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By Mrs You Mee Choo, Teacher, Bowen Secondary School |
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| Students
seek clues outside the museum. |
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Make connections between our national heroes Tan Kim Seng and
Lim Bo Seng with a metaphor, justify the connection in no more
than 20 words, and SMS the answer to Singtel’s Moblog. Cast
yourselves back to the era when tailors estimated fabric lengths
by using the span from their shoulders to the tips of their
fingers. Then estimate the radius of the Tan Kim Seng Fountain
and SMS the answer to Singtel’s Moblog.
These were some of the tasks that were devised to engage all
355 Sec 1 students in a race on 25 May 2005. The event was “LinkIT!
Amazing Race”, Bowen-style. The indoor trail took place in the
Asian Civilisations Museum (Empress Place) while the outdoor
trail stretched from the Esplanade — Theatres on the Bay
to the UOB Building. Twenty-three teachers and four parent-volunteers
assisted in the running of the event.
The pedagogical principles adopted were in sync with the initiative
of ‘Teach Less, Learn More’. One objective was to engage students
in interdisciplinary learning that was fun-filled, interactive,
creative and reflective. Another was to keep them in touch with
the past, present and future.
Equipped with camera phones, pictorial clues and riddles, students
moved in groups from station to station and fulfilled tasks
that tapped on their knowledge of the English Language, Literature,
History and IT. They manipulated historical facts gleaned from
information panels along the trail and presented their interpretation
of the tasks in oral or written form. The genre could be poetry,
prose or drama.
At one station, pupils had to write a script for a bargaining
scene, act it out and capture their one-minute skit on a phone
video. At yet another station, poetry-writing in the form of
a diamante was the challenge for the group. (A diamante is a
poem that has certain requirements in terms of parts of speech.)
Ms Chiang Wei Ling, the English Language teacher who judged
the enactment of a bargaining scene, commented, “The pressure
of time took away the students' self-consciousness in acting
before the camera. They had opportunities to put into practice
what they had learnt from drama class. And some groups exercised
remarkable creativity and produced scripts with highly interesting
yet credible plots.”
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| Mr
Paul Chua, Principal of Bowen Secondary, flags off
the race. |
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Mr Paul Chua, Principal, and Mrs Sharon Siew, Vice-Principal
of Bowen Secondary, beamed with pride as they flagged off the
race. Indeed, they have been most supportive of innovative teaching
and learning of any kind. For teachers and pupils alike, school
is so much less mundane and predictable and so much more exciting
and fulfilling.
Mr Chua, who took time to mingle with pupils at each station,
commented that the event was “well-conceptualised, planned and
implemented”. Equipped with a camera, Mrs Siew enjoyed every
moment of the race as much as the students did. She was thrilled
to see “Bowenians engaged in active learning in an authentic
setting, exploring the history and heritage of our nation and
fostering team spirit amongst their peers!”
Said Mr Gary See Gim Boon, PE teacher, who manned the crossword
puzzle station, “Besides learning the importance of physical
fitness, students were also taught the value of working for
what they wanted.”
Yet another PE teacher, Ms Tan Sze Yin, observed that her initial
apprehension of chaos resulting from the huge number of participants
was unfounded. Ms Tan chuckled, “Everything went smoothly...students
were tested on their perception skills and their knowledge of
a wide spectrum of subjects.”
All in, it was a time of multi-faceted learning, for both the
students and their teachers.
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