Geography Lesson @ S1-01: Demographic Transition Model

Attended the lesson by Aurelius this afternoon. It was the 2nd time... er I should say the 3rd time I heard about similar thing - Population Pyramid and the Demographic Transition Model (DTM). Thanks to James, too :) The preliminary introduction of the big topic during the meeting :)

The purpose is not just a lesson visit to see how lessons could be further sharpened, but also for us to learn and possibly surface good classroom practices. Hence, it's also part of my learning journey :)

The lesson started off by helping students to understand what it meant by "Trend". I was still quite puzzle over why the teacher needed to take length to explain the word. Well, I think that's where I learnt that it's important to explain the words with a relevant context even though it might be just a simple word.

For example, in Maths, we ask students to observe trends or patterns established by numbers. However, in this subject, to describe a trend, it's more than words, but in broad areas like "form", "functionalities". It seems to be a different kind of 'animal' in another subject.

1. Understanding of Trend... with Phone as an example

The Form

• "Old phones are bulkier and newer phones are much more smaller and light"
• TR: What else do you see in the outlook?
• The screens of the newer phone gets bigger.
• The old phone - keypads are big big while the new ones touch touch
• The new ones are more stylish ?

Functions

• Nowadays have lots of functions like internet... now only can call

2. Next, looking at Population Pyramid:

• Congo

So, there were so much to get out of the population pyramid!
Not just superificial information based on comparison of the bars. There were so much to get out of it, when breaking the pyramid into 3 tiers!

Here were some questions and responses. Indeed, I was impressed by some of the questions and responses from the students :)

• TR: Tell me what's the birth rate like for Congo?
• High Infant mortality rate
• TR: What group are we talking at the middle tier?
• Death Rate.
• Ties back to the field work out there
• Harsh brought up a possible observation (which could probably be used to argue about the trend) that it could be in the past that the birth rate was not that high. Hence, resulting the concave shape

Next, by comparing the birth rate of India and Congo; both countries have high birth rate; but India's might not be as high

Another question was asked:
Which group actually has a larger group of people in the society working?

• For India, the change of population from one group to another (upwards) is quite minimal, as compared to Congo.
• By comparing the "tip" of each pyramid, one is able to tell people from which country live longer.

Other observations of low birth rate:

• Because living standard is high, and therefore have less children.
• Does it mean that in a develop country, the country will spend less in infant or children?
• The parents tend to spend more money on the children because they have less children.
• So, it doesn't necessary mean there's less money spend on infants.

Into the next activity, which was to draw distinguishing features of both developed and less developed countries throuh 3 pictures (which broadly focused on transport, standard of living and infrastructure). I think it would be easier for students to remember if these 3 broad areas were articulated at the start of the task. Some responses from students include:

• The road is pretty rough and that means the government might have spent less money in its infrastructure.
• The picture with a truck carrying more people - Soh Fan: Because the population was very dense. The crowd in the tiny truck. So, it means that they don't have money to spend on taxis.
• Ziying: Why is it that while the country is poor, there's such high birth rate
• Mayur: It's because the survival rate of their children is low

Moving on to the Demographic Transition Model

Here's an interesting explanation about the DTM?

• Stage 1: High birth rate & High Death Rate (e.g. tribal society)
• Stage 2: With a bit of technology, but people still cling to their culture... better living, better food... need people to work... so still high population, and birth rate start to grow
• Stage 3: Start to have stage 3, death rate has dropped... death rate is low... however, birth rate starts to drop
• Stage 4: Standard of living has gone up, people also doesn't want to bear so much children.
  

Maths Lesson @ S1-03 - Relationship between 2 Linear Graphs and a Quadratic Graph

Today attended the lesson by Jason... which led the students to see what the link between 2 linear equations with a quadratic equation.

The scaffold came through several activities:

(1) The first activity of this lesson is to find a linear equation when given 2 points.


