Swipe app to take history and food trails

By Janice Tai, The Sunday Times, 3 Mar 2013

Tracing the history, interesting food, or buildings in a Singapore locale can be done with a swipe of the finger, with more than 200 community trails gathered and digitised into a free app, Trail Shuttle.

The trails were marked out mainly by students in a competition organised by Crescent Girls' School (CGS), the People's Association Youth Movement and Microsoft Singapore to showcase the heritage and lifestyles of different places. The trails centre on themes such as food, heritage, arts and culture as well as sports and lifestyle.

CGS plans to hold the competition every year and to add about 100 trails each time.

Yesterday, Senior Minister of State for Law and Education Indranee Rajah presented prizes to 11 winning teams, selected from more than 40 primary and secondary schools.

The top prize in the primary category went to Teck Ghee Primary, which designed a trail weaving through hawker centres and wet markets in Ang Mo Kio.

Two Primary 6 pupils from the school interviewed hawkers to find out where they got their ingredients and how their dishes were prepared.

The interviews are included in the app. Temasek Academy won in the secondary category for its Joo Chiat trail while another non-student team in the open category won for its Tiong Bahru trail.

Separately, some students from CGS worked with grassroots groups to develop a food trail app for the Henderson area. Some 60 residents from the estate tried out the trail yesterday morning and sampled dishes at hawker centres.

Said Mrs Tan Chen Kee, principal of CGS: " In the process of creating these digital trails, we hope that the students interact with people outside their social circle and have their learning anchored in the community."