Singapore’s vision of a City in Nature involves more than just planting trees and creating green spaces for recreational and aesthetic purposes. It involves educating people on our interdependence with nature within our urban context.

In this hands-on workshop, we introduce haBEEtat, an educational game that features the 4 honey bee species in Singapore. Due to urban encroachment into forested areas, bee colonies have had to search for homes within our urban neighbourhoods. Despite their importance in pollination and maintaining genetic diversity in lowland forests and our planted urban flora, a common response is to view bees as threatening and to exterminate them. The game aims to change mindsets and educate players in a fun way about alternative choices when we encounter bees in our neighbourhoods.

We also situate the workshop as an alternative way to conduct an IBL lesson on Cluster 1 (Topics 1&2) of the USG syllabus. We hope to demonstrate that in a City in Nature, we should act as environmental stewards and embrace opportunities to maximize wildlife and diversity, viewing our urban neighbourhoods as ecosystems which we can influence positively not only for human well-being, but also with consideration for the intrinsic value of other species.

Through the study of the Tourism cluster, our project seeks to enable students to gain a more nuanced understanding of sustainability, and empower them to make responsible decisions by becoming more sustainability-conscious.

We adopt a multi-pronged approach incorporating several strategies (e.g. concept-based inquiry, circles, differentiated instruction and role-play) to empower students to participate in both self-directed and collaborative learning. The emphasis on the co-construction of learning and the exchange of ideas enables them to reflect more deeply on how they play important roles as contributors to society and as global citizens. In a world where tourism's widespread presence has posed sustainability challenges, we also strive to nurture our students to become sustainability-minded problem solvers.

Our sharing will showcase how our series of lessons blends these different pedagogies to help students appreciate the strengths and challenges faced by tourism stakeholders, and gain a more intricate understanding of the complexities involved in achieving sustainable tourism goals.  We will also share on how we monitor their progress in developing 21CC such as civic literacy and critical and inventive thinking. In doing so, we aspire to equip our students with mindsets and competencies to be responsible decision-makers and problem solvers in society.

Through the Station Rotation model, teachers have more time with smaller groups of students in class while meeting the diverse learning needs and skills of the students. This pedagogical approach combines the different aspects of Ed Tech opportunities, individual/collaborative learning, and teacher-led lessons. 

In St Andrew's Secondary, the use of SR allows us to explore new ideas, cultivate better approaches to making learning experience more effective and fun. We will share some of our school's findings with regard to challenges and innovative ways to enhance SR in Humanities as well as in other subjects. We hope that this will benefit the fraternity and lead to a better outcome in teaching and learning.

We will be demonstrating this model for our presentation. So let us Rotate together!

(The participants will go through Station Rotation with us. There will be 3 stations.

- Teacher-led station where we will explain the SR model and how it meets the diverse needs of students

- Tech-enabled station where they will watch how SR takes place in a Geography Classroom.

- Collaborative station where participants will be given articles on SR, a completed lesson plan and a blank template for them to work on.)

Discussion encourages student voice, increases learner engagement, and helps students broaden their understanding about issues in the humanities. While there are numerous benefits to using discussion as an instructional strategy in our classrooms, Parker and Hess (2001) argue that discussion should also be seen as a “curriculum objective in its own right”. Teaching for discussion helps our students to learn collaboration and communication skills – part of the E21CC – as they share, struggle with and reconcile diverse perspectives. 

How might we teach with and for discussion in a Geography classroom?

The seminar seeks to share with participants how to implement a discussion-based learning experience for Tourism Geography in the classroom. The presenter will share how she has planned for the Structured Academic Controversy to cater to a diverse group of learners. This starts with the picking out of key understandings undergirding a topic, and the crafting of a suitable inquiry question. The presenter will highlight some considerations about the space in which discussion may happen, including the classroom set-up and grouping of learners. The presenter will also share adaptable lesson resources during the session, such as sample discussion stems, and worksheets which show evidence of students’ learning.

What is the value of Geography? This workshop aims to share how the discipline provides a conduit for students to develop emerging 21st Century Competencies. By sharing enacted examples of alternative assessments, participants will be exposed to how a well-designed Geography curriculum can foster critical and inventive thinking as well as develop digital and civic literacy in our students. The examples will illustrate how students can connect their lived-in worlds of their neighbourhoods to broader geographical concepts while being digital creators who advocates for their communities. Participants will also engage in hands-on activities where they harness artificial intelligence to create rubrics for the assessment of emerging 21st Century Competencies in Geography.

