Making Connections

The general objective of these courses is to provide the room and opportunity for students to apply or practise the skills they have learnt from the NUS College Foundational & Common Curriculum, especially in ways that complement students’ own disciplinary backgrounds.

NUSC Making Connections courses are divided into three domain categories. The domain sorting demarcates the modes of inquiry or kinds of skills taught, rather than course content:

Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)—these courses will require significant student work involving qualitative analysis and presentation, to enhance students’ awareness of the questions, discourses, motivations, and methods in the Humanities and Social Sciences, how different methods can be used for different kinds of questions, and when multiple approaches may be needed. Prerequisite: Thinking with Writing

Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM)—these courses expect significant student work involving mathematical, computational, or lab-experimental work, to enhance students’ understanding and application of various modes of scientific inquiry , e.g., experimentation, modeling and simulation, statistical analysis, algorithmic thinking, logical proof, etc., through concrete examples. Prerequisite: Reasoning with Data

Creative Practice (CRE)—these courses focus on technical skills that are employed in creative expression, rather than conventional academic outcomes. They may culminate in a collaborative performance or shared exhibition of the works produced.

The typical HSS/STEM Making Connections course is an interdisciplinary course that integrates perspectives, theoretic framework, concepts, tools, techniques, and approaches from 2 or more conventional disciplines to understand the chosen themes, its challenges and potential solutions. The teaching, tutorial, assessment, and other related academic activities will also typically feature this integration.

In addition, some HSS/STEM Making Connection courses are also linked to the NUSC Impact Experience Project course. Such courses have specific features that prepare students for engaging in both regional and local IEx projects. The content, readings and assessment components of these courses are designed to provide the necessary background and skills for connecting and working with community partners in a local or regional context.

Reading Making Connections Courses

NUS College students read six Making Connections Elective courses in total, between Semester 2 and Semester 8, with at least two courses in HSS domain, and at least two courses in STEM domain.

These six courses may also include: NUS Overseas Colleges, Global Experience Course, or other study abroad opportunities.

The timetable and details of the Making Connections Courses offered can be found here.

Making Connections Courses

Below are some examples of how these courses may look:

Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS)

What is Gender?: A course about the concept of “gender” drawing resources from anthropology, film studies, history, literature, medicine, philosophy, popular culture and the mass media, psychology, science studies, and sociology.
Reimagining Work/Life: This course explores the relationship between work and life. Does work make life fulfilling, or does a fulfilling life take place beyond or apart from work? Is the tension between work and life, albeit deeply entrenched, even necessary? What roles do young people have in shaping new work-life arrangements?
Social Design and Worldmaking in Singapore: This course explores the intersections of design and anthropology in community worldmaking in Singapore by critically examining and proposing creative alternatives to designed sites, such as community gardens, playgrounds, wet markets. At the core of the course is an attention to how we design our world and how our world designs us.

Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)

Creating Wolverine in Real Life: A course introducing students to regenerative and precision medicine entrepreneurship and its associated intricacies, including business, regulatory, ethical issues, process of innovation and technology commercialisation.
Invertebrate Innovations: This course gives much-needed attention to this megadiverse group, focusing on the varied biological innovations in aspects of their anatomy, physiology, and behaviour, which enable them to survive in particular habitats. We examine how such innovations in invertebrates have inspired man-made designs, materials and technologies across disciplines, which lead to human innovations that benefit society; and how the study of invertebrates more broadly contributes understanding of the natural world that also indirectly benefits society.
Solving Energy and Environmental Problems: This course explores and scrutinises the current energy and environmental problems the world is facing, by critically evaluating the main causes and finding ways to alleviate and solve them. Key topics include energy conservation, alternative or renewable energy, climate change, carbon footprint, decarbonization, pollution, forestation/reforestation and science-based policy making.

Creative Practice (CRE)

Dancing Communities: Community dance provides opportunities for people to engage in dance activities that contributes to a sense of well-being, irrespective of their age, class, or cultural background. Through the examination of the social, cognitive, personal and cultural dimensions of case studies, this practice-based course will enable students to design, deliver and evaluate a community dance programme to impact the well-being of their family and friends.
The Power of Storytelling through Photography: This multimedia course provides an introduction to visual literacy and story telling with photography as the primary medium. Students will be equipped with skills – learning to use the DSLR, mobile phone photography and creating multimedias – to empathetically translate their everyday knowledge and ideas to still images and compelling photography essays. Students will learn to have a deeper appreciation of photography as a tool in critically engaging and interpreting the aesthetical and socio cultural meanings in local and global issues.