Here are the departmental exam papers and memos for Life Sciences and Lewenswetenskappe for Grade 12 for 2011. They are a great revision tool to prepare for the upcoming exams. Good Luck!

Life Sciences:

Life Sciences Grade 12 Paper 1 March 2011

Life Sciences Grade 12 Paper 2 March 2011

Life Sciences Grade 12 Paper 1 March 2011 – Memo

Life Sciences Grade 12 Paper 2 March 2011 – Memo

Life Sciences Exemplar Papers:

Life Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011

Life Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011 – Memo

Lewenswetenskappe:

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Vraestel 1 Maart 2011

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Vraestel 2 Maart 2011

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Vraestel 1 Maart 2011 – Memo

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Vraestel 2 Maart 2011 – Memo

Lewenswetenskappe Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestelle:

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011

Lewenswetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011 – Memo

These are the departmental papers for English Home and First Additional Language for 2011. They are great to work through before the exams, so that you know you are ready! Good Luck!

English Home Language:

February/ March 2011:

English HL Grade 12 Paper 1 2011

English HL Grade 12 Paper 2 2011

English HL Grade 12 Paper 3 2011

English HL Grade 12 Paper 1 2011 – Memo

English HL Grade 12 Paper 2 2011 – Memo

English HL Grade 12 Paper 3 2011 – Memo

English First Additional Language:

February/March 2011:

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 1 2011

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 2 2011

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 3 2011

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 1 2011 – Memo

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 2 – Memo

English FAL Grade 12 Paper 3 – Memo

Here are the departmental exam papers for Physical Science for 2011. They are a great revision tool to prepare for the upcoming exams!

Physical Science:

Grade 12 Physical Science March 2011 Paper 1

Grade 12 Physical Science March 2011 Paper 1 – Memo

Grade 12 Physical Science March 2011 Paper 2

Grade 12 Physical Science March 2011 Paper 2 – Memo

Physical Science Exemplar Papers:

Physical Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011

Physical Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011 – Memo

Physical Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 2 June 2011

Physical Sciences Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 2 June 2011 – Memo

Fisiese Wetenskappe:

Graad 12 Fisiese Wetenskappe Maart 2011 Vraestel 1

Graad 12 Fisiese Wetenskappe Maart 2011 Vraestel 1 – Memo

Graad 12 Fisiese Wetenskappe Maart 2011 Vraestel 2

Graad 12 Fisiese Wetenskappe Maart 2011 Vraestel 2 – Memo

Fisiese Wetenskappe Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestelle:

Fisiese Wetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011

Fisiese Wetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 2 Junie 2011

Fisiese Wetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011 – Memo

Fisiese Wetenskappe Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 2 Junie 2011 – Memo

Here are the departmental Mathematics and Maths Literacy exam papers and memos for 2011. With the final exams coming up, they are a great revision tool for learners to make sure they are ready. Good Luck!

Mathematics:

Grade 12 Maths March 2011 Paper 1

Grade 12 Maths March 2011 Paper 1 – Memo

Grade 12 Maths March 2011 Paper 2

Grade 12 Maths March 2011 Paper 2 – Memo

Mathematics Exemplar Papers:

Mathematics Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011

Mathematics Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 2 June 2011

Mathematics Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 1 June 2011 – Memo

Mathematics Grade 12 Exemplar Paper 2 June 2011 – Memo

Wiskunde:

Graad 12 Wiskunde Maart 2001 Vraestel 1

Graade 12 Wiskunde Maart 2011 Vraestel 1 – Memo

Graade 12 Wiskunde Maart 2011 Vraestel 2

Graad 12 Wiskunde Maart 2011 Vraestel 2 – Memo

Wiskunde Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestelle:

Wiskunde Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011

Wiskunde Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 2 Junie 2011

Wiskunde Graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 1 Junie 2011 – Memo

Wiskunde graad 12 Voorbeeld Eksamenvraestel 2 Junie 2011 – Memo

Mathematical Literacy:

Grade 12 Maths Lit Paper 1 March 2011

Grade 12 Maths Lit Paper 1 March 2011 – Memo

Grade 12 Maths Lit Paper 2 March 2011

Grade 12 Maths Lit Paper 2 March 2011 – Memo

Wiskunde Geletterdheid:

Graad 12 Wiskunde Geletterdheid Maart 2011 Vraestel 1

Graad 12 Wiskunde Geletterdheid Maart 2011 Vraestel 1 – Memo

Graad 12 Wiskunde Geletterdheid Maart 2011 Vraestel 2

Graad 12 Wiskunde Geletterdheid Maart 2011 Vraestel 2 – Memo

ChalkStar is a brand new online initiative to help primary school teachers save time and improve lesson quality.

