CCO107 World Histories and Issues

CCO107 World Histories and Issues required us to do a Group-Based Assignment (GBA). The GBA constitutes of a 4-6min group video presentation, individually written 350-word summary and a 4-6min group in-class presentation. CCO107 also required us to work in groups to select relics or material artefacts that are related to the theme of nation-building, nationhood, decolonization and independence and relate them back to Singapore's nation-building experience and world history's age of "decolonization". My group decided to choose Mr Lee Kuan Yew's Red Box, which was displayed at the National Museum of Singapore.

Video

This is my group's video presentation.

Summary

Here is my individual summary which explains the history of the Red Box and relates it back to Singapore's nation-building experience and world history's age of "decolonization".

Powerpoint

These are the powerpoint slides used for the in-class presentation.

Reflection

We made many trips to the National Museum of Singapore as we wanted to understand the artefact that we selected - Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s Red Box better. Furthermore, we also had some trouble filming for the group video presentation. One of the difficulties faced was that permission was needed in order to film at the National Museum of Singapore. We were unaware of this fact in the beginning as we made our way there just to film. However, when we got there, we were told that we could not film since our filming was not authorised yet. Thus, we had to email the person-in-charge and waited to receive permission to film. Our team was quite worried that we were not able to get permission and quickly adapted to the situation by preparing to film in other locations instead. Luckily, not long after, we managed to receive permission. Our filming in National Museum of Singapore right beside the Red Box ran smoothly afterwards.

Through this GBA, I learnt about teamwork and cooperation. We were assigned to our groups by the professor. Thus, most of us in the group were strangers. However, after much interaction and meetings at the National Museum of Singapore, we became friends and co-operated well as we all did our best in filming and preparing the slides for the in-class presentation. We worked efficiently as a team in order to complete the GBA by the deadline.

Furthermore, I also learnt more about the Late Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his dedication to Singapore through this project. The Red Box’s history consisted of Singapore’s history in how it progressed through Mr Lee Kuan Yew’s leadership and dedication to the country. My respect for him grew through this project.

Initially, CCO107 World Histories and Issues was the course that I feared most in Semester 1. This is because I did not take history as a subject in both Secondary School and Junior College. Thus, I was afraid that I would have much difficulties in learning this module. However, with perseverance and the help of my classmates and the professors, I quickly adapted to this module and learnt so much about the history of the world that I was not aware of and how historical events are related.

In conclusion, this module allowed me to understand the importance of history as only by learning history, we can then understand our present better.