On the third week of the second semester, came the annual SCIE Humanities Week. This is a grand festival during which all humanities students and teachers learn new concepts together and embrace the harmony and conflict of varied viewpoints.
During this week, students, teachers and special guests from outside the school carries out a series of cross-subject activities around the topic ‘Change’. For example, lecture on sustainable development was given, as well as posters and project reports demonstrating this topic. There were also debate around delay aging and interactive exhibition on Shenzhen urban villages. Among them, I participated in several activities according to my interests.
In period nine and ten, Tuesday, Mr. Fousseini Traore gave a lecture on How has the Russia-Ukraine crisis impacted Africa’s agriculture, food system and poverty. Through highlighting the African countries’ reliance on foods and fertilizers made in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine, he proposed construction of social safety nets, provision of food and fertilizer subsidies in the short term and, where possible, the removal of controls on exports. In the long term, he argues, African countries need to boost their domestic production of fertilizers, to reduce their dependence on exports and promote diversification.
Just when we walked out of the theatre, me and my friends saw the game of using VR technology to overcome inner fear. Immediately, we decided to join in. The inspiration of this game comes from the study by Saavedra, in which the researchers used exposure therapy to treat disgust-involved button phobia. The working mechanism, according to what we learned during psychology lessons, is treating the hobbit via several vivo or imaginal exposure to the specific object or scenario that the person fears of. This time, VR technology was also involved. I was the first one to start the game, and I did not expect how real the scenery looked at all. Even though I was very confident that I would not be terrified of heights, the task of ‘jumping down’ while wearing the VR glasses did scare me. Although it was merely a 15cm stair, it seemed like jumping from a creaking board which was 15-floor high up in the air for me. I hesitated. But with the great encouragement (and push haha) from my friends and teachers watching me, I finally jumped, overcoming my fear. I also tried some other scenarios, for example, being chased by a dentist holding an electric drill. This game really did help me to be less worried about these scenarios.
On Wednesday afternoon, I stepped into the Halo Theatre again, this time, not as an audience, but as a speaker. Me and my peers from A1, representing different departments, discussed around the topic ‘The future will be so different that radically new paradigms are needed to guide societies’. I analyzed and compared the strengths and weaknesses of China’s and India’s manufacturing sector respectively, with consideration of the fierce competition, I concluded, from an economic perspective, that India’s manufacturing industry cannot thrive with merely its low-cost labour. Others’ topics involved gig economy, the future of urban spaces, deglobalization, etc.
Following the student discussion was the most anticipated event: the teachers’ debate. The topic was: ‘Will The development of technologies to slow down or even reverse aging be beneficial of the world’. The six debaters from both sides tried their best to use their expertise to persuade the other side. On one side, Mr. Alirio explained how telomeres are involved in the aging process and justified the usage of these reverse-aging technologies; on the other side, Mr. Fish talked about we should learn from past events that the new generation can bring more innovation. This was a superb ‘performance’ by both sides.
During Thursday period seven and eight, Mr. Philippe Burger gave a lecture on sustainable development. He mentioned that companies nowadays need to take social responsibilities. They should not only care about maximizing profits, but also be responsible for the environment, to promote the sustainable economic growth. Using the Doughnut Economics model, He explained that the biggest challenge is to fully meet everyone’s basic needs, while also not doing too much harm to the ecological system. Finally, He concluded that the current way we take for development in economies is not sustainable enough, ecological sustainability, economic sustainability and economic growths are correlated.
This was such a colorful week with great enjoyment in participating in every single activity. Through different means of learning, I gained a lot of knowledge outside of syllabus and textbook. It will be a solid footprint on my exploration of humanities.
- Article / Amy
