National Junior College (Junior High)

[mommyNg]

Apriljas\" post_id=\"1995149\" time=\"1600167043\" user_id=\"186417:

Thank you mommyNg for the detail sharing on AEP
My gal is looking forward to it next year

Welcome! Your gal will enjoy the program :celebrate:

[Lovelivelife]

mommyNg\" post_id=\"1995115\" time=\"1600152842\" user_id=\"2838:

Lovelivelife\" post_id=\"1995104\" time=\"1600146961\" user_id=\"122257:

[quote=Apriljas post_id=1994831 time=1599996657 user_id=186417]Checking out how heavy is the NJC AEP program ?
Anyone can share?
My gal got CO for AEP

Hi @apriljas
My DD for a CO from NJC for AEP domain as well.
She also got a CO from SOTA.
Pretty confused

The NJC AEP is an established MOE program since 1985. In the first 4 years, they let the students try many different mediums, such as drawing, water color, acrylic painting, charcoal, animation, sculpture, clay, print making, etc., and by the 4th year, the students can choose the medium they want to produce an art work. NJC has quite a number of well-equipped art studios/rooms (e.g., ~30 computers for digital art/animation, kiln for pottery, paint, brushes). The school regularly organizes trips to art museums, galleries, career talks, and also hold their own and MOE-joint art exhibitions. They also encourage the students to participate in different art competitions (they even supported one of my DD's overseas competition trips). Every 2 years the school will organize an overseas trip for the AEP students, although this year's trip has been cancelled due to COVID-19. Since 2016, NJC became the AEP centre, where they offer the program to external secondary school students. Within NJC, the AEP cohort is usually small, maybe 12-18 (depending on year)? The AEP teachers are very experienced, nice, patient, helpful, and are able to give more personalized attention to each AEP student due to the small cohort. All JC AEP students in NJC will take H3 Art at A levels. At SH2, the students are given a small budget to buy art materials needed for their A level coursework.

As to how heavy the program is, I guess it really depends on individual student, how much time each student needs to take to complete certain pieces of art work, how fast they could do, what they are good at, etc.? The teachers will also set up milestones to help the students manage their progress (to ensure they don't procrastinate and cramp everything last minute). So far, my DD finds the program very manageable and enjoyed it very much. All in all, it is a really good program for those who are interested in art in an academic stream. Hope this helps! [/quote]Thanks a lot. It was really helpful to get an insight of things. I hope my DD makes a wise choice .

[phankao]

mommyNg\" post_id=\"1995152\" time=\"1600168055\" user_id=\"2838:

Apriljas\" post_id=\"1995149\" time=\"1600167043\" user_id=\"186417:

Thank you mommyNg for the detail sharing on AEP
My gal is looking forward to it next year

Welcome! Your gal will enjoy the program :celebrate:

Are yours still at NJC or grad already? Is the school year still starting a week later? ie. likely 11 Jan 2021?

[cilipadi]

Trooper\" post_id=\"1995135\" time=\"1600161586\" user_id=\"170470:

Hi, My DS received a CO from NJC for STEAM domain.
We also received a CO from another school (IB).
Anyone can share more about the STEAM prog .Thanks 😊

I think IB programme is very different. There are 6 subject groups. You have to see your child.
For my son, I don't think he will enjoy the IB programme. He only like Maths and Chem. So, IB is not for him. But, personally I think IB is a very well rounded programme.

The 6 groups are:
GROUP ONE – Studies in Language & Literature
GROUP TWO – Language acquisition
GROUP THREE – Individuals and Societies
GROUP FOUR – Sciences
GROUP FIVE – Mathematics
GROUP SIX – The Arts

[cilipadi]

Apriljas\" post_id=\"1995149\" time=\"1600167043\" user_id=\"186417:

Thank you mommyNg for the detail sharing on AEP
My gal is looking forward to it next year

Even though my boys are not in AEP, their Art lessons were very fun!

For my younger boy, he once did an Art + Math combined project. So, he had to design the chair using some software, like what's the angle of back seat, the dimension for the seat, the length of legs etc. Then they had to build a miniature chair based on their design.

