Academics

Some good examples of where we engage with the Sustainable Development Goals relevant to this pledge in our Academic Programme are shown below. There are so many examples from Primary to High that we have chosen to highlight those which demonstrate approaches that are particularly unique, meaningful or deliberately integrated with other the 4 pledges or parts of our Learning Programme.

Note if you are a UWCSEA teacher using this site you may use the College Curriculum System to search for more examples. Contact nhu@uwcsea.edu.sg if you want to share other good practice.

Throughout UWCSEA we have some key academic programmes for Environmental Stewardship that develop skills, knowledge and understanding in a wide variety of Environmental Issues and often lead to practical action.

Primary

• Grade 5 Expo / Exhibition happens at both campuses in Term 3 as a culmination of learning throughout their the academic year. All students are involved in research and collaboration on a range of issues related to Sustainable Development, many with a particular focus on environmental stewardship, but all with an emphasis on sharing their learning for others.

Middle

• SEED (East Campus ) - the newly developed Social Environmental Entrepreneurship Development course at aims to develop a set of capabilities for students to take effective action within their community.
• Humanities - Environmental Sustainability forms a key part of the courses of all all three year groups with a particular emphasis on urban and resource sustainability through a Systems-Thinking approach.

High

• Global Perspectives - this course involves a Critical Challenge Project where students work collaboratively to engage issues related to Sustainable Development. Many of these groups will focus on environmental projects some of which will develop into Service Projects such as the Green Fingers Service group at East.
• I.B Environmental Systems & Societies - this is a trans-disciplinary (Science and Humanities) course that develops a understanding of the complex nature in which Human Societies are fundamentally embedded with Natural Systems.

Primary

• Grade 5s at East are use their Outdoor Education trip to Taman Negara to enhance their classroom learning about rainforests and the importance of indigenous peoples as the cultural guardians of the forest. They have also made visiting local green spaces including our own Rainforest Nurseries a key part of their unit to develop their ecological literacy.
• Grade 4s at Dover are trialling a new Biodiversity Treasure Hunt on the campus to increase their knowledge and appreciation of our local Biodiversity.

Middle

• coming soon....

High

• Grade 11 Environmental Systems students work with our long standing Global Concerns Partners the Juara Turtle Project during their residential field trip to Tioman, Malaysia. See the story below to see how the trip links academic learning to an opportunity for real Biodiversity Conservation.
• Marine Conservation Summer School - an exciting pilot is planned for 2017 based at the IDEAS Hub supported by the Van Oord Marine engineering company.

Stories on Biodiversity

Primary

• coming soon....

Middle

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High

• coming soon....

Primary

• Grade 2s on both campuses are involved in sustained Service projects to learn organic food growing to experiential learning for their Food to Table Unit.

Middle

• Grade 6 Visual Art students at Dover engage with the environmental issues through Art as a preparation for their Tioman Outdoor Educational Trip. Issues have included ethical food production in our region such as shark-finning and turtle egg consumption, issues which have educational input from the Tioman Turtles and PAW Global Concerns of which some of the students in these classes will be active members.
• The Food Tech department at East Campus have recently introduced Mini-Food waste digesters to teach students about food waste while providing compost for the campus compost service. Funds were provided from the Budden Composting Project through the UWCSEA Foundation.

High

• coming soon....

Primary

• Composting starts as early as infant school with worm composting of food scraps serving as a superb practical introduction to sustainability in units on science and waste. Grade 5s at Dover do composting of food waste on a year long rota as as key focus of their year in Humanities and Science is an understanding of Ecological Systems and Resource Management.
• Grade 5s at both campuses regularly work with Sodexo to understand and tackle food waste on campus too.
• Grade 4 Art students at East carry out amazing work with recycled materials for Steampunk and Weaving Units and at Dover with textiles to provide collages for the campus on UWC Day

Middle

• Art and DT students at East gained skills in upcycling from artists -in residence and now make games from recycled material for a service trip to Cambodia

High

• The Design Tech department at East has hosted our educational partners the Ellen MacArthur Foundation to work on ways to embed Circular Economy principles in their courses. This has led to an exciting entrepreneurial spin-off into student activity group Circle.

Stories on Waste

Primary

• Grade 3 have two Essential Understandings relating to the role of water in Biological Systems and the functioning of the Water Cycle. They use information provided by our Operations Department on Water Conservation at Dover and East Campus. The class teaching also links to Service as Water Warriors are the adopted Global Concern of Grade 3 at Dover and students also carry out vital watering for the Incredible Edible Service at Dover.

Middle

• coming soon....

High

• coming soon....

Stories on Water