Mapping out Ubin

Contributed by Ebrahim on Workplace in 2019

Hi all, this week will be an all land expedition mode. From Team 7, I will like to share a framing that Simon and I did a couple of weeks ago when we were on full land expedition. For those people in Ubin Camp 1 and Camp 2, who might ran out of idea on framing for land expedition, you can give this a try and any feedback is much appreciated. We challenged those who wants to try out something new in teaching navigation to give this framing a try out.

Framing: To map out Pulau Ubin on a piece of empty A3 paper.

Pre-requisites:

• a solid teaching lesson on navigation on the 4Ds. (solid meaning teaching the 4ds without using a map)

• using any heights activities and any other activities for watch to gain points so as to buy pieces of map to paste on their empty map

We outline the island of Pulau Ubin on a piece of empty A3 paper using a cut out photostatted copy of the island. Using the same photostatted copy, we cut it out in small square pieces (like jigsaw) and labelled them.

For our height activity which was Indiana, we get them to gain as much points as possible by transversing the different levels of Indiana. With the points they gain, they can buy the number of maps pieces and paste them on their empty map. Any empty spaces will then be explored by the students to make their map as complete as possible. This is the pre-activity before the land expedition.

On the first day of the expedition, we make Kekek Quarry as a mandatory landmark for them to find as we will be doing rafting. Therefore, the first day, we kept them only on the eastern part of Pulau Ubin. We used the rafting activity for them to gain more points so that they can buy more jigsaw pieces for the second day of their land expedition.

Since travelling on the eastern side of Pulau Ubin will meant that they get to see public maps along the route. We make a compulsory rule that only 2 people at a time can see the public map for 2 minutes (without holding their empty map) and transfer the information onto their empty map. On the second day, we make it compulsory for the watches to go to number 1 house for them to identify the colour of Chek Jawa beacon.

(For more details, can look at the description of the images and can approach either Simon or myself for any tips)

Conclusion: The framing has a more "exploratory" feel than the usual land expedition of finding checkpoint. The activities along the way also make them exercise their decision making, thus more opportunities for storming. Looking forward, if there is a need to develop this framing, we can get real print out of empty Ubin map that can be re-used. You can also think of framing this activity by making them put on an explorer's hat i.e. using Columbus as an example.