This workshop will focus on developing 21st-century competencies. Participants will learn how to support students in becoming self-directed learners and engaged, concerned citizens. We'll use a creative approach, incorporating accessible technology to help students collect data and gain insights from relevant and engaging studies.

How can we continue to design for meaningful authentic learning tasks for learners whilst leveraging on the use of AI? Using Extended Fieldwork on Tourism as example, presenters will demonstrate how assessment criteria was designed with learners’ use of AI for research in mind, with rubrics to cater for learners' demonstration of higher order thinking and application of geographical concepts in their responses. The individual responses were then shared within their groups, promoting discussion for the purpose of their fieldwork inquiry. Besides Digital Responsibility, learners learn Digital Knowledge Currency and Data Competencies, thereby enhancing their Digital Competencies in the process of learning for their investigation.

Our team will be exploring how a concept-based inquiry approach can be used to facilitate students':

-Learning of a topic in the Pre-U Syllabus on how to make cities liveable for women.  

-Mastery of emerging 21st century competencies 

Participants will understand how we apply the principles of transferable learning and active questioning to design our learning package. They will be introduced to the different stages of the inquiry cycle:

1. Tuning in and Finding out - where students are engaged in bite-sized fieldwork where they design methods to understand issues faced by women in Singapore, and the strategies which can be employed to help them deal with these issues

2. Sorting out - where students will share their findings with each other and collaborate to organise the data collected through their fieldwork

3. Going further and Making conclusions - where students are engaged with different case studies to complement their fieldwork findings and understand the issues faced by women in cities around the world, and the strategies employed to help women work through these issues   

4. Taking Action - where students will reflect on their learning and share these findings with their fieldwork participants

Our team will also share some of our students' responses to the learning package, specifically in terms of whether they were able to develop critical, adaptive and inventive thinking, as well as communication, collaboration and information skills. We will then conclude with our reflections on the future directions which our learning package could take.

Discussion encourages student voice, increases learner engagement, and helps students broaden their understanding about issues in the humanities. While there are numerous benefits to using discussion as an instructional strategy in our classrooms, Parker and Hess (2001) argue that discussion should also be seen as a “curriculum objective in its own right”. Teaching for discussion helps our students to learn collaboration and communication skills – part of the E21CC – as they share, struggle with and reconcile diverse perspectives. 

How might we teach with and for discussion in a Geography classroom?

The seminar seeks to share with participants how to implement a discussion-based learning experience for Tourism Geography in the classroom. The presenter will share how she has planned for the Structured Academic Controversy to cater to a diverse group of learners. This starts with the picking out of key understandings undergirding a topic, and the crafting of a suitable inquiry question. The presenter will highlight some considerations about the space in which discussion may happen, including the classroom set-up and grouping of learners. The presenter will also share adaptable lesson resources during the session, such as sample discussion stems, and worksheets which show evidence of students’ learning.

This session delves into the intersection of place-based education (PBE) and e-pedagogy within the geography curriculum. PBE, as articulated by scholars like Gruenewald (2003) and Orr (2013), emphasises experiential, community-based learning that cultivates deep connections to local contexts, cultures, and environments. This approach is integral to geography, where the concept of ‘place’ is paramount. E-pedagogy, on the other hand, involves the strategic use of technology to foster active learning. The post-COVID era has seen an increased reliance on technological tools such as videos, virtual reality (VR), and other digital platforms to facilitate ‘learning about a place’ (see Nissley, 2011; Granit-Dgani, 2021). While these tools allow students to connect with distant locations, they can paradoxically lead to disconnection from the places studied, potentially hindering the development of civic literacy—a crucial 21st-century skill.

In response to this challenge, I designed a problem-based learning (PBL) activity aimed at encouraging students to ‘learn for a place’ (Nissley, 2011; Granit-Dgani, 2021). This learning experience focuses on Jalan Kukoh, a neighbourhood in Singapore often perceived as less liveable. Students are tasked with developing and pitching a reimaging vision and solutions for Jalan Kukoh to enhance its liveability. The objective is to help them understand key concepts— ‘urban reimaging’ and ‘liveability’—while engaging in civic-minded problem-solving.

