Concurrent Session 1 A

Reimagining Urban Fieldwork: A Data-Driven Geographical Investigation at Lorong Halus Wetlands

John Lim

This sharing showcases how an urban fieldwork experience was redesigned for Sec 1 Geography through an inquiry-driven G.I. at Lorong Halus Wetlands. Moving beyond observation-based field trips, students conducted authentic data collection, including measuring water quality (pH and dissolved oxygen), documenting biodiversity, and analysing human–environment interactions within a former landfill site. Smart tools such as personal learning devices and digital platforms supported evidence capture, data representation, collaborative analysis, and advocacy-based outputs. The session unpacks the design of field and post-fieldwork tasks, assessment considerations, and practical strategies for managing logistics, safety, and student engagement. Participants will gain insights into how customised field investigations can deepen geographical thinking, strengthen data literacy, and extend learning beyond the classroom through meaningful real-world applications.

Concurrent Session 1 B

Leveraging ArcGIS and AI coded simulations in the teaching of the Tectonics Cluster

Lim Jun Yu

In the teaching of the Tectonics Cluster, learners often struggle to visualise the dynamic processes occurring at plate boundaries. Our team explores how inquiry-based learning, supported by AI-coded and teacher-curated interactive simulations, can deepen students’ conceptual understanding of tectonic processes. Students first investigate tectonic landforms through ArcGIS maps before uncovering the underlying processes via guided inquiry tasks by exploring animations and interactive features on the interactive simulations. Unlike passive visualisations, these simulations are intentionally designed to scaffold thinking, sustain engagement and support students in constructing geographical understanding through exploration and sense-making. 

Concurrent Session 1 C

Structuring GIS resources for different profiles of A-level Geography students 

Chen Zhaoyan Madeline

As a tool in learning, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) offers new approaches and framework of analyses (Vega, 2019), especially for higher ability students. This presentation focuses on the design of self-directed learning GIS-based activities and the integration of specific functions in ArcGis Online into classroom learning activities for Junior College equivalent students. It will delve into the sense-making by students in the progression of learning activities, and difficulties encountered. Finally, I will explain the rationalisations of an assessment framework for these learning activities.

This learning design overcomes common assumptions about a Geography teacher’s limited knowledge and skills of GIS and the importance of accompanying students on their learning experiences and serving the pedagogical justice (Lambert, 2017) needed to help our students master constructivist perspectives in an increasing VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous) world.

Concurrent Session 1 D

Reimagining the Global Economy Through a Game-Based Approach: Integrating 21CC into the Geography Curriculum

Sharmaine Ong Gek Teng and Ng Erin

Monopoly of the Global Economy is a game-based curriculum for the GCE A-Level H2 Geography syllabus (9173, Cluster 1 Topic 1.2: Development and the Global Economy). Designed to address students’ difficulty in applying abstract concepts such as TNCs, GPNs, and actor influence, the board game reimagines curriculum delivery through experiential simulation. Students assume the role of TNCs, making strategic decisions on production nodes, trade corridors, upgrading pathways, and responses to global shocks, policy interventions, and varied economic contexts. Sustainable development is embedded through real-world trade-offs involving growth, resilience, labour welfare, regulation, and uneven development. The simulation cultivates 21st century competencies including systems thinking, adaptive decision-making, collaboration, and global awareness, transforming static content into dynamic geographical inquiry that deepens conceptual understanding and meaningful decision-making.

Concurrent Session 1 E

From Planning Vision to Lived Reality: Rethinking Assessment through Field-Based Inquiry in Punggol Northshore, Singapore

Ong Zhen Wei Jeremy, Frances Ong Hock Lin and Tricia Lim Sze Ling

This presentation illustrates how a student-directed Geographical Investigation (GI) at Punggol Northshore was designed as an authentic assessment to support learning in complex urban geographies. Anchored on the inquiry question “Is Punggol Northshore a sustainable urban neighbourhood?”, students explored how planning intentions translate into lived experiences through field-based investigation. Students engaged in pre-reading on Punggol’s eco-town vision before planning their own routes, data collection methods, and investigation focus. During the field trip, they gathered primary data on environmental, social, and economic sustainability features. The task strengthened understanding of Everyday Life Geography and reinforced executive functioning skills such as planning, monitoring, and decision-making, culminating in an evaluative report assessing the reliability and validity of their findings, positioning them as active geographical investigators rather than passive learners.

Concurrent Session 1 F

Emerging 21st Century Competencies in Geography: Moving from IMplicit to EXplicit

Ng Mei Yin Michelle, Haslinda Binte Safi'ee, Tan Pek Cheng and Yam Mei Hung, Sandra (Ren Meiheng)

In an increasingly complex and interconnected world, the development of Emerging 21st Century Competencies (e21CC) has become a central goal of education. Geography as a discipline, offers rich opportunities for cultivating e21CCs. This session presents a lesson enactment that demonstrates how selected e21CCs can be explicitly integrated into the teaching of sustainability concepts. By making competencies visible through deliberate instructional design, the lesson illustrates how students can be guided to recognise, apply, and transfer these skills beyond the classroom. Following this, a facilitated dialogue will examine the practical challenges of embedding e21CC in everyday teaching, including curriculum constraints, teacher readiness and assessment considerations. Through this shift from incidental exposure to purposeful development of competencies, it is hoped that students engage deeply with sustainability issues and consciously understand and apply e21CCs.

