Hi! Today is 6 April 2008. This is my first blog on this newly created site. I choose 'Thinking Allowed' as the name of my blog site as I find it convenient to share my thoughts without much red tape. The convenience of reaching out through the cyberspace to share my thoughts and various experiences especially those related to education at secondary school level is very exciting.
Today, I am going to talk about allowing children, who are actually natural scientists, to have a chance to carry out 'hands-on' activities in the school laboratory. Very often, they are denied the opportunity under various reasons or pretexts. Science teachers, please allow your students to exercise one of their basic rights more frequently--to carry out experiments. Otherwise, the very act of teaching science may widen the divide between the students and their interest in the science subjects.
I have many fond memories of my students enjoying themselves in the laboratory. One particular incidence occurred many years ago when I gave them the task of making microbalances using straws, pins, match boxes and rubber bands. As the balances were so sensitive, many students squeezed themselves into the cabinets of the side-benches to avoid the disturbance of the wind. At the end of the lesson, the students who did not mind their clothings being soiled, left the laboratory happily and triumphantly. I am sure, just as I, many of the students involved will still have sweet memory even up to today.
1 comment:
An experiment will require enough time to prepare, excute, analysed and concluded. Malaysian teachers and students alike are under tremendous pressure to complete enormous topics required by the syllibus (legal action could be taken against those who don't complete the syllibus). This is the main hindrance to the real exploratory spirit of the scientific world in "Bolehland".
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