Chapter mind maps

• Definition
• The story of the human past: history covers what people did and experienced long ago, told from what has survived.
• Based on evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true: information that helps prove whether something is true is what turns a story into history, because it can be checked.
• Why checking matters
• Honest witnesses remember differently: two people who saw the same event can give different accounts, so historians must test which account fits what really happened.
• Records, photographs and objects: such sources let historians check accounts; 14th-century artefactsObjects people made and used in the past, such as pottery, tools and coins dug up at Fort Canning Hill, for example, help show what early Singapore was like.
• Significance
• Check a post before you share it: the historian's habit of checking claims is useful every day, for example before believing or passing on something seen online.

→Because history can be checked, it sharpens our thinking

• 4 reasons to study history
• Understand change: it shows how people and society developed from the past to the present, such as Singapore's rulers going from Temasek's own, to Johor, to Britain.
• Learn from mistakes: working out what went wrong in the past helps stop the same errors happening again.
• Know our roots: it explains where our traditions, customs and beliefs come from.
• Sharpen our thinking: it builds critical and analyticalAble to break a problem down and think it through carefully skills, such as testing a claim before believing it.

→Learning from the past needs evidence, not belief

• The difference
• Myth: based on belief: nobody can check a mythA story based on belief, which cannot be checked, so it cannot really be challenged.
• History: revised with new evidence: because it rests on evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true, historians update the story whenever new sources turn up.
• The past and history
• The past: everything that ever happened: history is only the parts historians pick out, using the evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true that has survived.
• Who finds the evidence
• ArchaeologistsPeople who dig up and study objects left from the past dig up evidence: historians then use those finds to explain what happened.

→History needs evidence, so inquiry starts with questions

• The tool
• The 5Ws and 1H: six question words, What, When, Where, Why, Who–Whom and How, give a full set of questions about any event.
• Ask every one: asking all six means no side of the event is missed.
• Why it matters
• Shows where more evidence is needed: the answers reveal which parts of a story are agreed and which are disputed, so historians know which sources to look for.
• Example
• Whose crayon was it?: Mei and Kai agree on when their first day of preschool was and who was there, but whose it was, why and how are all disputed.

→Questions show which sources you need

• Definition
• Source: anything people made, said or wrote: anything left by people from the past can be used as evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true, from diaries and coins to eyewitness interviews.
• 2 kinds of source
• Primary: first-hand: produced at the time, or by people who were actually there.
• Secondary: second-hand: made by people who studied primary sources, such as encyclopedias, biographies and articles.
• 4 types of primary source
• Oral, written, artefact, pictorial: eyewitness interviews; newspapers, diaries and stone inscriptionsWords carved into stone; pottery, tools, coins, weapons and monuments; photographs, paintings and maps.

→Sources must be tested for trust and bias

• Key questions
• Who, when, where, why, and what is left out?: asking who produced a source, and what it tells us or misses, shows how far it can be trusted.
• Bias: a one-sided view: knowing who made a source and why helps you spot when it favours one side.
• The 3Cs test
• CredibilityWhether a source can be trusted: can the source be trusted?
• ConsistencyWhether an account stays the same over time: does the account stay the same over time?
• CorroborationSupport for a claim from other sources: do other sources support it? A claim backed by several sources is stronger.
• The result
• Passes: fact. Fails: opinion: only claims that pass the test, such as "Singapore became independent in 1965", can support a conclusion.

→Facts that pass the test lead to a conclusion

• The final step
• Reason to a logical conclusion: historians use the tested evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true to reach an answer they can back up.
• The skills
• Inference: not a guess: evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true plus what you know: gold jewellery is found, and gold is costly, so some people there were rich.
• Compare who made each source, and its toneThe attitude or feeling a source shows: the attitude of a source, positive or negative, helps explain why two accounts differ.
• The exam
• Source-based and structured-essay questions: one asks what a source tells you; the other asks you to describe or explain what happened.
• Write with PEEL: Point, EvidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true, Elaboration, Link backs every conclusion with evidenceInformation that helps prove whether something is true and ties it to the question; the Bonus Chapter covers it in depth.