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Open Minds is a Canadian off-site learning programme first developed in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains in Calgary, Alberta. In 2003, CIS became the first school outside Canada, and the first school in Singapore, to offer our own design of the Open Minds programme, and embed it in our curriculum as an integral part of inquiry. It is an exciting, innovative learning experience for students in grades 1 - 8 which moves the classroom into a variety of real world settings. Students spend up to four days in natural environments such as Sungei Buloh wetlands, or the Singapore zoo, and have the opportunity to engage in inquiry based learning with primary resources. This firsthand experience with artifacts, experts in the relative field and rare opportunities to go behind the scenes, creates unique opportunities for powerful hands-on, minds- on learning.
Open Minds offers rich, real world experiences to support students' inquiry into topics in the PYP. Programmes for MYP students (grade 7 and 8) focus on broad-based issues with a local context. Open Minds helps students make connections in their learning across a variety of subject areas. Students benefit from the value of the separate disciplines as well as from this transdisciplinary study. Teachers work with the Open Minds Coordinator to choose sites with resources which will enhance an area of study. Some of the sites currently used include:
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- The Singapore Zoological Gardens
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- Ford Factory WW II Museum
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- Asian Civilisation Museum
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- Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
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- Pasir Ris Park, Beach and Mangrove
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- The Singapore Science Center
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A key feature of the original Open Minds Programme is sustained investigation at a site over several days. In this way, students have an opportunity to become familiar with a site and to feel at ease in it. This personal connection makes it easier for students to focus intentionally on using the site's resources to enrich their learning, rather than be distracted or overwhelmed by the novelty of the environment. Students have the time to slow down, to thoughtfully observe and reflect, and to link their new understanding to the central ideas of their topics of inquiry.
As some sites in Singapore do not offer sufficient resources to sustain study for the full four days, we may draw on more than one site during a programme. Each site is carefully chosen to add to the continuity of the student's investigation.
Open Minds is an exciting opportunity for students to hone the inquiry skills they have developed in the classroom in real world settings. Authentic, relevant, and memorable - Open Minds is the ultimate field experience.
If you have questions on this area of learning, please contact the CIS Open Minds Coordinators.
Franklyn Heisler, Toh Tuck and Bukit Tinggi Open Minds Coordinator at fheisler@cis.edu.sg
Christa Craats, Tanjong Katong Open Minds Coordinator at ccraats@cis.edu.sg
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