Study Tour as Teaching Strategy

Study tour as teaching strategy
By Cate de Leon
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 17:44:00 04/11/2010

Filed Under: Education
ON A CRISP MORNING outside the Manila Cathedral, a crowd of children listened to a man giving a lecture on the walled city of Intramuros, the Spanish colonization of the Philippines and the churches built during that time.
The lecturer was Rolando S. dela Cruz, former University of the Philippines professor and current president/CEO and headmaster of Darwin International School (DIS) in Bulacan.
The children were told to do different poses and movements that turned out to be an introduction to a lesson on architecture, an exercise they found extremely entertaining.
The little triangles they formed with their hands represented the pyramids, the best known example of Egyptian architecture. Another pose represented the lintel, a feature of Greece’s Parthenon, where a horizontal block rested on pillars. A third exercise formed one big arch, an architectural structure introduced by the Romans, an innovation that allowed them to build very high but stable structures. Tall triangles represented the spires of Gothic architecture, while twinkling little hands represented the very ornate Baroque architecture.
In the detail
Dela Cruz further explained the features of the Manila Cathedral, the youngsters’ first stop on their study tour. He asked the kids to arch their index fingers to form “worms,” which represented the arch. He told them to look at the façade of the cathedral and count how many arches there were on each doorway.
He then pointed out how several arches, rotating around a single axis, formed a dome. The children quickly grasped the idea and immediately started forming domes with their hands.
For the vaulted ceiling, the lecturer asked the children to reach up high and make an “x” using their index fingers.
After the lecture, the children, who now had a better understanding of the Manila Cathedral’s architecture,... [continues]

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