Post-fieldtrip Reflections

Defining / Negotiating Space in Raffles Place

Warning: Super Long Post.

We had our little recce trip for our joint fieldtrip exercise on Tuesday. Man, so malu. Its no joke working the Mickey Mouse anemometer and slinging the psychrometer like a caveman in the middle of our very public and happening CBD. Too many times passerbys stared at us working the surface thermistor as if we are terrorists planning to bomb the MRT with one of the heaviest traffic in morning peak hours. At times I felt like the terrorist-guy featured in the video clip currently running on MRT platforms (which incidentally is such a good teaching resource, as it localizes the threat of global terrorism in local Singapore so well. If I'm a teacher I'd get my students to just stand there and watch the clip. Better than whatever ICT crap I can produce). I felt almost guilty and ashamed, though I'm not doing anything wrong. AHEM. Its cool man. Educators at work. Must psycho ourselves to be more thickskinned...

Of course until my friend's wife came from behind me, tapped me on the shoulder and gave me an incredulous look as I was holding on to the Mickey Mouse anemometer. Heh... Good Morning? ;p And of course my girlfriend didn't help by sms-ing me to KEEP AWAY from her work office, as far as possible. :)

Ok, let's get serious. :)

So what did we do exactly? Simply put, we used our instruments to measure 4 weather variables (Wind Speed, Humidity, Air Temperature, Ground Temperature) across 6 points 50m apart along a transect. Air temp was 29 degrees celcius almost everywhere, except on grass (28.5), and beside Coffee Club (28 - aircon? Shade?). Ground temp was 27 degrees on grass and at Coffee Club, 29 elsewhere (grass lower latent heat, and Coffee Club is just a cool place to be lah... haha, its shaded and beside airconditioning my dear). Humidity was a constant 79% everywhere, except on grass (82% due to transpiration? moisture?) and again beside Coffee Club (85% - 9.50am, later in the day?). Wind speed was an exhilirating 0-2m/s everywhere.

So what sort of conclusions can we draw? With the limited, unexciting and non-varied measurements we have, we can say that our hypothesis about Urban Heat Island basically sizzled out of steam. Any theorized effect of Urban Canyon wind accentuation is gone with the wind due to a lack of conclusive evidence. Rewards of the day? The free Today newspaper I got at the MRT entrance, and the yummy O'briens sandwiches my teammates got for lunch?

Well, not all's lost. Lots of worthy pegagogical considerations, outcomes and strategies can still be developed from our little recce trip.

Firstly, many lessons can still be drawn from failed hypotheses. Why didn't we observe any significant temperature variations in the square? Its a good question to provoke critical thinking. Basically, as I was guessing and grumbling before the trip - its the wrong time to conduct an experiment. The sun has only just risen, what do you expect? You'll get heating variations later in the day, a good time to measure will be mid-afternoon. Also, as Dr Chang pointed out, a measurement at 6am in the morning might give you some indication of a heat sink effect.

Pedagogical Note: Conduct a field trip that requires measurements at different temporal periods of the day? Of course, with that note comes the Logistical Choke: Different times of the day?! Spare me the headache... :)

Secondly, other lessons in Urban Microclimate can be garnered. i) Fine, we gathered no heat sink effect in our not-very-early morning measurements, but as Dr Chang challenged us, ever wondered why the square is so warm at 10am?? Look up guys - check out the huge glass and reflective marble/psuedo metal material of the surrouding buildings. They were freakin reflecting heat from the rising sun onto the square, grilling us like a cheeky boy with a magnifying glass on a bunch of stupid ants.

ii) I don't know about you guys, but I do feel distinct wind gusts along the small alleys (e.g. Malacca Street) around the square. No strong winds in the center as its far too wide - but how abt the small corridors here and there? Prob worth checking out.

Pedagogical Note: Nothing beats the field in geographical learning. I remember learning about urban reflection as a factor leading to higher temperatures in urban micro-climate, this was a good reminder in felt form. Poor Alvin with the tissue.. :)

Thirdly, this is after all a first recce trip, in terms of methods, there's much we can learn and improve on should we conduct something similar in the future. We can be more stringent and specific in our measurement requirements (e.g. to take 3 readings of each instrument and take the average for greater accuracy), and also, we can be more structured in actually specifying particular points for measurements (e.g. identifying landmarks, first measuring out by tape accurate 50m intervals).

Pedagogical Note: Don't be lazy. You need to do your groundwork and consider carefully how lesson objectives can best be achieved. And of course... with that will come the Logistical Choke. heh heh :)

Fourthly, if we were actual students doing the field exercise, I would consider this a pretty imbalanced learning experience for my class. From my own experience in my own team, we were far too dependent on the expertise of the instruments expert. Basic content knowledge of weather variables and urban micro-climate was also grasped differentially across members of the group.

Pedagogical Note: Adequate scaffolding and careful consideration of effective cooperative learning is required when embarking on lessons that seeks to instill higher level meta-cognitive learning. Basic content understanding and skills should be introduced to students before going into the field, to encourage optimal learning when the students go 'hands-on'. If not, it is too easy for some students to be lost, and by then, it is too late for the shepherd teacher to gather the sheep who simpy wanders and graze on the grass.

All in all? A good eye-opening trip. In the very public space of Raffles Place.
Field exercises in Geography learning, there is definitely place.
Group structuring wise in this cooperative exercise,
Space needs to be defined (not negotiated) a tad more concise.