SINGAPORE: It had been 15 years since I was in secondary school, but I could still feel that familiar feeling of dread as the teacher scanned the class for someone to answer his question.
I had taken combined humanities in secondary school so I had a rough idea of Geography, but the technical question by Mr Ang threw me off guard. My stuttering must have looked silly, because my classmate Raveena Magendrakumar, who sat on my right, started explaining the concept to me. CNA's Aqil Haziq Mahmud gets some help from student Raveena Magendrakumar, who is seated on his right. The computer lab was air-conditioned and carpeted, and students took off their shoes before entering. On the tables were school-issued laptops – called personal learning devices – and boxes of virtual reality goggles.
We were shown two maps of the east coast area in the present day and from many years ago, and were asked to compare how the coastline had changed. Then we were shown a video of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong's remarks at the 2019 National Day Rally, where he talked about the seriousness of climate change and how Singapore was going to tackle it.
Ms Shirin switched the slides to a picture of the measures at East Coast Park, showing sea walls, breakwaters and groynes. Breakwaters and groynes might look the same and similarly reduce the force of waves, but they run parallel and perpendicular to the coast, respectively. "We are not just going to the coast to collect data, there is a reason why we are going to the coast. Collect data for what?" he said before pausing."We are going to do something that the Government is also commissioning reputable bodies to do: Assess the effectiveness of some of the coastal protection measures."
After letting students explore the virtual environment, Mr Ang naturally had some trouble regaining their attention. "When you're on Zoom, you're not really like there in the lesson. Half of your brain is basically distracted by your home; sleeping, eating, home life," Raveena told me in an interview after class.
"Having these discussions now really makes the lesson more interesting and makes me feel more passionate about the subject as well," he said.