NUS AY2014/15 Semester Two (Modules Review Part I)
It’s the end of my exams! This semester I only have two papers, and I ended my 2nd (and last paper) this morning =) You will understand why I only have two finals, when I talk about the modules that I took this sem, which, similar to past module reviews, I will share about the who (the lecturer), what (the workload), and how (to study for exams), and two extra questions on why you should take this module and why should you not.
Modules: SSU2001, IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
1. SSU2001 College 3 Capstone Experience Module
As the title of the module already stated, this is not your typical module, and it can only be taken by students in College of Alice and Peter Tan (CAPT). This is not one of the five modules required to complete the UTown College Programme (UTCP), and not everyone is required to do this module. This module is meant for students who have completed at least 1 senior seminar module or concurrently taking a senior seminar module, and is usually undertaken by seniors in their year 2 or above.
Picture above: photo of me and my team mates, when we first started out, and doing our ‘field visit’ to Queen’s Close estate and its vicinity.
For this module, we plan how we want it to be, we set the pace, and our supervisor, who is chosen by us (and subject to their approval), will guide us along the way and assess our work, which includes several components: 1) Situational Analysis, 2) Presentation, 3) Final Report, 4) Reflection, and 5) Peer Evaluation. I’m really thankful to have Ms. Soon Fen, a residential fellow in CAPT, and also a lecturer in the CELC, to agree to be our supervisor, as she is very patient and kind towards us and giving us alot of tips and suggestions on how we can do our project.
My team worked with the Social Service Office (SSO) @ Queenstown, and we took up this project to 1) create a census of the elderly population in Queen’s Close, 2) understand the needs of the residents, and 3) find out the skills, knowledge, and expertise of the residents in Queen’s Close. It is basically a research project that is based on the Assets-Based Community Development (ABCD) Model, with both quantitative surveys and rapid ethnography (qualitative interviews) conducted.
Picture above: photo of me, Brandon, and Ms. Soon Fen with other participants of the community trail in Casa Clementi, conducted by the NUS Community Trails (photo cr: NUS Community Trails)
The workload was basically set by the leader of the project, aka. me, because I have some background knowledge in this kind of research (in theory) and I really hope to be able to apply what I learnt from previous modules (e.g. MNO3330) and my experience in CTPCLP into this project. My team took part in a community trail in Casa Clementi, to learn how rapid ethnography can allow us to understand a community, we approached A/P Albert Teo from USP, to seek his advice on how we should carry our ABCD, we did readings on ABCD and ethnography research, consulted my peers in constructing our survey (from scratch) that suits what we want to find, and we visited our site of study many many times at different times of the day: setting off from CAPT at 630am for the first visit, taking bus 196, train to commonwealth, and walk there.. only to realize that bus 196 takes us directly to Queen’s Close!! omg.
Photo above: Good morning world! Sun is rising!
There are no exams for this module, and assessment is continuous. Despite being a CS/CU module, I dare say every individual in my team put in our best effort to make this project a success, because afterall we are accountable to an external organization - SSO@Queenstown. Do note that for the batch of AY2014/15 onward, this module is taken on a letter-grade basis, and you can S/U if you want (CAPTains take note!)
Photos above: our awesome friends from CAPT who helped us as volunteers for our surveys, during recess week!! (THANKYOU FRIEND!!)
Why should you take this module: because you 1) get to apply what you have learnt in your junior and senior sems, 2) benefit an organization, and perhaps the society, 3) there has to be community engagement element in every capstone, and you make sure it happens, 4) teamwork or team-flop: you decide (team management skills), 5) get to work with an RF closely (up to you, but for us, we got to know our RF better!)
Why you should not take this module: if you are not a disciplined person, because it does not appear on your time table, and you have to coordinate with your team when you guys meet every week, and when you meet up with your supervisor for updates (for us, we either meet really early in the morning, such as 630/730am, or on sunday nights like 8pm, for weekly meetings/visits to our site of study). if you are not willing to go the extra mile; note that you are working with an external organization and you are accountable to give them updates too, you are also likely to execute a ‘key project’ that will require you to get volunteers, prepare logistics, arrange timings etc.. it’s all part and parcel of project management.
Two more must don’ts for this module: don’t take it for grades, because it matters more that you are enriching yourself through this semester of project work, and to benefit an external organization of your choice - these are the greatest rewards. don’t do it thinking that you will get senior retention; let’s just put it out on the table - capstone is not part of the 5 modules for UTCP, nor is it a requirement for senior retention. People get senior retention, and then they do capstone, to fulfill their academic requirement for residency. Other ways of fulfilling residency requirement after completing the 5 modules for UTCP are: ISMs, reading groups, and UROP.
Photo above: The capstone team, “Making a Connection with the Elderly in Queen’s Close”, at the capstone roundup session, with our supervisor, Ms. Soon Fen, and Master of the College (CAPT), A/P Adeline Seow.
I love my team - I really do. When I first go around trying to form my “A-team”, Glen had already lent his support and said that he will do it with me if I want to. He was critical in his words, especially on how the project should be done, at various stages, and while having someone who is not afraid to say “no” in a team may impede the smooth flow of work, but I appreciate having such people around because of their frankness =) Yvonne is a great morale booster to the team because of her bubbliness and eagerness to start on things, and also her outgoing personality helped us alot during field visits and surveys. Brandon is that walking google scholar, providing us with research articles and doing the literature review for our project. He had to move out of his comfort zone working on this project, dealing with team dynamics, elderly, and also language barriers. I’m proud of my team and what we have achieved - we met our objectives and discovered a few isolated cases in the Queen’s Close estate (3-, 4-, and 5-room flats, one may think, “what kind of problems will they have?”) that require referral to the SSO, which we did, and I’m glad that the SSO is also eager to get these information from us for follow-up.
I got carried away reflecting on my capstone module >_< I will continue my review of the remaining four other academic modules in a separate post.
Cheers =)
AY2014/15 Semester Two (Part II) Review: IEM2201E, PL3283B, PL3232, PL3233
AY2014/15 Semester One (Part II) Review: GEM2906, SSU2003, MNO3330
AY2013/14 Semester Two Review: PL3234, PL3236, PH1102E, PH2110, SE1101E, IEM1201T
AY2013/14 Semester One Review: PL1101E, PL2131, EL1101E, PH2111, GEM1906