GetWings, an online education incubator, is proud to announce the launch of ChalkStar.com, an innovative new online platform for teachers teaching grades R – 12. ChalkStar is a supportive online community that develops new bundles of professional, top-quality worksheets every week for use in grade R to 3 classrooms. The community includes a market place for teachers to sell their own worksheets, and a worksheet-authoring tool that makes it easy for teachers to develop their custom worksheets. All community services are currently free while it is in its beta testing phase.

Once out of beta phase ChalkStar members will pay a monthly subscription of R100 (50% launch special available to Teacher’s Monthly readers!) to gain access to a wide range of tools and services. Every week, members can download a new set of themed worksheets based on current affairs for the subjects of math, science and English literacy. Students will not only benefit from the structured and simple educational outcomes, but also get to learn more about the world and events around them – for example, the worksheets released over Bastille Day had a decidedly French theme and included exercises linked to Bastille Day for math, science and English literacy. The worksheets are professionally designed according to best teaching practices and provide everything a teacher needs to stimulate classroom learning in the elementary grades.

ChalkStar also provides members with access to a worksheet marketplace: teachers can upload and sell their existing materials, or purchase specific worksheets from their peers, for a flat fee of R30 (authoring teachers keep 75% of the sale price). A forthcoming addition is a worksheet-authoring tool, which will allow teachers to tailor make their own worksheets, based on the fundamental principles that ChalkStar employs. Dan Bailey, the project lead for ChalkStar, explains “Designing worksheets is hugely time consuming. In addition to the bundles of worksheets we design for members each week, we are also working on a worksheet-authoring tool. This tool will allow teachers to create their own worksheets using dozens of best-practice templates. We will be launching this new tool in September 2011.

Designed to be simple and to allow teachers to earn income from their expert knowledge, ChalkStar is committed to supporting the over 250,000 school teachers in South Africa. Worksheets are the staple of elementary school education, because they provide simple and fun learning exercises while making it easy for the teacher to structure and assess outcomes. ChalkStar is the next step in improving the delivery and quality of these worksheets.

ChalkStar is free to all subscribers during its beta testing phase. The full service, with applicable subscription fee, will launch at the end of September 2011.

To try out the service or to find out more, visit www.ChalkStar.com.

I saw this post in the ESRI GIS Community Blog. Written by Joseph Kerski, it is an interesting read. The author gives many reasons why spatial analysis is important in education including social, ethical, creative, logical, practical and essential ones. The article concludes by saying that “using GIS in education is essential in order to infuse these tools into societal decision-making”.

He asks: What other adjectives come to your mind when you consider the “GIS advantage”? Food for thought! It would be interesting to get your thoughts on this.

Have a read here: Describing the Value of Spatial Analysis in Education

The end is (almost) in sight for the chalkboard with hand-drawn diagrams of the way the world around us works. Thanks to Flash, a fairly simple to use Adobe product, quality interactive simulations are becoming more readily available on the internet that are well suited to classroom teaching.

Pearson Education and ForgeFX have teamed up to create simulation based learning applications that allow learners to become active participants in the classroom. I checked out some of their free web-based simulations to get an idea of what it’s all about.

Most of the simulations are quite interactive and give the learner an option of various different scenarios that provide different end results which is great for comparison and testing.

Here is an overview of the top 6 simulations:

Design and Test Simulator

This interactive 3D simulation allows students to work on the development of a piece of virtual machinery, capable of launching giant paintballs into the air. Using the Design and Test Methodology, students must create their hurling machine so that it is capable of hitting the multiple targets within the virtual world.

In order to hit all of the targets in the virtual environment, students must design their device so it is capable of launching for distance, height, and strength. Students are able to customize the arm length, spring strength, ball weight, angle of release, and tension in order to hit each target.

Students are given a budget that they must complete the project within, each shot at the target will cost the student part of their budget, so the fewer shots required the better the student does. Launchers must be designed for the assigned task, tested, modified, tested again, and repeated until the student has hit each target.

Topographical Map Simulator

This real-time 3D simulation illustrates how topographic maps are created and used to depict changes in elevation. A topographic map is characterized by large-scale detail and quantitative representation of relief using contour lines. Rendered in real-time 3D, it is easy to understand how topographic maps are created since the simulation shows the same virtual environment in both a 3D mesh and 2D map format.

