Human Geography: Explode; not just bombs but population too!

Today group B of Human Geography class learned about population explosion. We started out with associating 'explosion' to what they think of when they hear the word 'explosion'. Came the words and phrases such as 'war', 'nuclear bomb', 'volcano' and 'experiments gone wrong'.

I asked them, what happen when those things explode? Would it explode slowly or quickly? Would it explode in seconds or would it take time to properly explode?

When things explode, it would explode rapidly.

Then I asked them, how about population? What happen when population explode? I let the students think and relate what have been discussed earlier to population explosion. Four students tried to provide answers:

1. Too many babies born at a time.
2. Too many people at one place.
3. The rapid growth of population.
4. Too many children in one family.

Their answers were not wrong. I pointed out which was the main point and the supporting details.

1. The rapid growth of population.
2. Too many people at one place.
3. Too many babies born at a time.
4. Too many children in one family.

Next, we discussed on life expectancy and infant mortality. The students were divided into two groups. In their group, they had to discuss on what they think those two phrases mean. After five minutes, both groups wrote their answer on the whiteboard and we did some discussion and correction before the class ended.

 Can't wait for our next class!

The Hope of a New Geography Teacher.

Kids are smart, they just need us to facilitate their learning. Once they got the hang of it, they will explore knowledge on their own. The role of the teachers? Facilitate. Assist.

****************************************************

Yesterday I had Human Geography class with one group. We discussed on the effects of population growth. I was glad four out of seven students did their homework which made discussion smoother.

Today, during Human Geography class with the other group, we discussed on the same topic as yesterday's group. Those on the board (as seen in the picture above) were written down by students. At first some hesitated to share their points. Alhamdulillah, by the end of the class, 10 out of 12 students wrote a point on the whiteboard. We then discussed those points whether they are relevant and how are they connected to the effect of population growth. Then we started putting numbers to each point to indicate relationship of one point to the other.

Guess what? We did not and hopefully, will not, cling on to only one textbook as knowledge is too wide it would be such a waste not to explore knowledge in all those books available out there and for today's class, I did not give them any note on the topic yet. I did give the other class some notes to copy down after we did some discussion on the topic. Though they learnt the same topic, our discussions vary, which led to different kinds of assignment; the first group had to write about the differences between their points on the effects of population growth to the points that I gave them in their note, and the second group had to write about two ways to overcome the negative effects of population growth.

I am hoping by the end of the semester, my students would become a bunch of people who got excited over the chance of getting more knowledge and wish to seek more even without the teacher asking them to do so.

May Allah ease our way and help us fulfilling our hope for the Ummah.