Question
If A (2, -2) and B (-2, 4), find the equation of the line AB.
And hence, state the value of the x-intercpet and y-intercept.


Students were able to use the formula to find the gradient using the formula,
(y2-y1)/(x2-x1), which is - 3/2.


One question from the student was...
"when m could be written as 6/(-4) and subsequently (-3)/2.
So, does it matter where the negative sign is? Is it with numerator or the denominator?"
Hm... while the response to the student was, "It doesn't matter..."
Well, I think it's where the students always get confuse over... at any level.
So, would writing - 3/2 helps? Maybe... when the negative sign belongs to the entire fraction 3/2.


It was also noted that students were introduced to the fact that the y-intercept can be expressed as (0, c) that is, when the x coordinate is zero.
Well, this is an important concept that students must understand.

To find the y-intercept, it was quite obvious that students knew that they would substitute any of the coordinate to the "half-found" equation: y = -3/2 x + c

(2) Indeed, I enjoyed the next part of the activity :) an interesting one - getting students to learn the 'beauty' of expressing the equation in the form of x/a + y/b = 1

I could not recall my teacher was able to explain so clearly what's the significance of expressing a linear equation in the form x/a + y/b = 1
Hm... I think this was introduced in Secondary 3 Additional Mathematics then. The key deliverable at this point, I guess is leading the students to be able to how the x- and y-intercepts could be so well represented in an equation expressed in the form of x/a + y/b = 1

The process to elicit responses from students really made their minds spin. Hahah...


The best part is really asking the students "Why" the a is the intercept and why b is the y-intercept... and how they derive the explanation through application of the following concepts and solve algebraically:

• what happens to the equation when the line cuts the y axis (i.e. to find the y-intercept)? i.e. x coordinate = 0, hence y = b.
• similarly, to show why a is the x intercept. The same concept applies: when the line cuts x axis, the value of y is zero. Hence x/a + 0/b = 1; therefore, x = a.

It really required them to have solid understanding of the intercepts (i.e. the y-coordinate of the x-intercept is zero while x coordinate of the y-intercept is zero, too).

• It sounds easy, but definitely not something simple for a 13-year old mind who just started to touch-base with the Cartesian Coordinate Geometry.
• Indeed, I'm really curious to find out how many in the class would be able to explain...

(3) The 3rd part was something new to me... which did not cross my mind in the past until the recent discussion when Sarah proposed the possibility of looking at the relationship between linear lines and parabolas, focusing at the roots.

In fact, I like it very much... it's like gaining enlightenment at this age - making new discovery in what I was familiar with!

Students observation, for students to the relationships of lines passing through the same point:
What kind of lines pass through the point (-2, 0)?

• What kind of gradient and y-intercepts do we get?

2 linear equations contributed by students:

• y = x + 2 [root = -2]
• y = x - 4 [root = 4]
• y = (x + 2)(x - 4) [roots = -2 and 4]

Why is the roots (x-intercepts) of the straight lines are the same as the roots of the parabola?
I guess that's where technology came in very handy that allows students to see how the lines coincide with each other.

Of course, the other part was when students were guided to check out the "signs" of the gradient and y-intercepts at the 4 different quadrants.

By the way, I wonder, after this first introduction, how many students were able to explain the process they went through in this activity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
All in all, I enjoyed this very energetic lesson :)

• The explanation was clear... though it's a bit quick in the pace.
• On the other hand, I think too much things were packed into this 1-hour lesson.
• Perhaps some breathing space for the students to attempt some tasks would help to check their understanding.

"Mashing" the Learning Journey

In a recent trip to Japan, I attempted to do a "full scale" documentation of the observations of the trip with both blog and googlemap (including several other elements) - to figure out how massive it is if we were to do one for potential upcoming study trips.

