8/1/2013
We have been
here for two days-teaching, cooking, meeting teachers, meeting learners, and
finding bugs. The learners think deeply
about life goals and worldly differences. I am impressed by the students’
ability to vocalize and critique opinions about Americans and Namibians.
Students are
often stopping by our house for a visit and cool drink (soda). Yesterday, my group was cooking dinner and a
student stood in the corner of the kitchen watching us cook. She was almost
silent for almost an hour. Namibian
children are raised to be seen and not heard, and this plays out at school as
well.
Our speed of
teaching is much slower and more patient, and the students are receptive to
speaking in class when they are given examples, time and encouragement. I feel
that slowing down in my teaching is going to be valuable, but I also need to
balance that pacing with my generally SUPER EXCITED teaching personality.
Figuring out how not to feel as though I am rushed will be beneficial in the
classroom, handling “Africa Time” and general relaxing.
Students
here often get by through rote memorization and copying, so critical and higher
order thinking in science is often difficult for them. Yesterday, we were
teaching about mixtures. One student said that ethanol was a mixture. She knew it is made of different things, but
when asked to go further, said it was oil and salt, and was pretty clearly
making up her answer.
Tomorrow, we
are talking about the parts of an experiment.
Yesterday, one boy said he knew science was about performing
experiments. My teaching partner, Ted,
and I are hopeful that they will be familiar with experimental designs, and can
identify parts that are missing from experimental procedures written out. We also are going to perform an experiment
with controls, constants, independent and dependent variables, and making hypotheses. I am curious how much choice they have had in
their experiments in the past.
UPDATE,
9/1/2013: Students’ experience with designing experiments was impressive, but
with lots of room for growth. They know what a hypothesis is, but had a
difficult time determining independent versus dependent variables. We talked about using a hypothesis to
identify the variables, and that seemed to help somewhat. I think we should have focused on constants
rather than controls more, and that may have made it easier. Tomorrow, we are writing/planning an
experiment and identifying variables. Then we are putting candy into coke so
that students can make a reaction.
Students
also work well in groups with roles. We
had leaders, writers, readers and spokespeople. I was really impressed with how
quickly they applied spokesperson asking another group before asking the
teacher if the group had a question.
UPDATE
10/1/2013: The follow up went well! However, the coke didn’t react. The
learners were good sports about it.
what type of candy? mentos? Maybe it's a different formula coke?
ReplyDeleteYes, we used Mentos and Diet Coke on the first day, and it worked just fine. The rest of the candies were also supposed to work, but I think since I poured the Coke into flasks it removed too much of the carbonation. It has to do with surface area and carbonation more than the formulas of the Coke or candy. But the kids were good sports about it, and understood, that since the Mentos and Coke didn't really work that time, that something went wrong with the experiment, not that theirs weren't supposed to work. Smart kids!
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