impacted other students to be more
aware of environmental concerns. We
noticed that the younger students in
the school started to keep the school
environment clean by picking up
litter, or cleaning up after themselves
after they had eaten in the canteen,
amongst other things.
Students painting their banners.
Term 3. We named this collaborative
environment project “Heart the
Earth” which means hugging the
Earth to love and treasure it, and to
remind us to play our part to raise
awareness on the environmental
issues. We worked with the big idea
-- Art has a role in society and
selected two local artists’ work --
The Singapore River by Lim Cheng
Hoe and The Net: Most Definitely the
Singapore River by Teo Eng Seng for
discussion. The elegant art task for
students was to design a banner to
raise awareness on environmental
issues and advocate ways to save
our planet. At the same time, the
Science Department planned and
conducted a Science Early Bird
Assembly on environment topics such
as energy and water conservation,
climate change, biodiversity and
quizzes in the morning for the whole
As educators, we believe that learning
is meaningful when we understand
the purpose behind it. Through
the designing and planning of our
collaborative project, we have learnt
that collaboration is possible when
we build trust and share a common
goal to create purposeful learning
for our students. Our sharing at
AEC 2018 has strengthened our
belief that collaboration plays an
important role in deepening our
students’ learning and inspired
other teachers to envision possible
learning connections between Art
and other disciplines.
“Alone we
can do
so little;
together we
can do so
much.”
– Helen Keller
school in Semester 1. In addition,
environmental awareness activities
and science inquiry-based lessons
were conducted for the Primary 5
students in Semester 2.
Through the reflections of our
Primary 5 students, it is evident
that they developed 21st Century
competencies
skills
through
the learning process. They were
able to carry out their research
independently, made sound decision
on their banner designs and took
an active role in solving problems
encountered during collaborative
work. Throughout the project, our
students made progress and were
actively involved in their learning.
Their project culminated with all the
banners being exhibited in school.
The creative banners not only created
a vibrant visual environment but also
Students using the internet to do
research.
Reference:
Vygotsky, L.S. (1962). Thought and Language.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Sinek, S. (2009). Start with why: how great
leaders inspire everyone to take action.
New York: Portfolio.
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Both of us discussing lesson ideas.