From 2 until 5 November Jan De Lange and Lies Devoldere from Arteveldehogeschool visited Cambodia for their second workshop on science education. The first part of the workshop was dedicated to the follow-up of their previous workshop in January, focusing on concept cartoons, electricity and magnetism and experiments on the human body. Concept cartoons are cartoons in which a scientific phenomenon is explained differently by various characters, usually one of them correct.
In the second part, they introduced new techniques. For physics the workshop centered on sound, a topic generally perceived as challenging, and with an array of low-cost experiments and ICT tools available. Participants learned to make sound from bars, glasses and rubber tubes, and analyzed the pitch of their voice and other music instruments. Immediately, the room was turned into a kind of karaoke fest. Standing waves were generated and participants calculated the speed of sound with only a tuning fork, a small tube and a glass of water.
In biology, Lies focused on integrating environmental life skills into the biology lessons with practical activities and games. Participants analyzed the water quality from the pond next to the school and constructed a food web of the local ecosystem. Games, puzzles and pictures were presented as tools to make their lessons more learner centered. However, the highlight here was no doubt the dissection of the cow’s eye, nicely illustrating the similarities with the human eye.
In the coming months teacher trainers will further practice the newly acquired skills and prepare to facilitate a workshop themselves, to their fellow teachers.
