Hands-on Learning During Online School – Science Makes it Happen – ISD Messenger

Hands-on Learning During Online School – Science Makes it Happen

As we move into the eighth month of online learning of the 2020-2021 school year, students have settled in, reflect back on, and share the many new experiences they have gained through their online learning experience.

However, those individuals outside the school community still continue to ask the same question: how are teachers making up for the knowledge and skills students obtain through hands-on activities in the classroom?

Science teachers have overcome this obstacle through innovation, creativity, and resilience. MYP specialist science teacher Mr. Lamza has moved to project-based learning where students are involved in experiments from growing mold on bread to constructing timelines. His main goal is to have students learn scientific concepts by steering away from root memorization. In addition to changing the approach in which students grasp knowledge, he is providing opportunities for students to learn away from the computer screen as much as possible, given that online screen-time presence is necessary for learning in their other courses.

ISD’s new physics teacher Mr. Charles gets creative using home-based experiment design. He helps students perceive their home space, rooftop and gym as their laboratory, and their household and sports material as lab equipment for students to design their own experiment that displays physics concepts. Mr. Charles’s goal is to have students feel comfortable when conducting experiments using equipment they are familiar with, such as basketballs and tennis balls used during their favorite hobbies. As student-designed lab experiments often require the help of their siblings and family members in collecting data, it provides a new opportunity for family bonding.

ISD’s experienced chemistry teacher Dr. Rathod provides his students with practical lab activities that have local and global connections. Through his at-home lab experiments he showed students that simple kitchen ingredients can be used as lab chemicals. He had students use red-cabbage juice as pH indicators in order to determine the best brand of antacids available in their pharmacy. His goal is to help students see science in their everyday lives in the ingredients around them and in the store. Through his experiment he helped students find a solution to a common medical problem in Bangladesh, acid reflux.

Despite the fact that the IB has removed DP Paper 3, the lab paper for the upcoming IB exam for Group 4 Subjects, Head of Science Department Ms. Saima continues to find ways to have students conduct the prescribed labs at home. Although the IB does not require students to gain these lab skills, Ms. Saima feels that students should not miss out on this experience as it is not only an important component in university, but she believes that scientific thinking and the applications of the scientific method to problems are important skills to have. Ms. Saima has rewritten the IB prescribed science labs to allow students the chance to conduct them at home. Examples of her adaptations include replacing lab enzymes with enzymes found in the kitchen, such as yeast for amylase, and pineapples which provide bromelain.

In order to continue encouraging and supporting ISD students to learn through lab experiments, ISD lab technicians Mr. Ameen and Ms. Afrin have also played a major part. They have created a sign-out process to allow students to take out lab equipment and materials from school that students could otherwise not acquire on their own, in order for them to successfully complete their Internal Assessments. They have also taken the time to create instructional lab videos to guide students when they conduct labs on their own. Constructing instructional lab videos not only reduces the anxiety for students when they conduct new lab activities, it allows students to re-watch and pause videos so that they can learn at their own pace.

As students see the effort and support put in by the science department to provide various opportunities for hands-on learning, they are encouraged and gain the drive to do so.

Lab Demonstration Videos:

Physics

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1-suXL1IHI6sOmmZH_Dap-RhthtbG9CjE?usp=sharing

Biology

https://drive.google.com/file/d/19YQXz1lanD2p2_MLWENL5prfbmFpfAIX/view?usp=sharing

See pictures below.

Grade 12 Biology IA: Measuring the mitotic index of onion root cells before and after exposure to artificial plant growth hormones.