21 CC Inter Disciplinary Project (IDP)
Explore how the school uses Inter-disciplinary Projects to build 21st Century skills in students from Secondary 1 to 3, combining subjects like Art, STEM, and Mathematics to deepen thinking and creativity.
Mindful that traditional pen and paper assessment is not the best way to help students develop the skills they need to succeed in today’s world, the school has intentionally moved towards portfolios and projects for students to apply their knowledge that promote 21st Century Competencies (CC), notably Critical and Inventive Thinking, Communication, Collaboration and Information Skills.
In 2018, the school re-looked at existing syllabuses to pilot Inter-disciplinary Projects for Secondary 1 to 3 Express students. At Secondary 1, Art is used to overcome students’ language limitations in English Literature. The collaboration aims to strengthen literacy skills, critical thinking and creativity through the use of visual images and living experiences for more in-depth reading comprehension.
At Secondary 2, Design and Technology is harnessed to deepen the Applied Learning Programme (ALP) – Eco-sustainability through Inquiry Based Learning, STEM experience. This pairing enhances students’ generation of practical solutions using computational thinking, through Microbit, and Design Thinking Principles to address environmental issues.
At Secondary 3, statistics learnt from Mathematics will be applied to the Social Studies’ Issue Investigation Project to deepen students’ analytical thinking as they conduct investigations on societal issues.
The school also developed a set of 21st CC rubrics to track students’ competencies progressively from Secondary 1 to Secondary 3. It is envisioned that the specific traits associated with these competencies will become more prevalently used across subjects so students can frequently reflect on where they are in the continuum and better articulate their strengths and weaknesses.