A component of the learning experience is a self-guided tour of Jalan Kukoh using Google Earth. Following this, students collaborate using Canva to co-create their pitch deck. Google Earth allows for personalised and differentiated learning, enabling students to explore the field at their own time and pace. Canva facilitates collaborative learning to create a final product that demonstrates their comprehension. While technology mediates and enhances these learning interactions, the primary objective is to deepen their understanding of key concepts while fostering civic literacy.

Through this presentation, I aim to expand conversations on the application of e-pedagogy in fostering civic literacy, a key 21st century competency. Moreover, participants will have the opportunity to explore Google Earth and experiment with designing their own self-guided tours, equipping them with practical tools to bring students closer to the world while ensuring that the connection remains meaningful and grounded in the realities of the places we study.

This session will show how teaching of Geography in Everyday Life can be redesigned to integrate GIS for inquiry-based learning and to foster conceptual understanding of town planning. By overlaying and analysing multiple data layers, teachers can challenge students to observe where and how amenities are spatially distributed, as well as to uncover associated relationships. The lesson module can be found on SLS. The session will also show how students utilise GIS to collect real world data, helping students deepen understanding of their neighourhoods and work collaboratively to suggest evidence-based improvements to their neighourhoods. In doing, students become a more concerned citizen, connecting, and contributing their communities.

Are you grappling with questions about the new Geography syllabuses or striving to meet the diverse learning needs of your students?

Join us at GeoConnect, a Geography Chapter professional learning platform designed for educators passionate about geography education where ideas can blossom and spread. This year, join us in a world cafe, where you will have the chance to voice your challenges, exchange insights, and cultivate solutions with fellow teachers. You will leave enriched by the harvesting of practical strategies from our experienced Teacher Leaders, ready to inspire and enhance your classroom practice.

Don't miss this opportunity to engage in meaningful conversations, expand your professional network, and be a part of a vibrant community dedicated to advancing geography education. Join us at GeoConnect 2024 and transform the way you teach geography!

This workshop will address the following questions:

• How can we spark curiosity and get students involved?

• What is the evidence on the future potential of different mitigation options? (using data from COP28)

• What are the social, economic, environmental and political challenges and implications of some of the mitigation options? (reference to specific case studies)

In this workshop, participants will be actively engaged, using and evaluating classroom activities. Although the activities aim to increase knowledge and understanding of climate change mitigation, they can be adapted and applied to other topics in the syllabus and their associated resources.

The activities, as well as using an inquiry approach, are designed to develop 21st century competencies, including collaborative team work, communication and presentation skills, critical thinking and futures thinking as global citizens.

In today's educational landscape, fostering deep learning is crucial, especially in alignment with the E21CC (21st Century Competencies) framework. This presentation explores strategies to enhance deep learning while addressing challenges posed by FSBB (Full Subject-Based Banding), SEN (Special Educational Needs), time constraints, and student motivation.

Key strategies include inquiry-based learning (IBL) approaches that engage students in real-world problems, enhancing their critical thinking and collaboration skills. Leveraging technology through the use of generative AI tools and SLS will be demonstrated, offering practical lesson ideas to maximize instructional time and promote more interactive and personalized learning during curriculum.

To achieve the ultimate goal of fostering student agency in learning, the presenters will share insights from their use of diagnostic tests using SLS AI marking tool. These tests support students in setting realistic learning goals and tracking their progress over time, providing a clear framework for personalized instruction. Attendees will gain practical approaches to overcome current educational challenges, creating a dynamic and supportive learning environment that aligns with the E21CC framework.

In Singapore’s efforts towards sustainable development, the balancing of three key foci and the effective partnership of different stakeholders are essential ingredients to create a more resilient and sustainable city. In this hands-on workshop, a game-based learning will be introduced to engage players to build a more socially equitable and sustainable city while enhancing metacognition and conceptual understanding (Adipat et. Al., 2021; Bradd et. Al, 2020) through the board game, ‘Sustainacity’.

With refinements from 2 years of implementation across four different schools and student profiles, this game is used as an engaging inductive lesson resource for teaching Secondary 2 Geography. This game therefore aims to value-add students' learning experiences to tie in their understandings of Chapters 7, 8 and 9. To enhance students’ enduring understanding of the key concepts, reflection questions are infused to build students’ metacognition as they articulate not just what they have learnt, but also ponder upon the future possibilities of building a sustainable city after playing the game. This workshop will also share potential successes and challenges of game-based learning and hopefully inspire possibilities for use in other lessons anchored on sustainability and/or resource management. Coupled with the collaborative experience, students’ E21CC competencies are also foregrounded through the lesson experience as they navigate the dilemmas while being empowered to realise the shared responsibility in moulding Singapore’s sustainable future (Qian & Clark, 2016).

