The Arrival of the Portuguese in Malaysia: Form 1 Cartoons

In term 3 form 1 have been learning about the history of Melacca (or Melka), one of the most historic towns in Malaysia.  As well as looking at the founding myth they studied the arrival of the first Europeans.

As a final task students were told to create a cartoon explaining the key events leading up to Melacca being captured by the Portuguese in the early 16th century. Below are three excellent pieces of work from Miki, Adrian and Jun Kai. Well done guys!

Cowspiracy: Form 3 refelctions

In the last post, I gave a summary of what the documentary Cowspiracy is about and my thoughts on it. Form 3 watched a 15 minute summary of the documentary and were asked to write a brief reflection on what they watched. Below is a sample of their thoughts. Please note that all students have English as a second or third language and that the quotes have been abridged.

In the reflection below Tasha makes the link between deforestation for cattle ranching and climate change. She also talks about the potency of methane as a greenhouse gas.

"In my opinion, and from what I've seen in the video, raising cattle takes up a lot water and a lot of space which leads to cutting down trees in forest. This leads to deforestation. Deforestation plays a huge part in global warming because if there aren't trees left in this world then carbon dioxide won't be able to be taken in and there would be less oxygen given out.

Cows in this case also give out a greenhouse gas called methane, methane is worse compared to Carbon Dioxide since methane takes up 100 times more heat than carbon dioxide does. My point here is that the more meat we eat, more methane will be given out which rises the global temperature, which leads to the melting of the ice and to the rise of sea levels which soon may cover up almost the entire planet.In order to prevent this, there is a way we could help. Vegetarian [sic] is a good way because it decreases our consumption on meat and it also help us to become healthy."

Jenny takes a more critical view. I agree with her assertions of over-exaggeration in the movie and that vegans are still causing some harm, although the idea of the same damage can be challenged by the idea that most of the energy from grazing is lost and not put into meat.

"I have one point to make: they said deforestation (clearing land to grow crops, plus, feeding livestock) is damaging the planet’s so-called ‘lungs.’ Aren’t the plants that they eat, grown on that same land too? Don’t plants consume the very huge amount of water too? Just saying, vegans are also harming the planet, no different from non-vegans....

I feel that the video was pretty informative, however, I think it was being a little pushed and exaggerated with numbers and how turning into a vegan is the only way to save the earth."

Zhi Heng and Prathna point to people as the big problem.

ZH: "Cattle in USA is the biggest cause of greenhouse gases because when a cattle [sic] digest food, it creates methane, Methane made today's amount of greenhouse gases increases rapidly...

Nontheless, it's not the animals fault. In last two century[sic], our population increased rapidly together with animals..."

P: "In the movie/ short clip that we were shown, it says methane is created from a cow's digestive system- and that cow's produce more green-house gas then all vehicles combined. It also mentions that if you reduce methane emission, the level of the atmosphere goes down or decreases- but we are forgetting more methane would be produced because of our growing population, as our numberS grow or increase, animal agriculture would too as we need to be fed. So i wouldn't put all the blame on the animal agriculture or cows when our population is multiplying minutes by minute."

Kenneth makes the link to what we are doing at KTJ.

"I was shocked when I watched that video. I think that the amount of water needed to feed animals or making meat is huge. I was shocked that 51% of greenhouse gases were given out by animals. I just realised that cattle farming can cause deforestation. I think it is also our fault because we demand a huge amount of meat. I think that meat free Monday is a good idea in KTJ because it saved a huge amount of water used to make meat."

Cowspiracy and Climate Change

In the last few weeks of term Form 3 have been looking at man's impact on the environment, most particularly the release of greenhouse gases like CO2 and methane, two major contributors to global warming. Initially we focused on fossil fuels, the most publicised source of greenhouse gasses, before moving onto a new frontier in climate change policy; increasing meat consumption. As part of their study they watched a 15 minute summary of Cowspiracy.

Cowspiracy,  a feature length documentary directed by Kip Anderson, is about the damage that cattle farming and livestock agriculture in general is having on the environment. It looks at a numbers of factors including, water usage, greenhouse gases, reductions in biodiversity, forest clearances for pasture and water pollution. There are some startling facts in the film, for example...

All facts from http://www.cowspiracy.com/infographic

The film calls for a massive campaigning refocus by environmental charities like GreenPeace and a fundamental shift in the human diet, away from meat and dairy products and towards Veganism. Unsurprisingly it ruffled quite a few feathers and led to an angry backlash from many, especially in the meat industry. Indeed Beef Daily, a farming magazine, responded with an article called 6 Reasons To Ignore The “Cowspiracy” And Eat A Burger

As a farmer's son and a Geographer I disagreed with some of his findings, but it did give me a lot to reflect on and has influenced they way I think about what I eat. You can download and buy the full documentary at http://www.cowspiracy.com/ or stream a 15 minute summary below. Whether you are convinced about the vegan argument or not, I thoroughly recommend watching the documentary.

Some suggested tasks for teachers:

TASK: Either through watching the full documentary, or taking the two cheat routes 1.) by watching the selected clips here, or 2.) Skipping to the minute and second flags, answer the following questions:

1.) How much time on the planet might we have left?  3 mins,17 seconds

2.) What produces more gasses than the entire transportation sector, how much more do they produce?  4 minutes 27 seconds

3.) How many gallons of water is used in the US annually for raising animals?  5 minutes, 57 seconds

4.) How many gallons of water is used to create and egg?  9 minutes, 30 seconds

5.) How fast is the rainforest being cut down   15 minutes, 03 seconds

6.) Describe the situation in the world's oceans 23 minutes, 30 seconds

Task 2: If you are not prepared to become a vegan, how might you reduce you impact on the environment? Come up with three ideas and explain how they will help.

Hint - think about things like water use, greenhouse gases, non-renewable resources.

How caves, arches and stacks form - Form 4 Playdoh explanations

Winner of best Geographical explanation

In this diagram Leia demonstrates that headlands are not only eroded from the furthest seaward point backwards, but also from the sides due to wave refraction. There is also a good use of key terminology such as corrasion. Corrasion is where sediment within the sea are thrown against the cliff by waves, helping to accelerate erosion.

Runner up

Deen's explanation of how a headland is eroded is very clear, showing the sequence of erosion from a fault to the stump. He also mentions key types of erosion such as hydraulic action, where the force of the wave compresses air inside the cracks of the rock. This form of erosion helps to deepen and widen points of weakness in the rock forming arches such as Piercy Rock in New Zealand's Bay of Islands.

The only minor criticism is that his explanation of a blowhole would have been better located under the heading for a fault.

Winner of most artistic headland

Although there is not much in the way of explanation about how these features are formed, this model of a headland by Macy is very clear. You can see the clear progression of erosion from sea cave, to arch, collapsed arch and then stump. It is also very artistic with her use of rocks, sand, plants an cellophane sea - great improvisation and a step above what I expected when I handed out Playdoh.

Other honorable mentions....

Below, Rachel shows well the action of refracted waves and the low and high tide mark.

Adam shows how sediment in the sea helps to erode the headland.

Brittany clearly shows the direction of retreat.