As part of this semester’s themed classes “I Love Science”, I was tasked with introducing new scientific concepts to my grade 1s. Science is a very broad subject, I thought it was very interesting to teach as many of us don’t see the importance and the significance science have made to our everyday lives. It would be a great opportunity for them to acknowledge science, they can look around themselves, and be satisfied that to know how everything around them works, and why things happen the way they do.

On the 1st week, I gave them this question: what is science? I would develop their critical thinking using visuals; activities and group discussions on what science includes: the things that makes our world; animals/pants; light; sound; the dangers and the benefits it brings etc. Then I got them to imagine themselves as scientists and think about the areas they want to explore. “I want to mix something cool together!” “I want to know how the earth was formed!” “Observing animals sounds so fun!” were just some of the responses I got. I feel as students grow up in an increasingly technologically and scientifically advanced world, opening up their perspectives allows them to understand the world through the scientific view. I also gave them a little quiz to compete with each other to test their knowledge.

For the next few weeks, I thought it would be good idea to demonstrate simple experiments for them to work on. The telephone cups experiment was used to illustrates the mechanics of sound transmission. I could tell it was very engaging as they were getting hand-on, even designing their own cups. The air refresher experiment was used to show them whether it was possible to create something out of basic left-over home ingredients as they couldn’t wait to test it with each other and at home. In a way, through the experiments, it’s shown me a new side of their team working skills and senses. For the last week, I wanted it to be open and creative so I asked them to make/design something new by themselves or in teams using materials available in the classroom but they have to state why we should use it. Some of them really did come up with some cool ideas.

Everyone have different abilities and interests, so I feel my role of as foreign teacher is not to just teach them scientific theories, but rather to engage with them using different methods to guide them how to think, learn, solve problems and make informed decisions which can be integral to their education and growing interest in science. I think they had a lot of fun!

Ethan