RubberDuck

You must be thinking "Rubberduck? What an unusual name!"

And you're right! But I like it haha. The motivation comes from the term rubberducking. It's a common term used in computer science! Often when programmers get stuck in an implementation by some bug that's sucking every last drop of willpower and energy from them, they can opt to explain their issue to quite literally a rubber duck, although it does not have to be. The idea is that when you explain the solution meticulously to a rubber duck, you eventually hit a point which you feel is not clear or somehow understand a flaw in your explanation and this breakthrough, hopefully, helps you to understand the bug and solve the problem!

The idea behind this is simple and intuitive. If you can explain the problem and solution properly, you probably understand it. I'd say that's a pretty fair assumption to make. In fact, great minds like Albert Einstein and Richard Feynman both have said something along these lines! I feel strongly about this too because I found that if I'm not able to explain certain concepts to my friends simply enough, I did not understand them myself.

2 important aspects of teaching

When it comes to explaining a concept, there are 2 important aspects - understanding of the concept and your communication skills. It is entirely possible to have a good understanding of a concept but just not put it into coherent sentences. This may not seem like a big deal until this problem compounds for more complex and difficult issues which will definitely affect your communication at your workplace, or even with your loved ones. So working on this skill is definitely important. At NUS, I'm required to take communication classes, which required us to speak clearly and coherently of different ideas through presentations (Like CS2101 and ES2660).

Personal Motivation

Education is very important to me—not in the sense of just scoring high marks or getting into top schools, which honestly doesn’t matter as much to me. What I value most is nurturing curiosity and ensuring students truly understand what they’re learning, so they can develop higher order thinking skills. But here’s the catch: simply memorizing content and answering exam questions isn’t enough to reach that level. There’s an excellent article from TeachHub (Teaching Strategies That Enhance Higher-Order Thinking) that explores how we can cultivate these skills, with strategies such as

• Connecting multiple concepts together
• Teaching students to infer
• Encourage Questioning
• Encourage creative thinking
• Teach students to elaborate their answers

This list is not exhaustive. During my schooling years, I feel I did not learn for the sake of learning but just answering questions to optimize scoring high marks for exams. I believe this is a Singaporean problem - grades are everything. One primary reason could be PSLE that is conducted as early as primary 6 (6th grade) and it is a national level examination which places a lot of stress on students and maybe even more on parents because this could very well determine your trajectory (at least this is what people normally think and fear).

I want to change that but that is almost impossible... or is it?

My mission

I want to infuse higher order thinking in students via out of the box methods of learning that also help with their communication skills. I want students to truly understand what they're studying and not just mug answers. I want students to gain the communication skills to communicate what they have learnt coherently to others just as they've been taught (hopefully not word for word though haha).

Putting this all together, I got the idea of Rubberduck AI.

What is Rubberduck AI?

I don't know :( ... yet. There are many ideas of what it could be and it's hard to piece them together. However, I realize a couple of things. It is imperative we work backwards from the user (the students) and the mission and not focus on any interesting tech we could integrate into our solution. So I foresee a few things.

1. It is a web application that gets students to learn by teaching
2. It is heavily syllabus oriented
3. We are heavily aligned with MOE's education guidelines highlighted by their syllabus
4. Students have an enjoyable experience explaining topics and feel a sense of advancement (some level of gamification)
5. We understand where students are weaker, keep track, update teachers and explain to students!
6. Usage over time should lead to students becoming better communicators and thinkers.

Ambitious? I'd say so. But definitely achievable. Looking forward to it.