Students are able to sculpt mountains and valleys in real-time and see the changes to the corresponding topographic map as well as the 3D environment. To represent elevation, relief, and slope on the topographic map the simulation uses contour lines and elevation level indicators, while it simultaneously renders the scene in 3D.

On a topographic map, a contour line connects points of equal elevation. Select the Raise or Lower tool, and then start digging into the 3D terrain. See how the changes you make to the mountain affect the topographic map and 3D terrain.

Seismic Waves Simulator

What happens to the ground during an earthquake? Find out by creating your own earthquake using this interactive 3D simulation. An actual earthquake will always create Primary, Secondary, and Surface waves, using this 3D simulation students can isolate waves to understand the different types of seismic activity.

Select the type of wave, the strength of the waves, the angle, and the zoom levels for the simulation to run. Waves can be played forward and backwards through time, in textured or wire-frame 3D models, all controlled by the user of the simulation.

During an earthquake the exact speed of P and S waves varies depending on the material they are traveling through. The ratio between the speeds of the two waves will remain relatively. P waves generally travel 1.7 times faster than S waves. Using this ratio, scientists can calculate the distance between any point on the earth’s surface and the earthquake’s focus.

3D Plant and Animal Cells Simulator

Cells are the basic unit of structure and function in living things. If you look inside cells, there are even smaller structures called organelles. Each organelle has a different function within a cell. Learn about plant and animal cell organelles in this interactive 3D simulation. View the cells from any angle by clicking and dragging, select a plant structure to learn more about its function.

Students are able to examine cells by dragging and dropping the cell to view it from any angle. Individual structures can be selected to view them in more detail.

4-Stroke Engine Simulator

Most automobiles use four-stroke heat engines. These four-strokes occur repeatedly in each cylinder in the engine. This is a real-time 3D simulation which allows the student to explore how a four stroke engine works and to gain an understanding of the different strokes involved.

The simulation gives students access to a running 4 cylinder engine, in a safe and risk-free environment. Students can use the simulation to learn how a piston works independently, and within a four-stroke engine. The simulation allows students to watch 3D animations of the four-stroke engine from any angle or distance, speed-up and slow-down the engine, as well as pause and show engine labels – all in real-time 3D. A complex mechanical process, like a four-stroke engine, is an easily understood lesson when delivered as an interactive 3D training simulation.

Biomes of the Earth Simulation

This online e-learning application helps students visualize how biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems.

The simulation lets you take part in an around-the-world scientific expedition researching Earth’s biomes. A biome is a group of land ecosystems with similar climates and organisms. It is mostly the climate—temperature and precipitation—in an area that determines its biome. Interact with the 3D globe to see the worldwide distribution of the biomes on our planet.

Click and drag anywhere on the 3D globe to spin and view it from any direction. Select one of the nine biomes to see where they occur on Earth, or show all locations at once to see where biomes occur in relation to each other. Click on the stars to get photographs and detailed climate information, including average temperature and precipitation levels, for cities located within each biome.

Summary

If you’re charged with educating and training students, you’re aware of the challenges associated with keeping them engaged with educational material. Using highly-realistic 3D simulations, that are web-based, allows you to provide students with immersive content that keep them engaged for longer periods of time. You can see all the simulations here.

In this article I ask “What can Geographical Information Systems do for our learners from an educational perspective?“. What can GIS do for our learners? What is the educational value of GIS?

It can encourage exploration

• Encourages discovery learning and looking for new possibilities
• Assists in recognising that there is rarely a ‘right’ answer to a given problem

It can promote the using of information

• Identifying and using appropriate information to solve a problem
• Integrating information from multiple sources and types

It can promote spatial literacy

• Seeing and describing spatial patterns
• Understanding symbolic representation
• Integrating data at multiple scales and identifying processes and patterns across a range from macro to micro

It can be used as a vocational tool

• Develops basic computer literacy
• Learning about GIS provides skills training for many careers

It can develop multiple capacities and intelligences

• Develops critical and complex thinking
• Develops logical-mathematical intelligence
• Develops linguistic intelligence
• Develops spatial intelligence
• Develops interpersonal intelligence

More importantly, it can be used for collaborative learning. Learners and educators can both be active learners at the same time, thereby allowing educators to model the process of lifelong learning and GIS can promote involvement in the local and global communities for both learners and educators.

