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Geography & Travel
Tour of a life time
2009
Essential question: Can I be a good tour guide? Learning Outcomes: Language: LO1 Listening - The learner respects other learners by giving them a chance to speak and listening to them. The learner asks and answers simple questions. LO2 Speaking - The learner interviews people for a particular purpose. The learner contributes to group and class discussions. The learner acts in culturally appropriate ways by showing awareness of social and cultural differences. The learner will be able to communicate confidently and effectively in spoken language in a wide variety of situations. LO3 Reading - The learner makes meaning of written text. The learner will be able to read and view for information, enjoyment and respond critically to the aesthetic, cultural and emotional values in texts. LO4 Writing - The learner drafts a piece of writing for different purposes. The learner publishes their own writing. The learner will be able to write different kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide range of purposes. LO5 Thinking and Reasoning - The learner will be able to use language to think and reason, as well as to access, process and use information for learning. LO6 Language Structure and Use - Learners will know and be able to use the sounds, words and grammar of the language to create and interpret texts. Life Orientation: LO2 Social Development -
The learner will be able to demonstrate an understanding of and commitment to constitutional rights and responsibilities, and to show an understanding of diverse cultures and religions. Mathematics: LO5 Data Handling - The learner will be able to collect, summarize, display and critically analyze data in order to draw conclusions and make predictions. Natural Sciences: LO2 Constructing Science Knowledge - The learner will know and be able to interpret and apply scientific, technological and environmental knowledge. Social Sciences – History: LO1 Historical Enquiry - The learner will be able to use enquiry skills to investigate the past and the present. Social Sciences: Geography LO2 Geographical Knowledge and Understanding - The learner will be able to demonstrate geographical and environmental knowledge and understanding. Technology: LO2 Technological Knowledge and Understanding - The learner will be able to understand and apply relevant technological knowledge ethically and responsibly.
Required Resources: Computers with Internet connection and email, experts, teachers, parents, friends, peers and students from other schools. Brochures, books, newspapers.
How will this project help the class, school, community or world? Our team consists of a team of 6 students. They are in grades 3,5 and 6. They will not only involve and affect students and teachers in their own classes, but also their entire schools and communities, as they will be included in the surveys and interviews. In the process we expose our own cities as tourist attractions to the world. This group of 6 students is from 2 different schools in 2 different cities. In the progress project they will improve the following 21st century skills: Learning and Innovation Skills, Creativity and Innovation, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Communication and Collaboration, Information, Media and Technology Skills, Information Literacy, Media Literacy, ICT Literacy, Life and Career Skills, Flexibility and Adaptability, Initiative and Self-Direction, Social and Cross-Cultural Skills, Productivity and Accountability, Leadership and Responsibility. Higher Order Thinking: Cognitive Processes: understand, apply, analyze, evaluate, and create. Knowledge Dimension: Factual, conceptual, procedural, metacognitive knowledge.
Award
2009 12 and Under: 1st place
Team
TristanStirling Primary, Eastern Cape, South Africa
KaiStirling Primary, Eastern Cape, South Africa
HollyStirling Primary, Eastern Cape, South Africa
AshleyStirling Primary, Eastern Cape, South Africa
LithembaCotswold Preparatory School, Eastern Cape, South Africa
LuzukoCotswold Preparatory School, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Age Range
12 & under
Coaches
Brenda HallowesCotswold Preparatory School, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Claire DeanStirling Primary, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Audience
All ages
Language
English
Team Collaboration
Two students are in Grade 3 in Cotswold Prep School, Port Elizabeth. 3 students are in Gr 5 and 1 in Gr 6 at Stirling Primary, East London. In the beginning the group brainstormed various topics. Group members chose their own topics from the list according to their interest. Each member started working on their own task. Time management was our biggest roadblock. Students therefore worked on each others pages e.g. uploading permission forms or photographs. The Coach and Assistant coach were mainly in contact with each other by email and skype.
In EL the group could only meet on Wed. afternoons for 1 hour. They only worked on the project at school. Members are involved with such a variety of extra-curricular activities such as cricket and piano lessons. This was not enough time. For the last 2 weeks of our second term, they missed assemblies to work on their project. School holiday was from 3-15 April. The team worked in the lab on their project the entire morning of 3 April and came back to school on 14 April. This was the only day during the holidays that the team could meet. Wednesday 22 April, Monday 27 April and 1 May were public holidays in SA. In Port Elizabeth the 2 students do not have access to computers at home and apart from participating in their Thinkquest family project in Grade 2 they had never used the internet. They worked on Tuesdays and Thursdays for 45 min at the end of the day and for the full morning of the last day of school, 3 April. It is not easy for the boys to stay very late after school as both of them rely on specific public transport. On two occasions the assistant coach had to drop one or both of the boys at home. The boys had never ncountered a tour guide before they did this project. Kai taught the 3 EL members how to create movies. The Interact tool was used on various pages. Team voted for best logo and best name for Touring Company. Luzuko and Lithemba have never designed a brochure before. Holly designed a template. She used the Ask a Question tool and received feedback that helped her to revise the template she designed for them. Team had to post messages, e.g. to type what they have learnt after interviewing an expert and How will hosting World Cup benefit South Africa? They had to Share Ideas after interpreting data received from other schools. There was a Peer Interview session to share what they have learnt. The Send a Message to members was used to encourage each other. The invitation to the showcase was also uploaded by EL for PE team to edit and use on their side.
Team Diversity
The two boys from Port Elizabeth live in Townships. Home language is isiXhosa. They had no idea to which places they can take tourist in their city. Both students are second language learners, speaking isiXhosa as their mother tongue. However, the level of literacy at their school is good and both are fluent in speaking English and they are able to read and write with relative ease. To complete text-based tasks we discussed what they would write and the assistant coach made sure they knew how to spell more difficult words. They needed very little help with the slide show as they had done a couple last year. The boys enjoyed speaking to members of their home community to find information about traditional rites of passage. Neither of the boys’ families owns a car so traffic rules and the issue of drivers’ licenses didn’t mean much to them. They struggled to understand the language in the advice from the traffic officer in East London in order to give advice to tourists about licenses, but pedestrian safety is a more relevant issue for them. In fact we had drawn pictures in computer lessons and we decided to use one of those with instructions from Luzuko on how to cross the road. They had to understand that in some countries cars drive on the right hand side of the road. The information complemented the work the East London learners were doing on driver safety.
Kai is Taiwanese, he speaks Mandarin at home. Tristan and Holly’s home language is English. Ashley speaks Afrikaans and English at home. Luzuko and Lithemba are in Grade 3, Ashley, Tristan and Kai in Grade 5 and Holly in Grade 6.
