Social Studies

Exploring Citizenship and Governance

1) Why do people apply for citizenship in Singapore?

> Voting rights

> Housing

> Education

> Security

2) Citizenship

> Legal Status

> Sense of identity

> Participating in public affairs (petition/feedback/Reach)

3) Recent Laws or Bills set

4) Governance

> Having good leadership (leadership renewal)

> Anticipating change and staying relevant (eg. flood barriers, Its)

> Practising meritocracy (education)

> Providing a stake for everyone (housing ownership)

5) Role of Government in Society

> Working for the good of society

> Maintaining internal order and external security

> ensuring justice

> providing goods and services for the public

> safeguarding the interests of citizens

6) Issues that Singapore face (with relevance to Governance)

> Limited land space - construction of MRT line

> High Speed Rail to KL

> Circuit Breaker

> Electric cars

> Vaccination

Social Studies

Diversity

1) How are we diverse?

> Race

> Socio-economic status

> Religion

> Nationality

2) Benefits of Diversity

> Exchange of knowledge and culture (makes Singapore more welcoming)

3) Disadvantages of Diversity

> Prejudice and discrimination

> Competition for resources

4) Managing diversity

> Integration

> case study of France due to highest immigration numbers

> case study of Singapore

- bilingualism

- group representation constituency

- ethnic integration policy in HDB

- presidential council of minority rights

- naturalisation initiatives

Issues surrounding managing diversity

> EIP in HDB makes it hard to sell flats - [Link]

Issues surrounding topic on diversity

> Foreign talents

> PMET / CECA - [Link]

Geography

Plate Tectonics

1) Compare between stratovolcano and shield volcano

Stratovolcano Shield Volcano

Where they are formed Convergent plate boundary Divergent plate boundary

Type of lava High silica lava Low silica lava

Shape of volcano Steep gradient

Concave profile
Broad summit
Narrow top, wide base

Nature of eruption Highly explosive Less explosive

Other volcanic features Possible presence of secondary Unlikely for secondary cones to
cones form

2) Describing plate boundaries distribution

> specify continents or countries, or plates

> use directional words to describe position like (north, southeast) rather than left right bottom

a) General trend: both convergent and divergent plate boundaries are unevenly distributed

b) Observe where each plate boundary is concentrated at, notice how most of the convergent
plate boundaries are found between oceanic and continental plate. Give example - between
oceanic plate Naza plate and continental South American plate

c) include anomalies: convergent plate boundaries can also be found between 2 continental and
2 oceanic plates eg. between continental Indian and Eurasian plates and between oceanic plates
pacific and philippine plates.

Geography

Weather and Climate

1) Comparing impacts of climate change using scale

Impact #1 - sea level rise

> caused by the melting of the ice sheets and the expansion of large water bodies

> threatening low lying coastal areas around the world

Resulting in various socio-economic impacts:

> large scale displacement of people

> loss of land with economic value (residential, agricultural, recreational purpose)

> threatening of coastal ecosystems (eg. coral reefs, mangroves)

Impact #2 - increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather events

a) Heat waves - prolonged and more intense heat waves can become more frequent with rising
global temperatures. Sustained high temperatures can bring about negative health impacts to
populations. Forcing government to divert financial resources to the healthcare sector

b) Tropical cyclones - threatens coastal communities with impacts brought about by storm
surges, strong winds and torrential rain (REGIONAL scale impact)

Impact #3 - spread of insect borne diseases

> malaria and dengue fever have always been contained within the tropical regions as mosquitoes
thrive in warm humid climate.

> however, with global warming, such diseases are introduced to areas of higher latitudes and
altitudes that were once too cold and unsuitable for mosquitoes to breed and survive in.

Impact #4 - lengthening of growing season

> warmer climates are ideal for growth of some agricultural crop. lengthening of growing season
would suggest the possibility of more rounds of harvests.

> brings about economic benefits for agricultural farms and businesses.

Geographical Investigation

a) Given variables: Tourist country of origin, length of stay

Guiding question: How does the tourists’ country of origin affect their length of stay?

Hypothesis: The further the tourists’ country of origin, the longer their length of stay.

b) Suggest considerations that students should make before conducting the investigation

> number of sites

> time of data collection

> sampling method (systematic, random, stratified)

> sampling size (more = more reliable!)

> number of times they collect the data at each site (more sets of data = greater reliability;
average of multiple data = more accuracy)

c) Method students can use to present the information shown on figure

> bar graphes: categorical data (y-axis can be categories like countries, gender etc)

> line graphs: continuous data (y-axis must be time related eg. year, month, day, hour)

> Scattergraphs: to show relationship between 2 variables with line of best fit

> pie chart: to show proportion (don’t forget to convert number to percentage to angle when
calculating)

d) explain factors that might affect the accuracy/reliability/validity of conclusion

Accuracy

> review use of instruments to collect data (eg. weather instruments used at one arm’s length,
away from obstructions, prevent parallax error)

> collect at least 3 sets of data every time and calculate average

Reliability

> ensure that data collected is representative of site (eg. collect data at different areas within site,
collect multiple sets of data, repeat investigation afew times within day/month/year)

“Obesity is a leading problem in developed countries (DCs) only”. - 8m

Obesity in DCs

> Higher disposable income, higher purchasing power, diet and lifestyle, consumption of non-
staple food such as meat, fast food, high calorie diet, sedentary lifestyle, physical inactivity, fat
accumulation, high obesity rates

Eg. USA obesity rates are high at 42.4% in 2018

Obesity in some LDCs

> emerging economies, rapid economic development, higher disposable income, change in food
consumption pattern, symbolism of status, westernisation, fast food, high calorie diet, increasing
obesity rates

Eg. more than 50% of adults in China are classified as overweight, of whom 16.4% are obese.

Weighing paragraph

I agree with the statement to a large extent as obesity, a degenerative disease, has been the
leading problem in DCs for decades. This is primarily due to the high caloric diet and sedentary
lifestyle choices brought about by higher disposable income and access to technology. However,
obesity is not uniquely prevalent in DCs as the rapid economic development in some LDCs have
resulted in rising obesity rates in recent years too. This trend will continue to rise in the long run
with the wide scale adoption of high caloric diet brought about by globalisation and
westernisation.