Inquiry based project

The students of 3E4 presented their project findings yesterday. The task is outlined below (see after ***) The presentation went fairly well and I was particularly impressed by the fact that they really did a lot of work and answered the question very well. Some students even ended the slides with "Now Freddy Lim can sleep well... good night".

The whole process of introduction, brainstorm, computer lab research and presentation has been filmed and I will share the thoughts at later date.

For 3E2, we played the rain forest board game, which is basically adapted from the population game I played with 2N1 a few weeks ago. I have improved the board but still found one or two funny squares which I can now refine even better. The students were then asked to explain why certain draw pile cards were good and why some were bad for the survival of the rain forest. The whole activity was perhaps one of the best activities with 3E2. Perhaps they are now gearing up for activities.

For 2N1, the first period was eaten up by "Total Defence Day" activity in which the whole school watched an MOE production of remembering the 2nd world war and Japanese occupation in Singapore. I was left with 5 minutes in that period so I asked them think about what food the Prisoner of Wars ate during the occupation. "Tapioca and Sweet potato" came the quick answer, indicating that they were really paying attention to the video. So I asked them what food the shifting cultivators ate and they answered "Tapioca and Sweet potato too". I asked them then to think about whether the shifting cultivators were as deficient in nutrition as the prisoner of wars? Then I left the class as the period was up. When I returned, I went on to ask the class about why they think the shifting cultivators were better off. It took a while before they figured out that the diet of the S.C.s were supplemented by vegetables and other crops. It was then that I went on to the mind-map on the activity book about high tech farming.

That was all for teaching this week as most of the kids were in the chinese new year mood. Oh two more things. Ms Tan Hwee Pin, was really sweet as she came round to my cubicle to 拜年 with four mandarin oranges. That was a pleasent surprise and i really appreciate the gesture.

Another thing: The students has a guess the CNY song contest early in the morning. When I asked them, they didn't seem to know what the songs were. Hmmm. I wonder if students nowadays listen to these CNY songs much. Incifdentally, the songs were 贺新年 and 迎春花.

That's all folks....

Wishing you 新年进步, 万事如意, 身体健康, 步步高升

****

Why Did The Earth Move? – An inquiry based study of earthquakes!

Introduction
Freddy Lim is a Secondary 3 student in Zhonghua Secondary School. He has a recurring nightmare. He dreams that he travels back in time to San Francisco, California, April 19, 1906. The city experienced a terrible earthquake the day before (April 18, 1906). Everyone he meets asks "Why did the earth move?" "What happened?" "Will it happen again?"
Freddy knows he should be able to answer their questions. He remembered studying plate tectonics in Geography class. He really wishes he had paid more attention. He wakes from his nightmare screaming "I DON'T KNOW!". Worse yet, Freddy fears that an earthquake might strike Singapore one day.

Task
Your task is to help Freddy learn about the processes of plate tectonics so that he will be able to answer the questions of the people of 1906 San Francisco. You would also need to help him find out if his fears of an earthquake in Singapore will possibly turn true!

Process

Part One: Roles

To help you investigate this problem, you might want to take on these roles before attempting to use the list of guiding questions in your research!
1. The COORDINATOR shows or clarifies the relationships among various ideas and suggestions, tries to pull ideas and suggestions together or tries to coordinate the activities of various members. The Coordinator also expedites group movement by doing things for the group, e.g. passing out materials or setting up chairs.
2. The RECORDER writes down suggestions, makes a record of group decisions, or writes down the product of discussion. The recorder fills the role of "group memory". S/he is also responsible if an oral presentation is required.
3. The ELABORATOR spells out suggestions in terms of examples or developed meanings, offers a rationale for suggestions previously made, and tries to deduce how an idea or suggestion would work out if adopted primarily upon relevant facts or information. S/he also suggests or proposes to the group new ideas. S/he offers a novel point of view concerning problems, procedures, goals, or solutions.
4. The information and opinion SEEKER asks for clarification of suggestions made in terms of their factual adequacy, for authoritative information and facts pertinent to the problem being discussed. S/he also asks primarily for a clarification of values pertinent to what the group is undertaking or values involved in various suggestions that have been made.