For my older boy too. I was amazed with his art \"pieces\" last time. He did some pop art, some dots drawing
dots drawing as link below. But he drew/dotted an owl
https://www.artinstructionblog.com/pencil-shading-technique-how-to-shade-a-drawing-using-pointillism

[mommyNg]

phankao\" post_id=\"1995162\" time=\"1600176567\" user_id=\"3486:

mommyNg\" post_id=\"1995152\" time=\"1600168055\" user_id=\"2838:

[quote=Apriljas post_id=1995149 time=1600167043 user_id=186417]Thank you mommyNg for the detail sharing on AEP
My gal is looking forward to it next year

Welcome! Your gal will enjoy the program :celebrate:

Are yours still at NJC or grad already? Is the school year still starting a week later? ie. likely 11 Jan 2021?[/quote]Still in. And yes, school year still starting on the second week of Jan

[Trooper]

Thanks cilipadi for sharing. I think I need to discuss with my son after his PSLE. Both are good schools and IB and IP are very different. I’m curious regarding the STEAM program in NJC. Anyone can share? Thanks 😊

[Trooper]

Thanks cilipadi for sharing. I think I need to discuss with my son after his PSLE. Both are good schools and IB and IP are very different. I’m curious regarding the STEAM program in NJC. Anyone can share? Thanks 😊

[phankao]

mommyNg\" post_id=\"1995177\" time=\"1600184833\" user_id=\"2838:

phankao\" post_id=\"1995162\" time=\"1600176567\" user_id=\"3486:

[quote=mommyNg post_id=1995152 time=1600168055 user_id=2838]

Welcome! Your gal will enjoy the program :celebrate:

Are yours still at NJC or grad already? Is the school year still starting a week later? ie. likely 11 Jan 2021?

Still in. And yes, school year still starting on the second week of Jan [/quote] :thankyou:

[heerondale]

Hello Trooper! I'm a current JC1 IP student from NJC and here's an explanation of what STEAM is based on my experience of it last year:

It's a group assignment taken in the Sec 4 year which is factored into students' overall math and science grade for the year, about 10-15%. Teachers assign students in the same class in groups of 5-6 for them to create a prototype/solution to a real life problem. Students have to select a target group to focus on (can range from school community to elderly to primary school teachers) and they have an opportunity to interact with their target group through interviews. After establishing the problem faced by target groups, students have to come up with a prototype (can be physical or as a digital app). Along the way, they also have to fill in a logbook to track their thought process throughout the few months. A math/science teacher is attached to each group as a mentor and they provide feedback through weekly sessions.

My target group was the school community and my group worked on reducing plastic wastage in school. So we came up with a reusable cup with some school related designs and we painted cups + made a cardboard vending machine pop-up for the entire project. It was honestly not very original haha, but my group somehow managed to do very well and my STEAM grade pulled up my overall subject score for math and sciences. Nonetheless, I had a friend who created a foldable lunch box to reduce plastic wastage in the canteen and her group was nominated for the Tan Kah Kee Young Inventors Award!

To be honest, STEAM didn't really leave an impression on me because most of the solutions we came up with were rather unoriginal and as a Sec 4 student, I was more overwhelmed by my studies

On a related note, SPIRE, a graded research programme all students go through from Sec 2-3 was much more memorable. We could choose a subject we were interested in and 3 students would be paired up with a relevant subject teacher as our mentor. Most people chose one of the 3 science subjects (chem, bio, physics) but I chose to work on a social science project. It was quite intense since we had to produce a research paper after long periods of experimentation and present our findings at the end of it, but I really enjoyed it! Since I worked on a social science project, I actually carried out a behavioural experiment on my peers (nothing dangerous, just offering them chocolate to see if they would lie to get more) and it was very interesting. Also got the chance to present at my school's International Humanities Symposium in front of overseas research exchange students and got invited to RI too. I know of some humanities projects that got attached to NUS professors, which is honestly quite a good exposure. As for the science projects, a large handful of them managed to enter the Singapore Science and Engineering Fair, where students had to present their work to industry professionals, and some managed to win prizes.

I think SPIRE would be something to look forward to even more compared to STEAM, because it really hones your research skills (helps a lot if you want to go for Sec 3/4 overseas exchange, H3 Research in JC) and presentation skills (definitely helpful for Project Work Oral Presentation and any graded presentations in school).

Hope this was helpful, if you have any more questions, let me know!