Week 7 and Learning Across Boundaries
Distinctive experiential learning opportunities developed in collaboration with Yale-NUS College faculty.
LABs are faculty-led experiential learning projects of short duration, developed in collaboration with CIPE. LABs allow faculty to share their scholarship with students outside of the classroom and create an opportunity for students to explore the curriculum in broader, real-world contexts.
Week 7 LABs are faculty-led experiential learning projects of up to one week that draw on themes of the Common Curriculum. Week 7 LAB projects enable students to engage new perspectives, interact with practitioners and professionals, challenge assumptions and make connections between classroom learning and real-world experiences. Week 7 LABs culminates in a symposium where first-year students present what they have learned to the larger Yale-NUS community.
As a flagship programme, Week 7 LABs emphasises experiential and interdisciplinary learning, as well as innovative pedagogy, which forms the core of the Yale-NUS experience. Check out our featured projects to read about how faculty are taking the curriculum outside the classroom in Singapore and Southeast Asia.
In this Week 7 LAB project, students explored natural history in Singapore and Sarawak.
This LAB explored stories, archives, and imaginaries of interconnection, exchange, and transaction in Singapore and Malacca.
This Week 7 LAB introduced students to the various ways in which the past is remembered in Singapore and its neighbours, the interconnected history of the region, and the shifting relationship between public memory and history.
Globally, flora and fauna in the wild are highly threatened by the impacts of unsustainable trade and habitat loss, either caused or exacerbated by anthropogenic climate change.
Spring & Summer LABs are faculty-led experiential learning projects of short duration, held during spring break or for a period of one week to 10 days during the semester breaks. While Week 7 LABs draw on the themes of the first-year Common Curriculum, Spring & Summer LABs are skills-based programmes based on faculty teaching interests, faculty research, or professional pathways. The Centre for International & Professional Experience (CIPE) typically runs between four and five LABs in an academic year.
Spring LABs are open for first- to fourth- year students at Yale-NUS, including exchange and visiting students enrolled in the College during semester two. Summer LABs are open for first- to third- year students from Yale-NUS College and Yale University. CIPE reserves up to two seats per LAB for eligible Yale applicants.
In the context of the rise of China and the decline of United States (US) leadership in the region, organisations such as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) have shown their potential in shaping the geopolitics and economics of the region.
This LAB was an experiential journey through creative arts in the context of Okinawan culture and history.
This LAB provided students with an opportunity to experience a large global city and to see it through a historical and urban studies framework.
On this LAB, students learned about the public health challenges faced by refugees and health professionals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
This Visual Anthropology LAB was developed by Yale-NUS instructor Tom White in partnership with documentary photographer Ian Teh, working alongside Vignes Balasingham, Director of the Obscura Festival of Photography.
Participants on this LAB explored how the Moorish conquest of and rule over the Iberian peninsula for seven centuries shaped Andalucía and the country as a whole.
Collaborations with faculty form the foundation of every LAB. Please reach out if you would like to develop your idea into a LAB proposal.
Week 7: Call for proposals & FAQs Spring & Summer LABs: Call for proposals & FAQs View past Week 7 LABs View past Spring & Summer LABs Contact our advisorsAt Yale-NUS College, experiential learning is an integral part of the student experience. Learning Across Boundaries (LABs) bring together faculty and staff expertise to build impactful and lasting learning opportunities.
In the minds of many people around the world (and on HBO) Singapore represents “the future”. It can be difficult to get a sense of Singapore’s rich history, especially beyond a handful of events that have dominated public memory over the past few decades. By the end of this LAB, however, our students produced one of the most nuanced exhibits on the fraught relationship between the present and the past that I have seen. Go team!
Clay Eaton
Postdoctoral Fellow in Humanities (History)
I think my Week 7 experience was quite a foundational one. I learnt much about Singapore and Bintan histories, and met classmates who have since become important close friends. I also got to know Dr Eaton, with whom I am now working for a history research project. In this way, my Week 7 unexpectedly paved the way for my budding interest and work in the field of obscure and hidden histories.
Carine Chan Sze Ching
Class of 2023
It was not only fun but also deeply rewarding to see the unbridled enthusiasm, curiosity, and the abilities of our first year students in action in this Week 7 LAB. They were not only able to quickly come up to speed with the latest thinking in conservation science, but also apply this knowledge to the data they collected in the field to create professional, thought-provoking presentations.
Vinod Kumar Saranathan
Senior Research Fellow in Science
I enjoyed waking up at sunrise to observe birds at the Central Catchment Nature Reserve every morning. Besides experiencing the entire field research process – from observation, to note-taking, to data analysis – I was amazed by the diversity and beauty of birds, and how crucial fieldwork is to wildlife conservation efforts. By engaging various stakeholders on the Cross-Island Line case study, I also became more appreciative of the complex reality of wildlife conservation in Singapore.
Ning Yiran
Class of 2023