Concurrent Session 1 G

21CC Through Geography: Deepening Sustainability Learning with technology

Educational Technology Division (ETD)

This workshop explores how EdTech can be meaningfully leveraged to support the development of 21CC through Geography and sustainability learning through authentic learning experiences grounded in real-world contexts.

Through hands-on exploration of classroom-ready lesson exemplars, participants will examine how geographical inquiry into contemporary issues can develop Emerging 21st Century Competencies (21CC) such as critical thinking, communication and reflective decision-making in support of sustainable futures. The session will also highlight how formative assessment approaches can make students’ thinking visible and support deeper conceptual understanding.

The workshop will showcase practical digital lesson ideas and adaptable resources that teachers can readily customise for their own contexts. Participants will also explore how AI-enabled tools such as the SLS Authoring Copilot (ACP) and the Lesson Collaborator Chatbot (LCC) can support the generation and refinement of lesson ideas aligned to 21CC. Participants will leave with greater confidence in designing Geography learning experiences that integrate 21CC in purposeful and manageable ways.

Concurrent Session 1 H

What Do We Do Geography For? Rethinking Fieldwork and Geographical Inquiry

Dr Tricia Seow

Fieldwork is widely recognised as a signature pedagogy for geography education, enabling students to develop disciplinary ways of seeing, thinking, and acting through direct engagement with real-world environments. This presentation examines the evolving role of fieldwork in geography education, from traditional observational approaches to contemporary inquiry-based and technology-enhanced practices. As the geography fraternity becomes more adept at designing and implementing urban field investigations using digital and geospatial technologies, the presentation invites educators to reflect on how fieldwork is situated within larger beliefs about the nature of knowledge construction, as well as the debates that have emerged around accessibility and ethics. In doing so, geography educators are encouraged to think about who we are as geographers and what we do geography for.

Concurrent Session 1 I

Alternative Assessment: Making knowledge visible beyond exams through role play and deep listening

Dr Kamalini Ramdas, Dr Robin Loon and Dr Shobha Avadhani

Exams are typically viewed as the primary mode of assessment. Students are asked to make their knowledge (specifically, the knowledge that has been put into them) visible. This often results in students feeling disconnected from their learning, which can impact exam performance. What if we could reframe assessment beyond exams and make students' knowledge visible much earlier in the process? This would mean including students’ lived experiences. We would still be able to assess their knowledge, but this time we make space for it to emerge, take stock of it, turn it into an object that everyone can engage with, and draw it into the larger body of knowledge. This leads to a sense of ownership that can contribute to better exam performance but also to the development of students who are engaged with the world around them beyond exams and even the school context. The workshop introduces the use of role-play and deep listening to create embodied learning experiences. The aim is to centre students’ lived experiences and allow for students to contribute to knowledge production in the classroom.   

Concurrent Session 2 A

Reimagining Curriculum: Inductive or Deductive?

Ng Ning and Oh Ee-laine

During our school’s Discovery Week, Secondary 2 teachers reimagine curriculum design by embedding sustainable pedagogies within FSBB. Beyond content, the initiative examines the sustainability of teaching practices in resource use, teacher workload, and student agency. Students become self-directed learners through a Geographical Investigation in Paya Lebar. Using an innovative, self-access learning package, the investigation comprises two flexible modules: a field-based study at PLQ and a series of self-directed SLS lessons. This design enables efficient resource use and differentiates learning. To examine inquiry methods, students are divided into inductive and deductive groups that differ in learning experiences. Across both approaches, students construct knowledge by collecting primary data, linking real-world observations with geographical concepts, and proposing solutions to urban development gaps, demonstrating how innovative pedagogy can be both effective and sustainable.

Concurrent Session 2 B

Place-Based Learning in Dover: Engaging Digital Natives through Spatial Inquiry

Eleanor Wong

This sharing examines place-based education approaches in the teaching and learning of Geography in Everyday Life Cluster, situating students' learning in Dover. Participants will explore theoretical foundations and Fairfield's implementation experience through hands-on classroom activities including: NUS digital maps to examine Dover's geography and history across time periods; digital mental mapping for students to represent their sense of place; EduGIS Storymap exploration of Dover's four precincts to analyse social, economic and environmental sustainability; and Google Earth identification of ecosystem services. This practical session demonstrates how digital tools enhance place-based learning, engaging students through local inquiry while developing spatial thinking skills and community connections using accessible, effective methods.

