Humanities Department

Vision

To bring about REAL and RELEVANT experiences for our learners, AES Humanities teachers design lessons and projects using the Inquiry Model to encourage students to take on the hats of thoughtful Geographers, empathetic Historians and keen learners of Social Studies.

Humanities READ

To connect our students to the real-world issues, the Humanities team in AES put together a BLOG that collates news articles aligned to the syllabus and beyond. This allows students to draw relevance from authentic situations and make connections to what they are learning in school: https://aes-hums-read.blogspot.com/

Learning of Humanities in AES

Teachers and students continued to leverage on technological affordances to complete the various performance tasks for NT Social Studies, as well as Lower Secondary Geographical and Historical investigations.

NT Social Studies

Social Studies is a subject that helps students explore real-world issues that concern them. Through inquiry learning, they have explored issues such as: living in a multicultural society, embracing migration, resolving conflict and building peace, maximising opportunities in a changing world and building a caring nation and an inclusive society. They also had the opportunity to apply what they have learnt through various Performance Tasks that helped to deepen their understanding of society and the world they live in.

For instance, S2NT students repurposed plastic bottles and used papers and presented their hand-made disposable bowls to canteen vendors as part of exploring the theme ‘Protecting their Environment’.

Lower Secondary Geography and History

In Geography, the Lower Secondary students were able to meaningfully examine the rainforest environments and housing estates in the western part of Singapore through the use of satellite imagery tools, such as Google Earth and Google Maps. The Secondary Two fieldwork process culminated with the design of their ‘Dream neighbourhood’, enabling them to use their creativity and imagination to work towards better quality of life and town sustainability in their proposed neighbourhoods.

On the other hand, History came “alive” for the Lower Secondary students when they “visited” museums virtually on their devices. The Secondary One students examined the lives of the immigrants from the early 1900s through a virtual museum created by the teachers, discovering the contributions and challenges of the early immigrants in Singapore. The immersive first-person virtual views of the artefacts and exhibits also enabled the Secondary Two students to better understand the Japanese Occupation, and to empathise with the suffering that ensued.

Upper Secondary Humanities

The focus for the Upper Secondary levels was for the students to deepen their knowledge on the impact of the weather in their environments in Geography, empathise with the different groups of people who lived during Hitler’s rule in History and also to evaluate if people with disabilities have sufficient support in Social Studies.

The students continued to use the Inquiry Model to guide their thought processes to articulate their opinions, whilst exercising empathy through active listening for other ideas too.

The History Unit embarked on an Inquiry-based lesson where Secondary Three History students were tasked to investigate the impact of Hitler’s rule in Germany. Hitler’s rule brought about positive and negative effects on the various groups of people in Germany. Students studied a variety of sources and gathered evidence to confirm their hypothesis. In groups, students collaborated to find out more about the impact of Hitler’s rule and concluded their learning by taking on roles to share their findings with their target audience. Students also worked together to put together a final presentation to present their findings and ideas in various ways from artefacts to presentation slides to web pages.