In general, the following were incorporated to create the entire 'sensation':
- Blog
- Images (using digital camera)
- Video clips (using digital camera)
- Movie editing tools like iMovie, Windows Movie Maker
- Internet links (for information)
- Search tools (to find out background of places before traveling)
- GoogleMap (to mark down the places of visit)
- Online Image storage platform like PICASA
- Online Video storage platform like YouTube

Pre-trip Preparation:
1. Knowing the itinerary is critical as this would decide the format and the layout of the documentation.
- The general concept of the structure should be ready before any work is done electronically. Else, it would be massive and messy to re-organise the information and media at the end of the trip. Of course, we also leave room for refinement along the way.
2. Deciding on the choice of platforms. For instance, I like to use Google suite because most applications are interlinked (Blog, PICASA, GoogleMap)
3a. Setting up the blog - to decide what should be in the main blog and what else appear in delicated pages or appear in the widget.
3b. Setting up the GoogleMap - to decide what to be reflected in the map. Indeed, it would be great if we could reflect the flow of the trip in the map, too.
4. Input the known information into the blog first. This includes
- Creating the Googlemap specially for the trip & marking the places on the map
- Embedding the Googlemap in a delicated page in the blog
- Creating the relevant widgets and put in the relevant links

During the Trip:
1. Take lots of images - depending on the use of these images - unless they are meant for print in posters or magazines - Image of resolution about 2MB would be more than enough
2. Take video clips - each not longer than 1 minute, they could be stitched with movie editing software. This would reduce the 'bulkness' of the clip.
3. Download (from the digital camera) images and videoclips regularly (e.g. once a day) to organise and categorise when necessary.
4. Upload the images into the online image storage platform and organise further into smaller albums for the ease to manage.
5. Identify videos that are relevant and related - stitch them together and upload to online media storage platform regularly.
6. Select the more significant or representing images to be put up in the blog.
7. Embed the respective online photo albums and embed it as slideshow in the blog.

To 'announce' the completion of the blog, insert the "addthis" feature to the blog. Upon completion, share the blog via Twitter and Facebook :D

Here is an example of the map created for the recent trip:
The blog that goes with this map could be found at
http://lohky-tohoku.blogspot.com


View 2010 Tohoku, Japan in a larger map

GCCCE 2010 Paper Presentation for W06

Would not have thought of presenting any paper in a Conference that's targeted mainly for the "Chinese World" of Educators - but it happened. So, it once proved again, its the relevance that overrule the medium of communication (Mandarin vs English).

Indeed, I think many a time, because we were so exposed to the articles and educators in the English speaking world, we were pretty ignorant of the vast amount of work carried out in the Chinese-speaking world. Yes, look at the papers that were presented in the conference! On the other hand, it's through this one-time experience that made me wonder... does this group of educators do things differently, as compared to those in the English-speaking world?

Things that could be better...

• I guess, it's really a matter of expectation and preparedness - which was 'shaped' over time and our previous experiences when presenting papers in conferences - be it big or small.
• What would cross one's mind when one is told it is a Workshop? The physical layout, settings (including equipment) would definitely be different! One would not expect it to be a tutorial set-up with rows of chairs and tables lined up in straight rows. That defeat the objective and the strategies that people would normally employ in workshops!
• It's the engagement level that one looks out for - participation is one of the key highlights, what's more if it's an ICT-enabled workshop! (Hahaha... I could find my ex-ETO self coming back again!). Unfortunately, there seemed to be disalignment in expectations, and perhaps interpretation of what a workshop entails! {sigh...}
• I guess nothing got more frustrated when the enquiries went nowhere... it went like a ping-pong ball that bounced around because there was no 'ownership' or clear direction on management of enquiries by the organiser! {another sigh...}
• Well, of course, the last assumption we had was the event took place in NIE! Hahaha... We presume the event 'must' be taking place in NIE since NIE is the co-organiser. Nevertheless, we were lucky to have the logistic personnel in NIE to assist. Phew! Else, we'll be late too!
• Indeed, not knowing that there was a chairperson assigned to the session (oh yes, we were not told), we started at 1.35 pm about 5 minutes before the organiser (and his team of people came in). Hahah... in chinese, we really 喧宾夺主. It's both unforgetable to us as well as the organiser, I believe.