Concurrent Session 2 C

Designing for Conceptual Thinking: Two CBCI Pathways in Geography

Debi Lim Yi Xuan and Cheri Nur Aini

Implementation of CBCI in H2 Geography to strengthen students’ conceptual thinking and transfer. We outline two scalable CBCI design pathways, illustrating how units in the global economy and fluvial floods were redesigned to prioritise student sense-making, collaboration and system-level reasoning. Lessons were sequenced to help students uncover core conceptual understandings (e.g. uneven processes leading to uneven outcomes) through structured inquiry, comparative case studies and iterative refinement of ideas. Evidence from student work and feedback indicates improved ability to link processes, explain variation and apply concepts to unfamiliar contexts. We also discuss practical design moves, including tutorials before lectures, backward design and coherence through streamlined resources. The session includes reflections on consolidation, exam bridging and the potential of CBCI to support deeper thinking and learning transfer in Geography classrooms.

Concurrent Session 2 D

Simulating Climate Policy in the Classroom: Data, Decisions and Digital Tools

Charlene Chen Ying

This session showcases a classroom-based, technology-enhanced approach to teaching climate mitigation in Geography. Students explore a Climate Budget Challenge, using a shared Google Sheet to make policy decisions that balance cost, emissions reduction, and political feasibility. To reflect on their choices and make thinking visible, groups post their reasoning on Padlet. The lesson engages students in data-driven decision-making, critical thinking, and problem-solving, while providing scaffolding and support for diverse learners. These tech-tools help students track their learning, reflect on their choices, and make decisions that suit their own approach. This approach demonstrates how content-heavy topics can be made tangible and interactive, giving students ownership of their learning and fostering discussion about the trade-offs involved in real-world climate policy.

Concurrent Session 2 E

Bringing the World into the Classroom through Immersive Experiences

Sabrina Ho, Sarifah Tamsir and Mindy Low

This project showcases an innovative approach to enhancing student engagement through immersive learning technologies. In response to limited fieldwork opportunities in a post-pandemic, VUCA environment, it uses cost-effective tools such as projectors and 360-degree videos to transform classrooms into interactive learning spaces. Applied in Geography, the approach addresses students’ difficulties with abstract sustainability concepts through a student-centered, experiential model guided by Kolb’s Experiential Learning Theory. Classrooms become simulated ecosystems where students engage in virtual fieldwork on topics like mangroves and climate change, with links to Biology. Findings show improved engagement, understanding, and confidence, along with greater motivation and environmental awareness. This scalable model demonstrates how immersive technology can be integrated into teaching, offering educators practical strategies to create meaningful and impactful learning experiences.

Concurrent Session 2 F

From Measuring Trees to Rethinking Responsibility: A Biology Fieldwork Experience with Possibilities for Geography Education

Tan Lin Yin Jacqueline (LT/ Biology)

This session shares a secondary Biology fieldwork learning experience on carbon sinks designed to help students reason with environmental data through authentic fieldwork, digital tools and evidence-based discussion. Students measure trees within the school environment, estimate carbon storage, analyse shared class data and evaluate the effectiveness of Singapore’s One Million Trees movement in offsetting national carbon emissions. While grounded in the Biology topic of carbon cycling and ecosystems, the lesson opens into territory familiar to Geography educators - sustainability, climate action, human-environment interactions, scale analysis and field inquiry. Participants will gain insights into how local fieldwork and authentic data can help students move beyond awareness towards evaluating impact, questioning adequacy and reasoning across personal, national and global scales.

Concurrent Session 2 G

Earth Systems Research Institute (ESRI)

This session is designed to introduce secondary and pre-university school teachers to GIS web applications and their application in the classroom context. The session will commence with an introduction to the foundational functions of GIS platforms, including how to locate available maps and resources, and how to navigate and manage various map layers. Participants may use ArcGIS to explore their local town or follow a guided demonstration using a common reference area. Subsequently, the session will provide an overview of the range of web applications available following the recent refresh, with attention to their respective use cases, and strengths. Participants will then engage in a hands-on activity to create a web application and explore its integration within a Student Learning Space (SLS) module.

Concurrent Session 2 H

Disaster by Choice: Learning from disasters to enhance critical, adaptive and inventive thinking for sustainable futures

Dr Ilan Kelman 

When a disaster happens, we hear that nature runs rampant, seeking to destroy us through these 'natural disasters'. This session explores how Geography offers a different story, showing how choices create and can stop disasters while providing key points for supporting critical, adaptive, and inventive thinking to reimagine sustainability curricula. Fundamentally, disasters are not usually from environmental phenomena, such as earthquakes and tornadoes. Instead, disasters emerge from human choices, notably decisions about where and how we live, particularly how people with political power and resources treat those who have less. Disaster choices are fully intertwined with sustainability choices, meaning that competencies in stopping disasters support achieving sustainability - competencies which can be taught in geography. Geography curricula for sustainability can explain how we can and should improve, since disasters are not 'natural', because the causes are long-term human values, attitudes, behaviour, and decisions.

Concurrent Session 2 I

Dr Shawn Lum

To be confirmed