Can you marry your leisure pursuits with your job?

Cycling and Geography

A shot of the east coast on a sunny Sunday morning

Being caught by the writing bug in recent days, I am sharing this post about the joys of being a hobby cyclist and a geography teacher. Be forewarned that there isn't very much pedagogy in this post. It's more a connection between a past-time which I pursue, and a job which I cherish.

Living in highly urbanised Singapore, we are left with little of what natural topography is. More often then not, our students know of "terrain" as that man-graded slope which we see in our neighbourhoods. Interestingly, I grew up in areas where the natural terrain is rather well preserved, in housing estates at Bukit Panjang and at the Holland Road area. 

These two areas are located in central and central south south west of Singapore. If we are familiar with the geologic map, they are underlain by two of the most ancient rock types we can find on the island - The Bukit Timah Granite, BTG (approximately 250 million years old) and the Jurong Formation, JF (approximately 175 million years old). Engineering studies from geologists suggest that the JF was formed as the huge granite batholiths which BTG was a part, of were eroded. All these happened long before present where the land surface was much higher than current levels (this surface had since being eroded over the millions of years). See Fig 1 below

Figure 1: Geologic map of Singapore

Interestingly, this topography and terrain forms my mental image of the "ideal" cycling routes which I try to explore on my two wheeler whenever my weekends allow me. For example, if I am feeling adventurous and energetic, I would plan a route that runs north-south from Holland to Woodlands, along the intersection of the BTG and JH (which is approximately the north-south corridor of the Bt Timah, Upper Bt Timah roads). If I want a leisurely ride, I would take the road to the east, simply because the relief of western Singapore slopes gently towards the east. I can "coast" more than I pedal (joking), notwithstanding the returning leg would involve a more laboured effort from me!

Living in the central south south west of Singapore, I am aware that there are many low but steep hills I have to climb. Starting at Holland, the Mount Sinai, Portsdown, Kent Ridge, Mt Faber areas are really a series of parallel low ridges that run roughly east-west. To cross them, you need to look for passes that cut across these ridges, so that pedalling is slightly more bearable. For example at the NUS, Alexander Rd, Henderson Rd gaps. The Green Corridor is a fantastic route that runs in the "valley" of these ridges, where you encounter less of a gradient. Nonetheless, the return journey from Tanjong Pagar to Ewart Park often causes some misery in my legs, especially so when I have tackled more than 80 kms on the eastern flats.

Nuff' said, so I shall offer a few nuggets why cycling is such a great sport for a budding geographer.

It builds terrain awareness due to the direct difficulty and enjoyment of a ride. We are constantly assessing elevation changes, slopes and surface types to plan our routes and pace ourselves efficiently. This practical experience fosters a deeper understanding of topography.

Knowledge of topography helps me understand catchment areas and water flow patterns. While we live in an almost 100 per cent canalised environment, flows of water on bike paths and roads (which I detest because it causes my bike to be dirty) helps me appreciate where rainwater collects in low-lying terrain, contributing to my understanding of micro-drainage systems and the impact of terrain on spatial water distribution.

Cycling exposes me to various land uses and landscape in Singapore. I encounter different urban environments, sometimes shaped by topography, but more often by the creative hands of our amazing urban planners. I can relate how urban design, development patterns and natural features influences one another, enhancing my comprehension of land use geography.

On a more technical side note, I also begin to pay more attention to road layout, building placement and green space distribution. Even though I am also a motorist, cycling allows me to see things up close and to experience first hand how tiny valleys and hills, planted and natural vegetation, buildings and infrastructure weave into an intricate tapestry we call Singapore.

Ultimately, I develop an appreciation for the local geography of Singapore, cultivate a sense of healthy wonder of my tiny island nation state, delve deeper into geography as I foster a lifelong interest in this amazing subject (people some times don't understand why I am content to stay in Singapore during long term breaks). Cycling is a great gateway to understanding topography and its broader implications for geography. I have been able to marry a healthy and fulfilling leisure pursuit with a subject I love teaching.

Sources cited:

https://lkcnhm.nus.edu.sg/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/app/uploads/2017/04/GeologyGuideSGP.pdf

Using the idea of a water catchment to teach “Water”

Photograph showing the view of Sungei Serangoon (or Serangoon Reservoir) in the direction of its river mouth.

In the run up to the World Water Day, which falls on 22 March, I would like to share my thoughts on how might we teach the secondary 1 topic on “Water” in our geography curriculum. This blog post is the result of field discussions with colleagues of geography over zoom and in person as we delightfully explored the Sungei Serangoon catchment in recent days.