This is the 2nd time presenting a paper that is related to the use of Web 2.0 applications and platform. Indeed, it's a collaborative effort with Ching Ya - to share good practices we have in SST, in particular, for this conference, those that were implemented in the Chinese Language subject. It's heartening to be able to surface good practices within just 6 months.

Here's the Blog that host the information and materials prepared specially for this occasion: http://sst-20100601.blogspot.com/; http://sst-20100601.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

Glogster (II) Further Exploration

Revisited Glogster this morning,hoping to generate some good ideas that could bring this tool/ application into teaching and learning... but I think, at this point, is still very much for the 'creation' - as an end-product. While explorating, I discover that some features are really very easy to use - that helps in the user experience! Of course, there are also limitations (which I always find the excuse for it - because it's free! What more could we ask for?)

Of course, apart from just creating the Glog, I've also embedded it into the blog (which is habitual of me!), to go with further elaboration...

I think, one of the greatest advantage, as compared to direct upload to the blog is - one could layout several objects in the poster, and possibly making use of the non-standard text format. It certainly encourages creativity.

Illustration 1: Using photographs to create an digital poster, to be accompanied with text. One could also select appropriate text and images (including animation) to create the 'ambience' and enhance the "message" in the presentation.



Illustration 2: A video clip is embedded into the poster, with appropriate text. The additions around the 'key' components enhances the context of the content.

One potential activity: Students capturing acts of goodwill - a description, followed by one's own response to what's observed. Images and clips speak a thousand words.



Glogster has made it quite easy to upload video clips - as it allows one to copy the link of clips that are already uploaded to media repositories like YouTube. The only thing which is not obvious is, after clicking at the 'upload' button, one doesn't know whether the operation is activated or not until the image/ video clip appears in the uploaded window.

One other aspect - layout - it's limited to portrait only. There is no way to change the final display (in blog) by editing the size under the html environment. It simply conforms to portrait and 're-size' accordingly.

Glogster - an exploration

Chanced upon this new online application while checking out (inside ThinkQuest) for an ADE who worked in Suzhou - Glory Goh, a Singaporean who was also an ex-Teacher, currently working in the Dulwich College Suzhou.

There comes Glogster! It seems to be an dynamic poster application! See what I've created... We could add animation, and even multimedia clips (e.g. video, audio) to the poster as well! Oh yes, we could also upload our own files (including images and clips!)

An interesting productivity tool to consider!

Try click and hold down at the images - We could enlarge the images uploaded to the poster!


Something that I realised it could not work with - at this point of time - i.e. Keying in of Chinese characters... it failed miserably - although 'accepting' the keying in process, the characters were not displayed. Of course, the poster remains 'portrait'.

ThinkQuest.Org - a collaborative platform

My first encounter with the word "ThinkQuest" was almost a decade ago... Yes, which many local educators came to know it as a competition (er... a competition portal, too? I guess). Its fundamental challengs are: to work collaboratively with someone from another country, to come up with an educational website. Yup, collaboration was the key word then, I gathered.


It never came acrosss as a portal until last year when Mr Chua shared in one of the EXCO/ SLE meetings, to consider for project work... again... it was somehow forgotten, over time and shelved... Hahaha... I could imagine the degree of disappointment of not even taking a good look at it before KIV-ing it. Well, we have moved into using Google... and it's intentional not bring in another portal... again, not quite fair to it, without actually evaluating what it offers!?
[Anyway, I think no lose... till now... after we've evaluated the portal for another purpose]

So, why dig it out and talk about it? Well, well, well... it's all being 'NEED-driven'. I guess, this makes a difference! In terms of assessing its features to match the needs. I guess, this is when I learn - appreciate the purpose the platform/application serves before criticising what it is lack of. Yesterday, Mrs Chew reminded me of the analogy - do not ask for Chinese food in an Indian restaurant. Yes! It was a good one - if I want to eat Chinese food, I'll sure be disappointed when my demands not met - however, forgetting that I was in the wrong place! I step into the Indian restaurant because I wanted something that's specific that only the restaurant serves!