That’s quite a lot! GIS can be used in more subjects than just Geography classroom. Have a think and see how you could use it. I’d love to hear from you! Next time we’ll look at some of the challenges of implementing GIS into our schools.

This overview will give you a sense of what GIS is and how they are used in society.

What is GIS? It stands for Geographical Information Systems. These computer-based systems are a combination of elements designed to store, retrieve, manipulate and display information about places (geographic data). GIS are known as spatial technologies: they have functions for storing, manipulating and displaying spatial data.  The spatial data used in a GIS is perhaps the most fascinating aspect as a GIS can work with satellite images, remotely sensed images, aerial photographs as well as the more commonly used computer-based images such as bitmaps, jpegs and tiffs.

At its very basic level, a GIS can be used to analyse and manipulate different layers’ of data and to examine the relationships between these data layers. Example layers could include roads, airports, rivers, rainfall, topography, temperature and so on. The user could, for example examine the relationship between landforms, temperature and rainfall. To extend the basic functionality and to really tap into the power of the GIS, users can create a relational database attached to any of the geographic data and to manipulate, analyse and report on this data. This database provides a rich setting for making decisions about the data in the GIS. For example, if a group of scientists were to undertake a field trip, they could use the GIS to formulate images of the area they are to visit into layers. They could then set up a database behind these images so that when they are out in the field they can capture their field data directly into the GIS using geographic co-ordinates as the link between the data and the images. At it’s most complex a GIS allows the user to both create new images and process existing ones.

Advantages over traditional atlases and maps

A GIS has many advantages over traditional maps and atlases. First, as mentioned, the GIS allows the user to overlay a combination of data layers and as a result is able to visualise complex spatial relationships. Secondly, the GIS allows users to ask questions using spatial queries in order to solve problems and make decisions. Finally, a GIS allows the user to interact with the data and to use it to capture and store data relevant to the user’s context.

So, why do we need it?

Without being aware of it many of us are interacting with spatial data and making decisions based on that data almost every day of our lives. The weather maps that many of us eagerly wait for on TV every night allow us to plan our work and leisure time. Many news bulletins now use satellite images and other spatial images to enhance a news story. For those of us who use the Internet, we interrogate internet route maps to help us plan journeys and routes for work and holidays. GIS is a tool that is also widely used by researchers, scientists and planners to support decision making concerning real world problems. The technology can be applied across many different disciplines, not just geography. If the information has a link with regular geographic co-ordinates (known as a geo-reference), then it can be used in a GIS. A GIS can be used to make decisions about environmental issues, agriculture, land use management and infrastructure development at regional, national and global levels.

Here in South Africa, it is believed that GIS and a holistic model for developing spatial information and providing that information for decision-making would address many of the existing problems being faced here. It would improve decision making, as well as ensuring more effective administration and monitoring of funds allocated to the government by various programmes.

As you can see GIS can be used in a variety of different contexts. One of the key concerns in business and commerce around the world is that school leavers do not have the knowledge to work with a GIS let alone use one to make the decisions required by their jobs. Much of the educational research undertaken to identify if GIS can be successfully implemented in schools has been driven by these needs. This is what we will explore in the next few articles.

Whilst looking at resources on the web, I found this interesting and informative article on the National Geographic Education site entitled “Geo-Literacy -Preparation for Far-Reaching Decisions”. Whilst they use the term ‘geo-literacy‘, we can assume that they are talking about similar concepts as those I have defined for ‘spatial literacy’.

On page 2 of the editorial, they give the benefits of spatial literacy in different areas of our lives. I would like to share these with you.

“Geo-literacy has important benefits across our personal, workplace, and civic lives:

• In our personal lives, making well-reasoned decisions about where to live, how to commute, and what products to buy can save time and money, protect the environment, and improve personal health and welfare.
• In our workplaces, making well-reasoned decisions about supply chains, infrastructure investments, and marketing strategies can reduce costs and increase revenues dramatically.
• In our civic (public) lives, making well-reasoned decisions about zoning and public transit, about emergency preparedness and response, and about foreign affairs can increase our safety, security, and quality of life.”

They go on to say that it is important to raise the geo-literacy level of ALL members of society to meet basic and society’s needs. But we also need to try to expand “the number of individuals with higher levels of geo-expertise to meet the planning and decision-making needs of 21st century commerce and government”. I couldn’t agree more. As always the question is how?

Their editorial addresses this and I believe that their suggestions are relevant to us here in South Africa too.

Have a read and let  me know your thoughts!