The role of assessment feedback is crucial in fostering self-management skills in students. The session on formative assessment feedback practices will focus on:

(i) alignment between teachers' assessment literacy and students' learning outcomes, and 

(ii) development of feedback partnerships between teachers and students. 

With effective and mindful use of assessment feedback, we can develop greater students' agency and empower students to monitor their own learning progress as they become life-long learners.

The role of the geography educator is paramount in connecting 21st century learners with the world around them. In the bid to cultivate active contributors and concerned citizens, how do we get them to look, listen and feel, so that there is the ownership of and responsibility to the world they live in? By integrating bite-sized fieldwork into our geography curriculum, students are given the opportunity to see the relevance of geography in their daily lives. In addition to aligning these smaller field experiences with core content knowledge, the incorporation of big ideas can deepen learning and encourage transference of knowledge. In this seminar, we will delve into practical strategies and lessons designed to infuse big ideas, such as fundamental geographical concepts like space, place, and environment, into bite-sized fieldwork activities. Participants will engage in collaborative discussions to exchange insights, share existing practices, and address common challenges. Through intentional lesson design, even the smallest scale, bite-sized field experiences have the potential to reshape perspectives and empower our learners to engage more deeply with and respond thoughtfully to the world around them.

This session delves into the integration of educational technology tools, i.e. MOE ArcGIS, to enhance spatial thinking and digital literacy for our students as part of our Bali field trip.  Students conducted their investigations on perceptions of disaster risks for locals and tourists in Bali, and created an ArcGIS Web Application to analyze disaster-prone areas in the Kintamani region, examining elevation, geology, and land use to assess disaster risks. This hands-on experience fostered their ability to apply their mapping skills, and to distill and discern complex geographical data.

They gathered data from local communities and tourists, and collaborated with a local disaster risk reduction geoscientist in creating their Web Application that would be effective in raising tourists’ awareness of the disaster risks in the area and the preparedness measures that they could take. The field trip provided students with the unique opportunity to discover the needs of local residents and tourists in disaster-prone areas. With their geographical knowledge and skills, they were able to value-add to the local community through leveraging a range of digital tools to reduce disaster risks.

In the rapidly evolving educational landscape of the 21st century, digital literacy is paramount. This presentation explores how integrating educational technology enhances geography education, focusing on delta ecosystems in the humid tropics. Through an innovative online lesson designed for GCE A-level H2 Geography students, we delve into the significance of disappearing deltas, examining their formation, distribution, and the vital ecosystem services they provide. The lesson utilizes real-world data, interactive maps, GIS technology, and multimedia resources framed using thought-provoking activities based on key inquiry questions to engage students in understanding both the natural processes shaping deltas and the anthropogenic threats they face. By analyzing specific case studies such as the Mekong and Ganges-Brahmaputra deltas, students gain insights into the environmental and socio-economic impacts of delta degradation. This session will showcase how these digital tools not only foster a deeper understanding of complex geographical concepts but also prepare students to address pressing future environmental challenges. Attendees will leave with practical insights into implementing technology-enhanced learning in their own geography curricula, ultimately aiming to build a digitally literate and environmentally conscious generation.

In this presentation, our team will share how we integrated playful learning strategies in pre-university geography education to develop 21st Century Competencies (21CC). We will present practical examples and insights from our experiences for implementing playful learning in your own classrooms. We hope to illustrate how these approaches can enhance student engagement and equip learners with the essential skills required to navigate future challenges and opportunities in the 21st century.

This seminar empowers teachers with strategies to enhance digital literacy through EdTech, aligned with MOE's “Find, Think, Apply, Create” framework. 

Participants will explore tools like Survey123 for data collection and analysis, fostering students' data literacy and critical thinking. EduGIS will encourage spatial thinking by examining relationships in spatial data. 

The seminar will also showcase digital tools that help students apply learning to real-world contexts and create content like vlogs and mental maps. Participants will engage with resources and student artifacts to reflect on integrating these technologies into their teaching.