Enhancing Cultural Confidence
In exploring history and culture, we can appreciate the profoundness of the excellent traditional Chinese culture and guide students to integrate what they have learned into their daily lives, which is conducive to enhancing their sense of identity with the excellent Chinese culture and strengthening their cultural confidence. In this semester's study, our G10 students went to the 24 Histories Academy in Longgang District, Shenzhen City, under the teaching and research of Chinese Language and Civics and Social Studies for a one-day study activity.
The Records of the Grand Historian is a dual classic of Chinese literature and historiography, of which the text has been included in the key texts of the DSE exam. After studying this text recently, G10 teachers supplemented the students with texts such as "Gao Zu Ben Ji" and "Xiang Yu Ben Ji" for comparative reading and analysis, which also became the motivation for this study trip to Shenzhen. According to the analysis of the propositional pattern of the Hong Kong Examinations and Assessment Authority in recent years and the tracking of the relevant examination samples around the world, this kind of intertextual reading is also a hot trend in language and literature education and assessment nowadays. This study tour also benefits students' in-depth experience of Chinese classic texts.
The 24 Histories Academy is an oriental garden academy built on the theme of the 24 Histories, in which the 24 Histories Documentation Building, as the core building of the academy, is a 300-year-old ancient mansion, where you can look back on the 4,000 years of history and the 27-year history of the Twenty-four Histories of the present annotated text. Strolling in the ancient charm of the pavilions, students not only felt the ancient history of the sense of gravity, but also in the study of interaction, looking back at history to appreciate the style of everyone.
The whole study was carried out in an experiential, game-like teaching style, and students were required to complete various learning tasks just like in the game "Script Killer". At the beginning of the task, students needed to imitate Ouyang Xiu's saying "the one who shoots wins, the one who plays wins", and win the clues for the next task by throwing pots and playing against each other. Afterwards, students need to use the "still image performance", which is commonly used in "drama teaching", to reproduce historical allusions such as "a deer for a horse" and "three rules of the law" to the teacher concerned. The students were able to reproduce scenes of historical allusions such as "A Deer for a Horse" and "The Three Laws" to the teacher. Finally, the students went out on the lawn and, together with their language teachers, they learned about the personality and style of Sima Qian, a great man of literature and history 2,000 years ago, from the later generation's evaluation of Sima Qian's "no false beauty, no hidden evil".
Through immersive teaching and learning, from classroom knowledge, students can better understand the Chinese civilization and historical evolution, feel the power of history, and enhance the sense of national identity and cultural self-confidence.
Promoting innovative thinking
In this semester's study tour, G11 students participated in an exploratory activity with the objective of "Innovative Technology and Sustainable Development". Driven by the learning content of Communes, Economics, and Science electives, students already have a certain degree of understanding of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area in which they have grown up, and the study tour to the Henry Fok Research Institute of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST) in Guangzhou City and the Fourth Resource Thermal Power Station enables students to understand first-hand the changes and advances in the Greater Bay Area.
Led by the staff of the Fok Ying Tung Research Institute of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in Guangzhou, all the teachers and students visited the exhibition hall and the laboratory of industrial intelligent manufacturing so that the students recognized a lot of cutting-edge technology and related application products as well as understood the content of the intelligent manufacturing and artificial intelligence of the fully automated production, to understand the convenience and economic benefits that science and technology bring to life. In the subsequent lectures, students learned more about innovative technology and entrepreneurship in Hong Kong and Macao, and actively asked the staff about the advantages of entrepreneurship in the Bay Area for Hong Kong and Macao people and the trend of the future development, which is a great help to the students in their future career planning.
On the same day, G11 students also visited the popular science education base of Guangzhou ETI Fourth Resource Thermal Power Plant. The popular science education base of the Fourth Resource Thermal Power Plant of Guangzhou Environmental Investment Nansha Environmental Energy Co., Ltd. is the first environmental science education base in Nansha District with the theme of municipal solid waste treatment.
In the exhibition area of the environmental protection science education center, students further deepened their understanding of the importance and methods of environmental protection through various novel and technological ways, such as the display of environmental protection science education area and sand table model demonstration area. Under the guidance of the lecturers, the students gained a more intuitive understanding of the knowledge of domestic waste treatment, including the method of waste classification and the technology of terminal treatment process, and at the same time improved their ability to correctly classify garbage.
The visit provided G11 students and teachers with an excellent interdisciplinary fusion study opportunity, mainly involving the integration of public and social sciences, science, and economics disciplines. Students were able to witness the whole process of waste transportation, sorting, treatment and recycling, see the whole process of thermoelectric power generation and waste treatment, and learn how thermoelectric power generation uses fuel to convert into electricity. At the same time, teachers and students can also deepen their understanding of the concept of "out-of-bounds impact" in economics, and see the critical importance of waste separation and recycling, and the recycling of recyclable waste, which reduces energy consumption and pollution of the environment, and thus reduces out-of-bounds costs. These processes, although extremely complex, allowed the students to deeply appreciate the application of DSE subject knowledge learned in the classroom to real-life routines and to gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of what they had learned in the classroom.
Bridging the gap between schooling and the real world is crucial to student development, and this event provides hands-on opportunities that help strengthen students' practical skills and innovative thinking. Knowledge is never limited to textbooks, and ASJ will continue to provide more opportunities for practice and exploration to help students broaden their horizons, grow their insights, and enhance their sense of social responsibility, innovative spirit and practical skills.