Saturday, March 30, 2024

Trigger for lesson on tourism

Gotten my students to share their ideal holiday. To make it more immersive, I gotten them to take a picture of themselves and then superimposed their picture over a holiday destination of their choice using remove.bg

Instruction for the photo.

a. Download the background of a tourist destination you dream to be at.

b. Take a picture of yourself and goto https://www.remove.bg/ and remove the background of your picture.

c. Add the background of the picture you have downloaded. 

Instruction for the description of the ideal holiday on Padlet with the photo

a)state the country/city 

b)Reasons for choice 

c)Activities which you would like to do at the tourist destination 

https://padlet.com/teaching27/2024-3c1-tourism-va6dvyf9zsg7as8o

The students looked at the posts on the padlet after they have posted theirs. They were more engaged in the lesson and I was able to get them to relate to the tourism system and they could understand the concepts of push and pull factors via authentic examples given by their peers.

Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Voyager in Google Earth

Voyager in Google Earth has moved. It's no longer available in the main app but showcased on the website.

Explore the stories on the gallery here. Love the one on sea level rise and changing forests.

https://www.google.com/earth/about/gallery/





Good resource for the RGI inquiry based learning using Google Earth.

You can see how deforestation occur, the importance of the forest and how the rangers are deployed to protect the forest.


Exploring the issue of deforestation and forest management. 


Deforestation affects the hydrological cycle and supply of rain. 
Click on pg 5 from the Table of contents in Amazon- I am Water
Then switch the toggle on Deforested Areas in the Amazon to see the extent of deforestation. 
https://earth.google.com/web/data=MkEKPwo9CiExd01DZUJCV3dOUndqOHdRUkpuVHlUb2x2MkpWLUh5NXMSFgoUMDQ4NkFDMzQwQzJCNzRFMkQ5OTYgAQ

https://www.google.com/earth/education/



Thursday, March 21, 2024

Game creation

Gotten my students to create the sorting game. Purpose is for them to apply what they have learned under the roles of different stakeholders and the different approaches in sustainable development. 

The game Vortex from classtool is easy to use and free with no need for login. 

  1. Click on create game @ https://www.classtools.net/vortex/
  2. Create the first game on how effective are stakeholders in sustainable tourism development.
  3. Input the title of the game e.g. How effective are Stakeholders in sustainable tourism development?
  4. Category title: Government, International Organisations, Businesses, Community, Tourist (Any 4)
  5. Key in the main points associated with the stakeholder including the strengths, limitations and examples - remember only essential key points (short phrase) which the player can sort into the different categories (stakeholders)
  6. Save the game with a password so that you can edit it again. Copy the url of your game to the spreadsheet 
  7. Create the second game on how effective are the different approaches in sustainable tourism development. Input the title of the game e.g. How effective are the approaches in sustainable tourism development?
  8. Category title: Ecotourism, Pro-poor, Community-based Tourism
  9. Key in the main points associated with the approaches including the strengths, limitations and examples - remember only essential key points (short phrase) which the player can sort into the different categories (approaches)
  10. Save the game with a password so that you can edit it again. Copy the url of your game to the spreadsheet.
 
Pros
1. It directed the students to read and understand before they can extract the main points and categorize them.
2. It is more engaging as they are creating a game rather than just reading from their notes or playing it. To create is highest level in bloom learning taxonomy.

Cons -
1. Some students are able to create the game fast but some are lagging behind.
Area for improvement: To get those who have completed the games to play the games created and add in some comments. 
2. Some of the clues/points are relevant to not only one category so it is difficult to sort.
Area for improvement: This can also be a teachable moment that even if a point is relevant, they must clearly show how different it is applied e.g. who participated in decision making. 

Example of game created by students:
JH on stakeholders 
https://www.classtools.net/vortex/202403-CWeQ8f#google_vignette




21CC learning in Geography

Do check out Master Teacher Kah Mun's post on facilitating the use of dynamic geographical knowledge for 21CC learning in Geography:
https://geoconnectors.blogspot.com/2024/03/to-unlock-21cc-we-need-powerful.html?m=1

Maude's typology is a useful tool for identifying specifically how the disciplinary knowledge of geography is powerful


A lot of emphasis had been placed in 1 and 2 in our curriculum. For 3, I have always reminded the students they already have some geography knowledge in them and with the lessons in geography they will be able to awaken the dormant knowledge and see them through the geographical lens. 

4 is something which I would like to develop. A good resource for Geography in upper sec Singapore and climate clusters on building up our resilience against the challenges we are facing. A short quiz followed by a short debate based on solution cards to the challenges Singapore faces in water, energy and food. 



https://www.channelnewsasia.com/watch/resilience-quest/resources-critical-4202141

5 is something I have been advocating through my geography blog which I update current geographical issues. They need to be a concerned global citizen as they learn that geography is alive!
https://olevelgeog.blogspot.com/



Wednesday, March 20, 2024

Exploring Historical Maps of Singapore

  • Access the historical maps of Singapore on https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg/
  • Get the students to zoom into a section of the Singapore Map. 
  • Enable the view of the selected historical map.
  • Use the slider to control the level of transparency of the historical map over the present map. 
  • Students can observe the changes in their neighbourhood - observing the spatial association, distribution and interconnection.