Teachers take part in new global contest

SINGAPORE - The two teachers invited to Barcelona to present their projects at Microsoft's annual global forum on education were also invited to take part in a new competition by the software giant.

Mr Richard Koh from Crescent Girls' School and Madam Chen Si Yun from Chestnut Drive Secondary, who are among four local teachers recognised as Expert Educators by Microsoft for their teaching projects, had to participate in a 24-hour Learn-a-thon competition.

All 250 Expert Educators who attended the forum this year were divided into groups to design a learning activity using technology for one of three topics: sustainability, gender equality and poverty.

Madam Chen's group, which included educators from the US, Canada and Colombia, topped the sustainability category.

Their project, titled Saving Nemo, Sustain The World, used a fish named Nemo as an icon for environmental sustainability. The project proposed that schools from six countries work together. The fish would travel to schools in the different countries over a span of six months, and students would take turns to host the icon.

The students would then create videos and materials on their sustainability efforts within their own community, which would be uploaded onto a project blog.

The group will be implementing their project.

Mr Koh, who teamed up with teachers from Taiwan, Puerto Rico and Belgium for the gender equality topic, was the second runner-up in the category.

His project aimed to get students to look for visual metaphors in their daily life that represented gender equality. They present their interpretation of the metaphors to their peers.

Apart from the teachers, three schools - Chestnut Drive Secondary, Radin Mas Primary and St Hilda's Primary - were also recognised as Mentor Schools for their innovative usage of technology in teaching.

Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.