Phygital Way of Learning Science
Science and Math are subjects that children usually fear and this is something that we as the Science Department team wanted to change. Our experience interacting with students conveyed that they were finding it difficult to grasp complex concepts and theories that required enhanced critical thinking skills. Additionally, they were getting intimidated by the scientific vocabulary, and as a result, were getting low grades, losing interest, opting out of science stream in college.
Questions that bothered us were why do students find science challenging? Is it that difficult? Is it a boring subject or is it meant only for the smarter students?
So, we came up with a system in 2018 that helped us address these issues better. At Muktangan we believe in Active constructivism, a very unique and productive approach to engaging students where they can build their own understanding and the teacher plays the role of a facilitator. The Science department at Muktangan follows a learner-centered approach amalgamating blended learning, application and inquiry focused approach.
Science Department Approach
‘Phygital’, a term written on the billboard that caught my eye one day while I was waiting at the bus stop. I thought, what a creative term to describe what we do in our science department! Phygital Learning, basically known as blended learning, is an intelligent way of learning that captures the digital content along with the physical mode of learning in the classroom together for better teaching and better student engagement. Let’s dive into some of our best practices which makes learning Science enjoyable for children-
Best practices of the Science Department -
In the classroom, the teacher plays the role of a facilitator guiding students as they learn new concepts through exploration and asking questions. The 5E represents five stages of a sequence for teaching and learning: Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate. Science teachers make creative lesson plans for each topic based on the above approach so that students develop curiosity and become eager to learn more.
The science department has opted for blended learning in 2019; an educational approach that includes problem-based learning, discussion, activities, games combining online digital media with traditional classroom methods. Given the varied learning levels of children, this approach works very well because children can learn at their own pace. Our teachers use a wide range of digital resources to foster effective learning which children can also access at home.
As part of the integrated pedagogical approach, the department has collaborated with Reniscience Education in their program called ‘City as Lab’ (CAL) to facilitate problem-based learning by giving opportunities to students to think of a problem affecting their community, surroundings, and the city at large. Students identify a problem, collect and analyze data and present their findings and solutions in the form of a research paper.
Our department focuses more on formative assessments as our goal is to provide ongoing feedback that can benefit both the teacher and the child. Types of formative assessment used by our science department are - Google quizzes, open-book assessments, classroom discussions, and projects. Assessment for learning really helps children feel motivated and also enables teachers to offer relevant learning experiences.
Click to see an example of Assessment for Learning: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1waUq7FrOGuwjCYM-EpmkSI-QcR09WDK-6WijpJac18g/edit?usp=sharing
The goal of developing a science curriculum is to help students develop basic scientific ideas for which creating a strong foundation in the early years is crucial. Keeping the grades 9 and 10 syllabi in mind, the science department has modified the syllabus for grades 1 to std 8 taking it spirally up, developing the pedagogical skills, and giving them the basics that are required to understand the more complex concepts. Modifying the syllabus has made a visible difference in our students, as they are more interested in learning. Students are showing a lot of enthusiasm and participating in forums like Science Olympiad exams, Homi Bhabha scholarship exams and Balvaidnyanik competitions. Our teachers have seen an overall attitude change in the students, they are taking more interest, asking questions, and attempting the questions in the examinations which they were skipping in the past.
As we know, feedback is one of the most powerful influences on learning. It plays a major role in student engagement. Feedback acts as a two-way street - it is both giving and receiving feedback from teachers to students and from students to teachers, thus forming a feedback loop. The role of teachers in the loop is to plan for responsive teaching and the role of students in the loop is to fill in the learning gap by implementing specific suggestions and strategies given by the teacher which is transformative learning. We also have a student tracking tool which assesses core domains like exploring, inquisitiveness, curiosity recording and interpreting data, developing a scientific vocabulary, experimenting and problem-solving.
In the Science department, we also focus on building 21st-century skills. They are learning skills like critical thinking, problem-solving, communication, collaboration, creativity, and digital literacy. These skills are very important for the holistic development of the students as it will help them to face challenges in future. The teachers select appropriate teaching resources and activities that help the students to develop these skills.
Each year we celebrate Science Day on Feb, 28th to make students and their parents aware of the significance of scientific application in their daily lives. Also, to acknowledge and learn from the efforts and achievements of the field of science for the welfare of living beings and to extend opportunities to students to be innovative. Students of grades 3-9 come up with their creative ideas and they either demonstrate experiments or do activities to show how science is used in daily life. They make science fun by making games for the visitors to differentiate between fact and fiction.
Explanation is the most essential part of science teachers as there's a large body of scientific ideas that they need to understand themselves before transferring it to their students. Many of these ideas are abstract and complex. Furthermore, the students also have a wide range of misconceptions that need to be cleared before they can begin to build and develop new knowledge. Therefore, we started biweekly sessions with our faculty, where we bring curricular and additional advanced-level supportive concepts which is then cascaded to teachers. We also collaborate with the NGO Space Geeks for seminars and host sessions by scientists from NASA, ISRO and other. These forums are beneficial for students to think about a career in science.
Our methodology has taken the Science dept forward towards sustainability as it is equipping students with skills, capacity, and enhancing motivation. We are observing progress in each of the core domains in all grades as a result of all our initiatives. Students' curiosity to explore new things, willingness to participate, asking relevant questions, and engaging in self-learning has increased. Students now have access to a wider range of digital resources to help them learn. For teachers, the effects of blended learning can be seen in better lesson planning, stronger conceptual understanding, more efficiency and increased passion for teaching Science.
Author: Ms. Nitya Potham (Science Department Faculty- Muktangan Education Trust)
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Wonderful! Thanks for sharing Ngo Muktangan
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