All of last week and part of this week I was away from my school on my first Shika na Mikono event. I first went to Dar Es Salaam with three other volunteers to present at a Pi Day (3/14) celebration. The theme for the celebration this year was teaching aids, which made this a perfect event for our group. We got in to Dar with a day to spare and we used this day to prepare our setup. We went into the PC office after picking up some materials and began getting ready. We would have a few tables to set up on and students and teachers would be wandering around from station to station. We prepared a poster with information about Shika na Mikono, brochures, and a handful of math teaching aids to show off.
On the 12th we took our gear to the venue and set up in the morning. Whether out of curiosity of the Americans or the teaching aids at our table, many students and teachers came to our table.
While I was teaching a group of students about coordinate geometry, an onlooking teacher was so excited about the teaching aids we were using that he asked if he could step in and help explain. I gladly passed it over to him as one of our major goals is to help local teachers to start using more hands on methods in the classroom. Hopefully this teacher saw the value in this and will use it to teach his students!
Throughout the day we had many many students and a handful of teachers come by to see what we were doing. I think the steady flow of students attests to the importance of using visual and hands on teaching aids in the classroom. Many teachers find students to be lazy or unattentive, but who wouldn't be lazy and unattentive if the teachers are just talking at you and writing on the board all day. I think it is really the job of the teacher to find ways to interest the students in what is being taught and to use whatever means are available to inspire the students to want to learn. The students gravitating towards our tables shows that there is interest in math, it just isn't always apparent in the methods frequently used in the classroom.
A good number of teachers did come by to ask about our teaching aids and we gladly showed them how to use them and emphasized how easy and inexpensive they are to make. The coordinate geometry tool was made from an old rice sack, some tape, a little cardstock, and a few bottle caps. The fractions tool was made from colored markers and some wooden barbecue skewers. Some of the most popular games we showed at this event are great tool for learning the order of operations an they only require a pen and paper to make.
The second day of this event was the actual celebration (3/14). The stage was all decked out, a group of students danced the "Makilikili," there was a four-piece Tanzanian pep band, a parade entrance, and the Vice President of Tanzania showed up (the four of us got to show him our teaching aids and shake hands with him).
The entrance parade
"Makilikili"
Our day 2 setup
Playing an order of operations math game
The event gave me and one other new Shika member a good first go at the kinds of events that we will be doing and to me it was a huge success. Partly because the students and many teachers loved our teaching aids. But also because we are gaining publicity and legitimacy in this country. Meeting the ice president, working with the Ministry of Education, attending a nationally televised event... The past year has been huge for Shika na Mikono. The current team has made strong connections with the governing bodies here in Tanzania and have begun to make a name for themselves. The ministry has brought them to teacher trainings and various events to spread the idea that anyone can create teaching aids and use hands on methods to help students learn science and math, even just using garbage.
After Pi Day, the four of us went to Morogoro to meet up with the rest of the group. This would serve as the hand-off meeting from the current Shika group to the new group from my class. We had discussions about what the old members have done in their service, where we see the group heading in the future, what projects we want to take on, what each of our roles will be in the group (communication with PC, the ministry, manual writing...), and many other things.
After finishing the internal meetings, we went to a nearby secondary school where another PCV invited us to do a "science day." We checked out the campus and got answers to some logistical questions and then began to brainstorm what we wanted to do for the students the next day. We broke off into math/physics and biology/chemistry subgroups and thought of what activities and demos to do the next day. After lunch we went back into town, bought the supplies we would need for the activities and went back to our hotel to start making the teaching aids.
The next day we went back to the school in the morning and set up. School was going on still that day so students were only able to come if they were allowed by their teachers. The PCV at the school allowed all of her classes to come, and another local teacher also let his students out to get some hands on experience with us.
In chemistry, the students learned about combustion (always fun). And in the end, one of the older members put on a show with "elephant toothpaste" (YouTube it) and some pyrotechnics.
Another successful event, and more good prep for us new members.
Here's a picture of the new group (minus one)
And here's the old group
