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Primary and Middle School
History and Geography Department
Grade 8 Geography Project
Expedition Africa
地理学科中的自我导向型学习
Self-Directed Learning in Geography
八年级地理课程已临近尾声，经过一学年的地理学科学习，当同学们放眼全球，展望未来时，他们会如何理解这个世界？非洲，这块神秘的大陆，它的增长潜力和各种发展可能性为同学们提供了最佳视角
As our 8th grade year in Geography comes to a close and students look to the future, there is no better perspective for our students to take with them as they step out into a globalizing world than the potential growth, development, and regional understanding of the African continent.
在八年级地理课程中，学生们运用提出问题、资料研究和分工协作等技能，完成了自我导向型学习项目——探秘非洲。这一学习项目鼓励同学们从不同视角了解、探索、解密非洲大陆发展的各种可能性，从而实现学生在地理学科中的自我导向性学习策略。
Across grade 8 Geography courses, students applied fundamental skills of inquiry, research, and collaboration to complete their final Self-Directed Learning regional project. This method of self-directed learning is something the department has utilized all year and allows students elements of choice, creativity, and flexibility in their learning; all while underpinned by core geographic objectives.
在此次“探秘非洲”的项目式学习中，S班的学生聚焦非洲城市的城市化进程与发展潜力，以可持续性发展为理念，设计打造一个快速发展的非洲城市空间。在完成任务时，学生们以城市规划师的身份，发挥创新思维和批判性思维，面对所选的非洲城市存在的人口密集和公共交通匮乏等现实问题，为城市的未来发展制定计划，规划城市空间布局。一张张精心设计的城市规划图，呈现的是同学们对未来城市可持续发展的思考和设想。
For this final project, S level students explored the urbanization and potential growth of African cities, and were tasked with redesigning one of Africa’s rapidly growing urban spaces to be sustainable for the future! Not only unlocking student creative potential, students harnessed deeper critical thinking abilities by problem solving of current issues such overpopulation and lack of public transportation faced by their selected African cities and role played as modern-day urban planners by creating a plan of action for the city to take moving into the future.
S+班的同学们则以团队合作的方式，从不同的主题领域探索非洲。他们将研究成果设计成课程演讲进行展示，主题涵盖了从东非大裂谷和非洲广袤的沙漠，到欧洲殖民时代对非洲的影响，以及当代非洲发展之路等社会性议题。学生们制作了PPT海报辅助课堂演讲，增强展示效果。
Meanwhile, S+ students focused on demonstrating mastery of guided topic choices from the region. Collaborating as teams’ students explored the African region through a variety of carefully curated domains, with the focus on preparing a lesson-based presentation that guided observing students to engage and learn the objectives of each group’s lessons; lessons topics included exploring the Great Rift Valley and Africa’s vast deserts to more socially focused topics such as effects of European imperialism onto the continent and Africa modern grown and development today. Students created visually engaging digital posters that were utilized as in-class presentations.
H级学生则以小组合作的形式创作海报，从非洲的地理特征到影响贸易往来的因素，从殖民时代前的历史到现代民主制度的建立，从气候变化到生态多样性，同学们从不同角度观察非洲，通过了解非洲的发展，展望非洲的未来。同学们还设计了互动式学习任务，如非洲主要城市地图配对游戏吸引参观者参与。通过跨班级的参观学习，学生们对各小组海报的主要内容进行汇总、分析和反思，以此来检测对每组课题内容目标的掌握程度。
Similar, H level students teamed up with one another to create physical posters designed to have interactive onboard learning tasks – such as a map matching game of major African cities. From the geographical characteristics of Africa to the factors of trade, from pre-colonial history to the modern democratic system, from climate change to ecological diversity, students observed Africa from different perspectives, and looked forward to the future of Africa. These were crafted to engage each reader (visiting student) and test their comprehension via a cross-classroom gallery walk. During the final event, students gathered, analyzed, and reflected on crucial knowledge from other group’s boards and assessed their understanding to each group’s given lesson objectives.
文：Dustin Sharp，刘琛
图：徐菁，8年级地理老师
编辑：罗聪
审核：李寓诺，严曾，沈晨荔
Written by Dustin Sharp, Liu Chen
Pictures by Xu Jing, grade 8 geography teachers
Edited by Cong Luo
Reviewed by Yunuo Li, Yan Zeng, Chenli Shen