Part Two: Guiding Questions
Using the resources below, provide an explanation for the following questions.
1) What processes cause the movement of the Earth's continental and oceanic plates?
2) What are the effects of this movement?
3) What causes an earthquake?
4) What are the characteristics of an earthquake?
5) Where are earthquakes found?
6) How is an earthquake epicenter located?
7) What is the Richter Scale?
8) What are some negative impacts of earthquakes?
9) How does this case you are investigating impact people’s lives?
10) What can human beings do to monitor and to adapt to earthquakes?

Conclusion
Now that you and Freddy have found the information, create a PowerPoint or a Multimedia presentation that answers all of the questions the people of 1906 San Francisco may have had. Thanks to you, Freddy will be able to sleep tonight because now he will have the answers and his recurring nightmare should end.

Close of the day

Close of the day..... The poetry and prose session was not as fantastic. Mostly because the kids are not very keen on that. I have already tried to dramatise it but alas..... the audio recording also did not work so I have to find another way the next time I have a session to record it.

"... But come down from the mountain peak and walk alone along a forest path. Though it is mid-day it is very dark and very sombre. The sun cannot pierce the dense foliage of the branches of the giant trees, and so heavily do shadows lie upon shadows, that the very green seems almost black. The sheltered air is fresh and cool and there is an almost perfect stillness. Underfoot, except where the path is trodden bare, is a matting of dead leaves and of sweet damp moss. The daily passage of the Malays keeps back the encroachment of brambles and forest creepers. To the right and left of the path the forest appears to be almost impenetrable. The trees grow so thickly together that you are closed in by a small but unbroken circle of tree trunks. Between the trees, there are tangled masses of bushes, briars and saplings. Rattans and creepers of every kind crawl along the ground and among the trees, sometimes hanging in heavy festoons and sometimes tense with the pressure that they exert. So thick and strong is the mass of creepers that when a wood-cutter hacked through a tree-trunk, it is often kept upright by the ligaments that bind it to the surrounding trees."

- Where Monsoons Meet , Donald Moore, 1956.

A Mangrove Swamp

Look how the slow fat bubbles break in rings
As though a man were stifling underneath
The black stagnating water by no breadth
Is stirred, a mirror for all evil things

The long roots writhing upward from the mud
Like fingers crooked in lust or pain or greed
Have pendant tresses of putrescent weed
Like dead men's hair clogged stiff with
Their own blood

No light of flowers nor songs of birds dispel
The breathless, stealthy silence of the place
Only a ripple o'erspreads the water's face
At times like soundless, dreadful mirth in hell

Only the grey mists come and go beneath
The pallid shadows of the silky moon
Only dead voices in the night breeze croon
A drear and melancholy masque of death.

- Anonymous


As for the last 2 periods, I tried to get the students to think about their food supplies. I started the class with the comment "I feel hungry"... the student squickly advised me to get something to eat.... Igradually led them on to answering the questions of "where do you get your food?", "at home? Who cooks it? What does your mother use for cooking? Where does she get her ingredients?" I then pointed out that in Singapore our food sources come directly from the stores but in some places, food has to be grown (some of them said that food cna be hunted). The lesson went to to discuss what shifting agriculture is about and to describe the processes. I then ended the session by asking them to complete the workbook activity so as to tie back the ideas.
Not such a bad session but the 2N1 class was more restless than usual..... wonder why...

A tale of two blog entries

Today:

I am administering a test for 3E4 now... it is test on Landforms and I hope to see some improvement from the previous test. CS and I have been quite happy with the results from the previous test.

Also I will be trying out using prose and poetry for the Geography Elective class later today. I should hope to get some useful feedback.. will podcast the session if I can...

I'll be at reservist the next week or so ..... blog entries will be sparse at best....


1 February 2007:

IBL being filmed

Today, CS and I introduced the IBL project on earthquakes. It was a long 1.5 hr session but I structured it rather well. Once the video is out I’ll put a link to this post.

2 main learning points:

I had forgotten to go through the evaluation rubric with them. Will do so immediately in the next period.
The structure might have been too tight for some while some others felt a little lost. This really calls for some rethinking….. differentiation??

The next 2 periods will be fun as I will use Bladderstone’s idea of sensory cards in a lesson about Tropical Rainforest. Will see how it goes.