Under the Geography education programme, students have been learning about Land Reclamation. Students investigated the following aspects: what land reclamation is, why it is important, and the process and the impact of land reclamation. They explored various land reclamation projects in Canada, for example, the Land Reclamation in Canada’s oil sands in Alberta, as well as expanded their learning by exploring various projects that have taken place around the world such as The Fiery Cross Reef in China, land reclamation in Jakarta, the largest land reclamation project in Schokland, Netherlands, the Dubai Palm Island in the United Arab Emirates, and the Hong Kong International Airport.
Students concluded this topic through an engaging and interesting debate, “Should land reclamation be allowed and promoted or should it be prohibited?”. Students looked at the overall economic, social, environmental, political and cultural aspects of the global projects. They demonstrated great curiosity and passion as they presented and supported their points with real-world examples. There were two debating teams, one affirmative team (for) who spoke in support of the topic and the other team speaking in the negative (against).
The teams followed the formal process of debating by providing an Introduction, Statement of Fact, Confirmation/Proof, Refutation, and Conclusion. Their work was well presented and students demonstrated compelling evidence.