Department of Social Sciences offers various popular courses at multiple levels to high school students in grades 9-12, covering academic areas of economics, business, accounting, psychology, law and global perspective. Most of these courses are electives and bear no prerequisites. Students can choose any of these courses based on their own interests and future academic pursuit. At the same time, the department also offers a number of life-skill courses as optional courses through grades 9-12, including driving, photography, film-making, tea art, debate and speech, etc. These are semester-long courses. Students can learn different non-academic skills in these courses to improve their overall qualifications. Students who have passion in social sciences are also encouraged to take interdisciplinary PBL (project-based learning) courses and academy courses offered by teachers from different departments. Topics of these courses are quite broad, such as product design and business, decode global issues, economists and reforms in ancient Chinese history, etc.

The aims of the department are to

1. introduce both the classic and most recent theories in social sciences to help students build a solid foundation in various social studies for further college education

2. develop students’ crucial skills such as critical thinking and analysis, data collection and process, hypothesis and arguments, etc, through reading, writing and case studies and prepare students for doing more in-depth study and independent research in college

3. encourage students to identify the current local and international issues, apply their knowledge into these real-life issues and contribute to their community by trying their own problem-solving strategies

4. help students to know themselves and the society better, grow up and evolve into independent life-long leaners with self-driven goals and mature personality