Explore Week is an annual, one-week, student expedition held in and around the Malaysian Region. It provides Secondary Raffles American School students the opportunity to explore and apply learning opportunities outside of the classroom with the long-term goal of developing morally-invested global citizens dedicated to lifelong learning.

Explore Week is an extension of RAS’s Curriculum and Standards and is designed to challenge students to think differently about how they learn, what they know and where they live. This is achieved through exploration, collaborative problem-solving tasks, and guided tours.

At RAS, we believe the classroom is only one piece of the learning puzzle and in order to develop all aspects of the student learning needs to extend outside of the classroom walls and into the real world. There, students are exposed to natural learning environments where they are challenged physically and mentally to analyze, evaluate and reflect on their surroundings and their role in it.

Overall Objective:

The goal of Explore Week is to provide experiential learning in real-world settings.

Middle School

We aim to develop ecologically and environmentally literate students through outdoor education.

This is achieved through the intense focus on 30 different technical skills that students will focus on throughout the three Middle School Camps;

outdoor safety, camp craft, navigation, procuring food, water mobility. Examples of water mobility are kayaking, rafting, river crossing.

High School

We aim to educate our students about the surrounding ecosystems, the importance of conservation, and sustainability. We also review the importance of community and work to serve communities in need during the week.,

This is achieved through a focus on and immersion within various ecological environments, their history, and their future. Our students are educated about the various chains within an ecosystem, and the responsibilities we have to coexist within them sustainably. 

Various charitable work is also accomplished, from painting schools and various community centers to providing food and other needs, we may at times take for granted. 

The focus is on extending on what is learned within the classroom and applying it to scenarios outside through a project-based learning experience. Projects follow a thinking approach of:

The final product of what the students learn and experience will be part of a presentation for the Explore Week Assembly.

General Learning Outcomes

All activities, both within the Middle,l and High School experience focuses on Problem-Solving, Organization, Communication, and Interpersonal Skills; all four pillars of our General Learning Outcomes.