One of the great pleasures of studying Geography is the ability to observe what we have learned about the world around us. It was with this spirit of discovery that the year 8 students from St. Andrews International School Green Valley embarked on a recent Koh Chang trip.
Tasting the wonderful cuisine prepared by the fantastic Nirvana Resort, feeling the exhilaration of swimming in one of the many waterfalls on the jungle trek or hearing the crashing waves of the Gulf of Thailand against our vessel on the coral reef trip, the Koh Chang trip has it all. Seeing the sun set down from our private balcony, as the children reflected on all that they had experienced, was a perfect way to finish the final day.
St. Andrews year 8 students at the end of a fantastic experience.
The serious business of discovering the advantages and disadvantages that tourism has brought, plus evaluating the sustainability of Koh Chang’s tourism, occupied the lenses of our student’s cameras during the trip. The aim of the trip is for our students to produce a ‘Photo Essay’ (as popularized by TIME magazine). Not only does the project test our pupil’s understanding of tourism, it also provides an opportunity for SAIS students to illustrate ability in Art, English, ICT and build skills in those areas too.
Thankfully Mr Thorpe (Science teacher) and Mr Stothard (Geography & TOK) are teachers also involved in SAIS’s photography and movie-making clubs, and were on hand to provide guidance to our budding photo-journalists. Former Thai national sprinter Khun Mony gave our students encouragement on the 8km jungle trek and Mr Harris (P.E.) was the classic ‘all-rounder’.
Our students were a credit to the school in their behavior and determination to get the most out of the trip. We also had an awful lot of fun!