The same analogy applies here! Basically, the purpose of the ThinkQuest platform is to facilitate collaboration - working on a project together. Notice I added the word "Project"? Well, the purpose of adding this word is to differentiate the kind of collaborative activities that we talk about in a classroom - not so instantaneous. It's a co-contribution of ideas and materials, hence making the content enriching, and of course, the kind of 'sharing' & 'collaborating' experience of students who might not have even meet each other.

If we look at the platform, indeed, it has all that's necessary:

• creation of pages and posts (which are equivalent to wikis and blogs!)
• uploading and sharing of images and media files - which is definitely very useful.
• the tracking feature enables the teacher track students' participation
• other features like messages are useful too...

I like it being highly flexible, enable me to move and organise the various components in the page and across the pages very easily. It is very helpful - which enable us to customise the sections, hence, providing scaffolds to students too!

Being an international platform, that's where it provides and creates opportunities for collaboration, even if one does not have any partners out there at all. It's simply an online platform that encourages the community to interact and work together.

So, back to the Indian restaurant analogy. So, now we know what this "Indian" restaurant offers, it's good to think how to leverage on its features :D

Quite like the components and structures the platform provides... while it does not provide fanciful look and feel (e.g. wall papers, etc) - which is not the key thing either, it allows one to focus on what to accomplish for the task :D

More importantly, this platform works in China!!! and therefore would be a great platform for students in both Singapore and China come together :D

Video Conference Call with Macau Educators

It was a pretty exciting experience - at 2 levels:

• Having the opportunity to share our "fruits" with overseas partners in an interactive manner via the virtual space
• Immerse in the "video conference call" experience

It was on 19 May 2010, when we (Ching Ya & myself) did our very first SST video conference call to interact with overseas educators.

In the past, I had experience a couple of voice-only conference call. Well, frankly speaking, it's just like having more than 2 parties doing a telephone conversation. I think the only challenge is knowing who's speaking - as there're more than one party involved. Yes, it could be rude when one interrupts. It could also be confusing if 2 other parties sound similar!

For those who have done video skype might think our experience is trivial 小巫见大巫. But I guess, no matter how small a step, it's deem as a giant step if it's the first time :D Moreover, it's not just video conference, but copied with screen sharing! It's the entire presentation package!

Indeed, thanks to Apple for this opportunity - inviting us to share our learning points and the use of technology in learning in our 5-month journey. I think, apart from getting the platform to showcase the good work we have done so far, it's also the experience of using the online communication technology in an integrated seamless manner :D

The preparation, one might think it's simple... but things to take note include:

• Having a stable connnection between the event venue at Macau and SST in Singapore! Indeed, in SST alone, we tested 2 venues - the staff room where my workstation is, as well as the Meeting Room, which landed up as our choice. We learnt that no matter what, cable connection is still most stable. A definite NO to the mobile connection dongle (which in the first place, is not made for that purpose).
• For connection purpose, I created an AOL account so that I could use connect via this account in iChat. Well, these are the little technicalities.
• Other little things to observe includes background/foreground lighting, voice projection.
• The choice of projection of materials - whether it's through screen sharing or via the iChat share feature - it makes a difference.
• We also learnt that it takes about 5 seconds for the screen to be 'stablise' (especially when switching and scrolling of screen is involved) before talking... otherwise... we would really sound like a 'broken record'! hahah...

