Empoldering at The Netherlands

I have found a good powerpoint on the land reclamation works in The Netherland. You may want to view it to help you to understand the empoldering method better.

Empoldering

Questions:
1) Can Singapore use empoldering to increase the land supply in Singapore?

2) Should Singapore build dikes to prevent the rise of sea level?

Marina Bay -Our New Downtown

Marina Bay is our new downtown and it will develop Singapore into a vibrant and 24/7 city!

Take a look at the pdf file from URA. The images speak for itself.

Also look at the following links on Marina Bay

1) Marina Bay @ wikkipedia

2) Map of Marina Bay

So do you want to live and work there?

There are however opportunity costs in reclaiming land from the sea. One of which is the loss of our coral reefs in the southern islands, especially.

Look at the following link to see how the development of Marina Bay has affected the nature treasures in Singapore.

Land Supply

Dear Sec 2s,
In this unit, we will be looking at Land as a Scarce Resource.

Land is indeed an important and scarce resource, especially for small countries like Singapore.
In this chapter, we will learn to understand
1) the reasons for land constraints (scarcity or shortage of land)
2) Evaluate the effectiveness of different responses to increasing land supply.

There are six main reasons for land constraints in most countries.
Are you able to state and explain the reasons?
Post them in the comments below.

Accoring to the textbook (Earth Our Home), the monthly rental in Central Tokyo for a one-bedroom apartment is $1 600! Do you know the monthly rental in Singapore or any other cities?

Increasing the price of land is one way to tackle the rising the demand for land.
Do you think this is the most effective solution to land constraints in cities?

What other possible solutions can countries or cities adopt to overcome their land constraint problems?

We will be focussing on Land Reclamation as a response to increasing land supply in greater detail next week.

By the way, Dubai, UAE has two large scale land reclamation projects :
Palm Islands

The World

Click on the youtube video on the development and uses of these man-made islands.
They are pretty impressive. I wish I can afford to own one piece of the world too!

Singapore has also grown physically by reclaiming its land from the sea.

Size of Singapore (www.sg)
699.4 sq km. Comprises one main island (617.1 sq km) and some 63 offshore islands. Among the offshore islands, the larger ones are Pulau Tekong (2365.5 hectares), Pulau Ubin (1023.9 hectares) and Sentosa (460 hectares).

We will be studying
1) the areas and the uses of the reclaimed land
2) the method of land reclamation
3) the impact of the reclamation works.

Singapore and Malaysia has disputes over the reclamation works at Tekong.
The three year dispute had cost the two countries more than $10 million.

Using ICT in Teaching

I have just attended some ICT workshops and I'm very excited about using them as a platform to engage my students in their learning of Geography and Social Studies. I'm extremely amazed by the power of Web 2.0 in supporting teaching and learning these subjects in schools.


Below are some useful websites that teachers can use to learn about the power of collaborative work by using Web 2.0.



1) Mr Chris Smith's Blog, the Educator, Consultant and Advisor on ICT

2) Urban Legends

3) Search Engines just for Blogs

4) Links to bookmarks or favourites

5) Google Online Documents (Processors and Spreadsheets)

6) Start Pages of Websites online

7) Start Page called PageFlakes

8) Mindmapping Concept Maps Online

9) Upload and subtitle a Video Online

10)Saving Files online

11) TED - A very interesting website on Technology, Entertainment and Design

By the way, I like this particular youtube video that I would like to share with you...



Isn't she clever?

Do you have any comments about my new blog?

In the second day of the workshop, I learnt about 'Use of Podcasts for Teaching and Learning' and 'Social Network for Teaching and Learning'.

I've learn about Audio Podcasting, making the recording using my creative mp3, editing the recording, hosting the recording and listening or subscribing to an RSS feed. I've tried to do the various steps but I've yet to be able to upload my podcast into my blog.  I'll try to do it asap.  

By the way, www.shambles.net/podcasting is a useful link to learn more about podcasting.

I was also reminded to go to www.dropio/singaporemusic to download free music for the background music in my podcast.

To make the recording, I need to go to audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net which is free.

Hosting the recording can be done at 

1) Clickcaster

2) podBean.com (recommended)

3) podblaze

How can I use podcast for teaching and learning?

Some suggestions given by the course participants include:

1) Role Play - Voice of an active volcano, lives of the people living near an active volcano

2) Role Play of Famous People such as MM Lee or the mother of a famous people

3) Interview students and teachers and gather feedback about the lessons

Try it.  It can be really fun!

Well, I also learn that I can use www.skype.com to chat or do video conferencing for free at this website.  It is most useful for overseas calls as it is very cheap compared to calling by the mobile.

There is also a word of caution when downloading music from the internet. 

Royalty Free Music - is not free.  One needs to pay to buy music but there is no need to pay many times if one is using it often.

Free Music - Free.

itune has the best collection of free music.  Good to subscribe to itune if one is using an apple computer.