Another week in ZHSS

I haven't seen 3E2 for 2 weeks now. Last Thursday I only had one 30 min period with 2N! as all the secondary 3 students were at a Sec 3 camp. The aim of which was to foster close bonds among students.

For that lone single period with 2N1, I simply used direct instruction to talk about ageing population in Singapore. I help the class devise an acronym LIMP to remember the 4 main responses Singapore has to an ageing population.

Looking after thea ged
Immigration - encourage foreign talents
More babies - encourage earlier marriages, etc.
Planning ahead - savings, medical plans, etc for elderly.

For planning ahead, the kids came up with the reason that one must save for old age lest one ends up selling tissue paper at the hawker center.

This idea was translated into the test today that I gave for the entire topic on population. I had to give credit to the students and they had remembered the idea behind the discussion, though not as accurate as I would like.

For 3E4, Phay Fun came in to do a "fake videoing" in preperation for the filming of the IBL project next Thursday on 1 Feb. The students were at ease and did not feel awkward at all. In fact, they warmed up very quickly and CS and I both agree that we will have no problems when thea cutal filming starts next week.

We do have one HUGE learning point. CS and I both did the activity on the activity book in which students were asked to examine the relative movement rates at different plate boundaries on a map. They were then asked to deduce what would happen to certain countries (the word position was used in the question). This resulted in some rather unexpected results. For both CS's and my class, students said that iceland would split up! This raises the question of whether the question has been poorly phrased in the first place.

2 other major conceptual problems we found were:

1. The relative densities of the oceanic and continental crust must be emphasised so that students can understand why the oceanic crust subducts beneath the continental crust. In this case, the lessons covered so far has not put enough emphasis on this important concept. THis also raises the relative importance of the concept in the entire unit.

2. The textbook used represented the relative motions of plates. The usual question of why north america plate seems to move is different directions occured. While it diverges at the mid-atlantic ridge, there is a transform boundary at clarifornia. I had to explain that these are relative motions and that the absolute movement of the entire plate was in deed to the west and northwest. In CS's class the students went further to ask why the Cascade Mountain range and the St. Andreas Fault were in close promximity - what was the plate boundary?? This raises the question of simplification of concepts in high-school textbooks. Luckily, both CS and I were aware of the actual nature of the plate boundary. What about a fresh graduate who has little training in physical gegraphy??

I am looking forward to a 1.5 hr class with 3E4 on faults, folds and volcanoes. I hope it works. Such a long session!

For the elective Geography class, 3E2, I have decided to use a JIG-SAW activity with the materials from the text to draw out the main control factors on natural vegeation - aka temperature and rainfall.... more this thursday.... ta ta.