Geographical inquiry into transport congestion issues

Refer to the following four videos that gives you insights into traffic congestion situations around the world.

Video on the initial alignment of the new North-South Expressway in Singapore to relieve traffic congestion along the Central Expressway.

Video introducing traffic congestion issues in Jakarta and the consequences of some of the policies.

This video looks into a car-centric Los Angeles and the problems it has created.

A look at a sustainable example of a mass transport system planned in the 1990s that still works in present times in Curitiba, Brazil.

Transit Oriented Development

Also known as transport led planning. Interesting video to examine the principles of transport led planning.



Summary (to be completed in GE4102 class):



Akan Datang

What challenges does Singapore face in adopting transport-led planning to manage urban change?

What to do over the National Day long weekend - Watch Food Inc

Dear Year 3 and 4 Students,

Over the long weekend, I know many of you will want to relax and also catch up with homework (I'm in the same shoes as you, plus child-rearing duties).

All I'm asking is that you watch the full documentary of Food Inc on Youtube - there are a few full clips by different channels. Just choose one.

The one I watched is this by Eyes Wide open initiative.




After watching it, do a simple 1 A4 page reflection, double spacing and font size 12 on the following discussion questions. This will be Tutorial 3. Total grade is 12 marks.

Questions:

1. What factors do you think made the emergence of transnational powerful food companies possible?
2. To what extent do you think these food companies also control the geographies of food in Asia? You may need to check the presence of some companies like Nestle in Asia, See the image below for ideas.

Click here for more information

Rubrics for Tutorial 3 (1 page reflection based on the 2 questions)

CATEGORY	4	3	2	1
Critical Thinking	Student presented major points, taking into context the complexity of the phenomena and partially supports them with convincing arguments, ideas and data.	Student fails to present major points but had presented sufficient disorganized factual information to reflect some understanding of the complexity of the phenomena involved.	Student present major factual points, but fail to convey convincing arguments, ideas and data to demonstrate complexity of thought or examination of the phenomena.	Students oversimplify topic with major unsubstantiated claims or fail to present major factual points.
Sentences and expression	Sentences and paragraphs are complete, well-constructed and of varied structure.	All sentences are complete and well-constructed (no fragments, no run-ons). Paragraphing is generally done well.	Most sentences are complete and well-constructed. Paragraphing needs some work.	Many sentence fragments or run-on sentences OR paragraphing needs lots of work.
Ideas	Ideas were expressed in a clear and organized fashion according to guiding questions given. It was easy to figure out your opinions and ideas.	Ideas were expressed in a clear manner, but did not address all guiding questions given. The organization could have been better.	Ideas were somewhat organized, but were not very clear. It took more than one reading to figure out you were saying. Addressed only half the guiding questions.	The entry seemed to be a collection of unrelated sentences. Lack effort.  It was very difficult to figure out your ideas. Barely addressed the guiding questions.

DEADLINE (FOR ALL) for submission to pigeonhole (86) directly - 14 August 2015, 5pm.

E learning for Global Flows Module Week 3 (Year 3 and 4 students)

This week, we are examining the air transportation (global) system in greater detail and how the logistics industry encompasses all the 3 modes discussed in this section of the module.

To put our learning together, we are attempting E-learning for Tutorial 2. This is class based for the Year 3 students and home-based for the Year 4 students. This will be individual work too, but you can discuss with each other your answers where you think is helpful for yourselves.

Tutorial 2: Question 1 carries 10 mark, largely to reward effort and details. Question 2 carries 7 mark and should be seen as a typical practice question. Question 3 to 6 carries 10 marks too, rewarding effort and attention to details.

Refer to the following readings to answer Q1 - Q2:
Reading 1: http://people.hofstra.edu/geotrans/eng/ch3en/conc3en/ch3c5en.html
Reading 2:http://www.iata.org/whatwedo/Documents/economics/passenger-analysis-may-2015.pdf 


Q1a. Explain the significance of airmail to the development of air transportation in US in the 1920-30s (think 2 reasons).

Q1b. Explain how World War II helped to encourage air transportation in US(think 2 reasons).

Q1c. What economic development do commercial jets cause in the airline industry even though they are not traveling significantly faster (800-1000km/h) for the last 30 years?

Q2. Refer to the following extracted information from Reading 1 and answer the following question.

