Possible Trigger Activities for KB
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Lower Primary English
Topic: Fire
Primary 3
After going through the school’s slides and content coverage for the topic, both Angela and Beth set their students out to complete group compositions. Under the voting scaffold ‘I chose this because’, students were to read all the groups’ compositions and post a note on the view of the group composition which they liked the best. They were also prompted to state their reasons for their choice, as well as to quote phrases from the original piece to support their stand.
Upper Primary English
Topic: Junk Food vs Healthy Food
Primary 4
Celine and Daphne decided to show their class a video clip on junk food and healthy food. Their trigger video showcased Junk Food Bandits playing a basketball match against the Pyramid Powers, in a classic face-off between healthy and unhealthy food.
Students then posted their ideas and questions on KF. Some of the students’ notes reflected ideas that had been present in the basketball video, such as unhealthy food making one feel sleepy, as well as weak.
Lower Primary Science
Topic: Materials
Primary 3
Elizabeth and Fadil split the students into groups and gave them various objects to classify. The students were encouraged to come to a consensus as a group, and if there were other individual alternative views, to put those on hold. The classification was varied, with some classifying according to the materials used while others classified according to the function of the objects (e.g.: household item, cutlery)
Upper Primary Science
Topic: Matter
Primary 4
Gerlynn got students to classify tems into three categories: matter, non-matter and not sure. She then asked them why they categorised some items as matter and not others. Their initial theories of matter were:
“matter is anything that has mass and occupies space” (definition from the textbook)
“matter is something that you can touch and see”
“matter has weight”
“you can see the three types of matter, solid, liquid and gas”
Topic: Adaptations
Primary 6
Hazel showed her class a video clip on flying fish in the wild, and how they escaped from their predators.
After the video clip, she started the discussion in KF with the following question: Putting our knowledge together - What did you learn from the video?
Another teacher, Irene, showed a video clip on different kinds of wildlife in Singapore. She then proceeded to ask them to think about the features of the animals shown to them that would help them adapt to their environment for survival.
Topic: Natural Resources
Primary 6
“In the past 50 years, humans have consumed more resources than in all previous history.” Jaslynn kick-started the inquiry with this statement. Excitedly, students began to throw out examples of resources, some mentioning the idea of deforestation.
“What’s so wrong about cutting down trees?” Jaslynn asked. Ideas surfaced included having lesser trees to photosynthesize to construction of buildings where trees used to stand.
At this point, Jaslynn introduced a video reflecting Man’s impact on the environment over the lifetime of mankind.
Secondary Biology
Topic: Cells and DNA
Secondary 1 - Story 1
Lalitha and Yu Siang started off the topic with a practical about extracting DNA from crushed strawberries. Their students were intrigued by the nice smelling, white layer produced.
Secondary 1 - Story 2
Upon obtaining some background information about cells, Engel gave students a diagram of an euglena cell to trigger their thinking.
Topic: Transport in Humans
Secondary 1
The students watched a video of snake venom being extracted from a snake. A drop of the venom was injected into a sample of human blood and the blood sample very quickly solidified into a jelly-like form. The students' curiosity was piqued as they discussed what happened to the blood sample on the KF.
Topic: Enzymes
Secondary 1
Students started off the topic on enzymes with an experiment of yeast and hydrogen peroxide, but without knowing the contents of the experiment. The enzyme catalase in yeast cells catalysed the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen gas, resulting in bubbles formed. Students were allowed to smell and hold the test-tube, and using their observations, they were asked to provide a hypothesis of the contents in the test-tube.
Topic: Nutrition in Humans
Secondary 1
The question “Is faeces a type of excretion?” led students to think about what excretion is. They came up with many other questions such as "Is faeces edible and is urine drinkable?" Students went on to find out the components of urine and faeces and whether they contained any useful nutrients that could be utilised by the human body.
Topic: Menstruation
Secondary 1
The inquiry question formulated was "Instead of menstruating every month, why is the uterine lining (endometrium) not sustained continuously throughout the life of a woman from puberty to menopause?" The theory formulated by Crystal, the teacher, is that it would require a lot of energy to sustain the endometrium continuously, and from an evolutionary point of view, this is not very efficient for the body.
In order to guide students towards an explanation for this question, Crystal provided guiding questions: Why do women undergo menstruation? What is the uterine lining used for? What causes the uterine lining to grow and thicken? Why can the uterus be a good environment for bacteria to grow? How can it affect the woman when microbes grow in the uterus?
Topic: Fertilisers and Slash-and-Burn
Secondary 3 N(T)
Students were interested in the chemical inside fertilisers that help plants grow faster. This video was shown, which piqued students’ interests in the slash-and-burn method and haze.
These are the ideas that students came up with.
Secondary Chemistry
Topic: Acids and Alkalis
Secondary 2
Kelvin initiated discussion about acids and alkalis by asking students to bring one small sample of a substance that they thought were acidic or alkaline into class. This got students thinking about acidity and alkalinity. Subsequently, students prepared samples of dragon fruit juice as indicator and used to test solutions of different pH values. Here are some ideas that emerged.
Topic: Scientific Inquiry
Secondary 1
Students were interested in the inquiry question: do gummy bears float in water? Joyce first allowed students to make their conjectures and support it with reasons. Subsequently, some gummy bears were observed to float while others sank, leading to students’ ideas coming thick and fast about the structure, components and weight of the gummy bear as reasons to justify their observations.
Secondary History
Topic: Singapore History
Secondary 1
Both Melvin and Ellie tasked their Secondary 1 History classes with posting questions on Chapter 3 and 4 and then chose the inquiry question for their classes. These are the inquiry questions the classes worked on.
(To access the view, click on the inquiry question you are interested in)
1B - Was life tougher during the 19th and early 20th century or was life tougher during WWII?
1C - Was life tough under British rule?
1F - Why did Singapore become a prosperous and busy port in the 1900s?
Topic: Causes of World War I
Secondary 3
Students first did individual research on the causes of WWI. Melvin then split them into groups to research on the question “Was Germany responsible for WWI?” Each group had to answer the question from the perspective of the countries involved, including France, Britain and Germany. After completing their research, students then presented the group’s answers in a flowchart and a write-up.