In the lower secondary geography curriculum, the topic of water takes center stage. Water is a strategic and valuable resource in Singapore. Teaching this topic well helps our students gain useful understanding and insight that will go a long way in developing an appreciation of our constraints, innovations and strategies that ensure sustainability.

An organising frame for this topic is to use the hydrological cycle as a starting point. Students are introduced the key processes, water flows and stores. From here, the teacher adopts a “zoom out” perspective to locate various rivers, lakes and oceans in the world. This approach to learning about water skips the critical concept of a “water shed” or a “catchment”, hindering a holistic understanding of other related concepts and processes like resource use (of water), sources of pollution and conservation strategies. As a result, some students learn these sub-topics through rote memorisation of facts unconnected bodies of fact. This gives rise to at best patchy comprehension, and at worst, frustrated and disengaged learning.

I would like to suggest three simple ways to re-make this topic for more engaged teaching and learning.

(A)   Using big ideas and place-based learning

By leveraging the concept of “water resource management within a catchment”, teachers can easily “connect the dots” for students. Almost all secondary schools are located within a water catchment (See Figure 1 below).

Fig 1: Major Waterways in Singapore and their catchments (can you find which catchment does your school belong to?)

          Source: Singapore's Water Solution | Water Conservation in Singapore (ntu.edu.sg)

Teachers can tap on PUB’s Active, Beautiful, Clean Waters (ABC Waters) Programme that was launched in 2006, to understand how quality water bodies enhance liveability (ABC Waters Home (pub.gov.sg).

To further augment this big idea, place-based learning offers an invaluable lens for students to dive into enquiry of an urban environment. The catchment provides a reasonable scale of exploration for secondary school students, both in its breadth and depth. In the terms of breadth, students could explore spatial issues beyond just the precinct or neighbourhood (e.g. a few blocks of flats) or a specific locale (e.g. Jurong Lake). In terms of depth, a catchment provides a thematic approach to understanding a place better (e.g., Singapore River catchment, which naturally includes its history and changes in landuse over time). 

In what follows, I will use the Sungei Serangoon catchment as an example to illustrate what I mean (Figure 2).

Fig 2: Unit concept map on Water - Sungei Serangoon catchment

(B) Differentiating for diverse learners

High ability students may be challenged to use a similar lens to study another water catchment with very different characteristics from the Sungei Serangoon catchment, e.g. Kallang-Marina Basin, which is incidentally our largest catchment and most urbanised one. This would present students with plenty of opportunities to uncover insight into the design, building and maintenance of this unique reservoir. When used as a contrasting example, students are able to discern distinguishing characteristics of both catchment, which is a good exercise in developing critical thinking skills.

For students that require more support in learning, teachers may consider focusing on geographical skills that are a “must learn” for this group of learners, reserving the “good-to-learn” as optional extensions for students who have already demonstrated mastery of core skills. Teachers may also consider giving a light touch of the history of Sungei Serangoon, instead give more time and space for students to learn the content concepts of the current time scale where the spotlight is shone on water as a strategic resource. As content concepts are somewhat recurring between the past and present time frame, doing it this way gives additional time and space for these students to learn.  

(C)    Use of technology in learning  

Armed with personal learning devices, students have ready access to digital apps that efficiently capture and collate data. Below is a non-exhaustive list teachers can consider leveraging.

Suggested app or website	Purpose	Can be used in
Otter.ai	Speech to text conversation	Interviews, oral histories
Chat GPT 3.5	Summaries of interviews	Interviews, oral histories
Google Forms	Survey questionnaire	Surveys, summation and presentation of data
Skitch	Annotations on photographs	Photograph interpretation
Historical maps of Singapore https://libmaps.nus.edu.sg	Landuse changes	Comparing old and new land uses

Conclusion

A quick curriculum re-make of this topic presents a multitude of engagement opportunities for our lower secondary learners to connect more authentically with three prescribed guiding questions of the topic. It offers easy entry points for the teacher to conduct inquiry, more occasions for bite-sized fieldwork, greater flexibility for differentiation and scaffolding, and naturally segues into the use of ed- tech tools and apps.  

The teacher can also progress to teaching the fourth guiding question on water management strategies in a contextualised manner. Now that we have understood the first step to water sustainability comes from ensuring a regular, clean and good quality supply from our reservoirs, how might we manage demand so that we ensure this supply does not run out? 

More importantly, students' appreciation of processes within a catchment helps them to scale up their understanding to a regional water catchment (such as the Amazon River) which ties in with the next topic on tropical rainforest. Eventually, understanding this helps them see how the global water cycle is a critical natural process that is supporting plant, animal and human life on Earth. This underscores the connected nature of our natural systems which undergirds the true essence of a geography curriculum.