter and buzzing with excitement while building cognitive-motor skills through a variety of memory, pattern, matching, sequencing and reaction activities through its dual-task technology.
Cole was particularly excited to bring this opportunity to Nexus as it echoed the innovative, transdisciplinary and play-based approach she uses in her Primary Physical-Health Education classes. "PE is not just about sports – it's about the health of the whole child," Cole shares, "We know that physical and mental health are interrelated, just like relational, emotional and environmental factors are too." As the conversation around well-being shifts from purely physical to the wellness of the mind as well, research has found that there is an intersection between movement and how it stimulates the senses to collect information for the brain to analyse. Studies have shown that active children tend to perform at a higher level of academic readiness; this is further supported by the results collected from the Nexus learners in this collaboration, with over 70% of them increasing or maintaining the same results for their focused attention and episodic memory, demonstrating an improvement in cognitive development.
This project has been an incredibly rewarding experience, not only reflecting the way both Nexus and SPARKD strive to push forward with new and innovative ways to approach learning while incorporating technology, but also the drive that Cole and Milani have towards helping people improve. The duo are looking to expand upon the great reception and results of this collaboration by finding more opportunities and audiences.
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Nexus International School (Singapore)
Nexus International School (Singapore) puts its learners at the heart of everything they do. The school offers the IB curriculum to children aged 3-18 years old, taking a holistic approach to learning that nurtures well-rounded and confident learners. Instead of asking the traditional question, "What do you want to be?", Nexus asks its learners, "What problems do you want to solve?" Conscious of the ever-changing future, Nexus encourages its learners to push boundaries and make mistakes as they explore innovative possibilities and work towards attaining their personal goals and aspirations.