"By 2012, approximately one million people were airborne on scheduled flights somewhere in the world at any one time. This is related to an annual traffic 2.4 billion passengers that travelled over 33,000 scheduled flight routes, underlining the enduring growth of air travel. This accounted for about 25% of the global population, but a much smaller share are actually air travellers as individuals who use air transportation usually do so several times per year."

To what extent will profit in air travel be driven by catering to affordability for the mass consumer/tourist? (7m) (Read Reading 2 to have a better idea on how to answer this question).



Refer to the video and answer Q3 - Q6.

Q3a. State which mode of transportation is used by Fedex and UPS to do freighting.

Q3b. Explain why these mode of transportation are favored for freighting (Think about the nature of the goods being shipped and the end point of the delivery). There are about 4 reasons.

Q4. Discuss the role of information technologies to the logistic industry as exemplified by UPS and Fedex. Use 3 examples from the video to support your discussion.

Q5. The video presented a segment on "adjacent business" with UPS. Why do you think companies selling perishable products or other consumer products are entrusting their distribution to freight companies like UPS? Watch the sections on Sprint and Bentley as companies that contract UPS to manage their supply chains. What concepts inform such business decisions?

Q6. Explain why companies locate their manufacturing or even lab services bases to be near Fedex. What is the nature of their goods and services?

Never mind the shipping of pandas and whales ok? You can consider the nature of these "goods" though.

Globalization and the global economy - the GPN

A video illustrating the role of global production networks within globalization processes

On the current status of the world economy (2012-2013)

Globalization Forward: Growing Green Economies

Introduction to Globalization (2013 Sem 2)

Please note we will be doing this video watching exercise as introduction into economic globalization, our final topic in this module.

 For basic starters: Let's examine some theories associated with the flow of capital, goods, people and information in economic globalization.

Video 1: 60 seconds combined video of global economics by the Open University

Q1. Which theory do you think affects the flow of capital around the world to most? Explain your answer briefly. (Answer should be about 100 words)

Video 2: The environmental impact of the globalization and capitalistic production


Q2. What does Video 2 suggest about the way production is being done around the world? Who is in control? (Answer in about 100 words)

Video 3: Globalization Crash course 1 (warning: this guy talks FAST, but it's a really good crash course)

  Q3. What enabled global production as discussed in the video? (30 words)
Q4. What aspects of globalization was discussed? (50 words)

Video 4: Globalization Crash course 2 (it's the fast talking teacher again)


Q5. Which institutions try to control globalization? You will need to infer a bit. (Just state.)
Q6. What are the positive and negative effects of globalization? Who benefits the most? Who doesn't? Why? (200 words to state your opinions on this question)
Q7. What do you think individuals like us can make choices to lessen the negative impacts of globalization? (50 words)

Submission of responses REQUIRED. This exercise is GRADED as part of CA.
You will need to submit your responses HERE.

Environmental Sustainability Post Lesson Individual Activity (After watching Story of Stuff)

Dear Yr 2 Students,

We are starting off the topic on Environmental Sustainability with the Story of Stuff! You would have watch this video in class (it is 20+ minutes) and the class would have done a simple discussion based on what you have seen.




Now as you go home, write down the thoughts you have in answering the following questions. This reflection should only take up 1 writing paper.

Question 1:

From the video, list and explain one part about the "materials economy" that does not surprise you but you now realise is very wasteful in terms of rationalization of resources. (make a point and elaborate on it in about 50 words)

Criteria for Q1:
Reflection on why "we can't see the environmental damage": 5m

Question 2: (requires reading of http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-human-cost-of-stuff/annie-leonard-more-than-a-mindful-consumer)

"We can't avoid buying and using stuff. But we can work to reclaim our relationship to it. We used to own our stuff; now our stuff owns us. How can we restore the proper balance?"

What kind of problems do you personally feel you have to overcome to try to be a "thinking consumer"? Is this still about being a "consumer"? What has citizenship got to do with environmental sustainability?
Pen down your thoughts about this as you read Annie Leonard's article for inspiration. Write this down in about 1 page (without leaving lines)

Criteria for Q2:
Reflection on personal lifestyle: up to 5m
Reflection on materials economy: up to 5m
Reflection on sociology of consumption: up to 5m