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Teacher:
Deirdre Knox
Year: Transition year ( mixed ability)
Subject: Science
In order to use both
IT and traditional science equipment I proposed to the girls
that we would prepare a simple programme for 5th class science
and the girls would teach the fifth class science for a day.
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Lesson 1:
I divided the girls into different groups and asked
them to choose 3 experiments (chemistry, physics, biology),
simple enough to present to the primary girls. We used
the new Primary Science syllabus, and science books
for reference.
Lesson 2. The
girls typed out their proposed experiments and some
managed to make a power point presentation.
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Lesson 3. We ran
through some of the experiments in the lab including the use
of Datalogging equipment with the iMAc .
Lesson 4. We
repeated a class similar to lesson 3. During this class one
student in each group had to present one experiment to the
others who would evaluate their performance.
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Lesson 5.
Powerpoint presentations were completed.
Lesson 6.
Students typed out quizzes, questionnaires, wordsearches,
crosswords on their experiments.
Lesson 7.
Plan and preparation for the day.
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Lesson 8 THE DAY.
Fifth class had been invited by us to come to the school on
Thursday 17 May 2001. 30 students and teacher arrived at 9.
30 am and were welcomed by the students. We divided the class
into 5 groups of 6. Each group was taken by a student to be
'taught' the experiments. The groups rotated from experiment
to experiment and then to the computer room to see the Power
Point presentation. We had a break in the computer room at
11.15 am and then revisited the experiments in the lab again.
We finished up at 12 .45 pm. The fifth class had a great time
and the transition year also had great fun. It was considered
to be a success.
Evaluation. The
project was a success on the day, and it provided great experience
for the transition years. The 5th class enjoyed themselves
and the teacher was impressed with the girls. However, the
project itself was beset with difficulties. (i) The computer
room was not available at all times when I needed it. (ii)
The transition years missed a lot of time due to work experience,
choir etc. (iii) Many students did not have science for junior
Cert and had no interest in the project.( these would be academically
challenged students) (iv) The Imac in the lab. gave a lot
of trouble and eventually refused to run the datalogging equipment
two days before the project. (v) Datastudio would only run
on the staff room PC. We did manage to borrow this PC on the
day. But at this stage the students had had not enough practice
using Datastudio and as a result the heart rate monitor did
not work at all. This was most disappointing as it was to
be the highlight of the day to give a print out of heart beat
to the children. (vi) We brought the group to the computer
room to use the Internet and Encarta. The children were more
interested in drawing and messing at this stage. (vii) Equipment
which was to come from PASCO did not arrive ( My contact with
PASCO moved to better things!!!!) (viii) The transition year
group of 32 was much too big to manage and absenteeism was
high. (ix) The 5th class group was also too big (35)
Conclusion The
project would have worked even better on the day if we had
less projects, more physical space i.e. spread over two labs.
And if we had run it over three days in the year. It was a
success in that all enjoyed themselves on the final day but
I would do it differently the next time.
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