Of course, to be able to manage all-of-the-above technicalities, we have Shin Fatt, Jiunn Hao and Timothy (from Macau) to thank! Else, the entire transmission process would not have been so smooth :D

Indeed, there were several phases to the entire sharing/presentation package:

1. Virtual greetings via the video chat - at least we know how the environment that the participants are seated - ah! we notice they all had a macbook in front of them! The room also seemed to be dominated by men! Well, like it or not, having a visual impression makes a difference to a presenter... otherwise would be like a 盲头苍蝇.
2. Setting the context to provide the background of SST, as well as our approach on ICT integration in the school. This was done through the keynote presentation which was projected via screen sharing.
3. Showcase of students' work via Blog - which we did some 'switches' in-between... between the blog pages and websites we showed, as well as the videoclips (accessed and shown via the Macau connection.
4. Switching back to Video chat for a short Q&A session.

Preparation is critical to iron out the technical issues. It also provides the presenter an idea on areas need to look out for when presenting via this platform (e.g. speak slower, getting all the necessary information & screens ready prior the session).

As a whole, the experience was a great one :D

There are several things that we learnt through this experience:
http://sst-concall20100519.blogspot.com/

Number Devil (I) The First Night

Reading this title, The Number Devil - a Mathematical Adventure, written by Hans Magnus Enzensherger... about a relationship that changes one's perpsective and attitude towards Mathematics.

It started with numbers... the most fundamental element in the numeric system.
How "1" has wonderfully introduced other numbers into to picture!

starting from 1 x 1 = 1
11 x 11 = 121 (where 2 is introduced)
111 x 111 = 12321 (where 3 is introduced)
Well, there are 2 things to observe:

• The introduction of the 'new' number as the "size" of the number is increased (by a certain pattern)
• The repeated pattern within the answer - the number reads the same from left to right or vice versa!

What happens when there are 9 "1"s?

• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111?
• We would get 12345678987654321 (according to the pattern)
• So is it true?

Then what's next? when we have 11 "1"s? Interesting!

Well, the calculator has failed us because it would not be able to display so many figures. How about the spreadsheet? (with more powerful processing rate?)

Well, there's what we get...

Is seeing believing? or do we rule by our left brain?
Hm... do you agree with what the computer has "said" from 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 onwards?

"Why Mathematics?"

Was asked this question yesterday... "Why do you like Maths?"

I was caught off-guard! Hahahaha... It's the 1st time someone asked me this question.
I guess, if the question was asked in a different manner, "What subject you like most?" Then it would have been a much easier question to ask... That's Chinese Language (that comes its culture and history)... Which I would 'intensify' it to "Passion".

Having the passion in a subject does not necessary couple with fluency (although most of the time, one leads to another, or vice versa).

For a moment, I was trying to 'retrieve' the relevant pieces of information and organise them. Of course, because of the years of training, I realised what surfaced immediately were those responses that sound so 'politically' correct. Why Mathematics?

So, the first question is really, "Do I really like Mathematics?"
When it doesn't come with assessment and not bounded by the curriculum, the degree of 'like' would have escalated to "love", I guess. This certainly started off with good experiences since young.

Mathematics is a language. Yes, the 10 digits from 0 to 9 are simply powerful and wonderful!

• Notice the patterns created by these 10 digits? (well, I'm only referring to the Hindu-Arabic numeration system). It could lead one into lost worlds, or worst still... a blackhole, a point of no return.
• Just 10 digits, it could change the lives of people around! From early civilisations to today! With mathematics, there's how early civilisations came up with so many inventions that today's mankind still rely on!
• The mathematics in nature! Mysterious and only Mother Nature knows the why...
• The mathematical laws that reflect the behaviour of mankind & natural phenomenon.
• The 10 digitals could make a difference to one's life! It could change one's life! one's experience! and even one's destiny!

Mathematics can create wonders... yet at the same time, it could play evil! It gives the best... and yet, it could give the worst.

Think about it... Life would be so dull if the Mathematical Language no longer exist...