Archaeology Programme for Students


Temasek Junior College students cleaning artefacts. (Credit: Lim Cheng Li)

Archaeology Programme for Students (APS) is a community engagement programme. ISEAS will host local students for one to four weeks, depending on their schedules. The APS will also include lectures and visits to museums and workshops for teachers which can be held in schools at their request.

During the attachment period, secondary school and junior college students will learn to handle 14th and 15th century artefacts found around our island state. This hands-on approach of washing, labelling, and analysing actual artefacts will deepen their observation, classification, and deduction skills, bringing history to life for Singaporean students. By handling artefacts from the past, they will be able to better imagine life on the island some 500 years ago.

Teachers’ Workshops will also be organised to impart basic archaeological skills and knowledge to teachers in order to enhance their history lessons for wider impact. The Teachers’ Workshops will equip teachers with archaeological facts and pedagogical information to enable them to translate this knowledge in their classrooms, thus achieving a self-sustaining programme.

Why is it important?

Archaeology helps to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. Singapore’s archaeological endeavours span over 30 years and much of the work has been conducted in the last decade. It is necessary for the results be disseminated to the public, especially to students. It allows the students to appreciate the past and understand that they are stakeholders in Singapore’s heritage.

How it is helpful for students?

Archaeology is a discipline for understanding the past but its practices are also useful in developing observations skills and critical thinking. For example; archaeology

  • Allows practitioners to hone their observation, classification, deduction and analytical skills in relation to their environment.
  • Allows a wide range of skills and knowledge to be applied to understand the past due to its multi-disciplinary nature.
  • Requires a hands-on approach which helps with kinesthetic learning.
  • Helps students generate questions, create hypotheses and reach conclusions based on inference and deduction.

 

Objectives of the APS

The APS has four main objectives:

  • Nurture an understanding of archaeology as a discipline;
  • Nurture an appreciation of archaeology and history in Singapore and Southeast Asia;
  • Provide an introduction to the various processes in archaeology;
  • Provide an opportunity to learn about other related topics regarding the past which can impact today’s society.

Those interested in the programme are welcomed to contact thrc@iseas.edu.sg.