A big part of Shika na Mikono is helping other volunteers to use simple and cheap teaching aids in the classroom, but when possible, we also try to reach out to the Tanzanian teacher community to help share our ideas with them and get them to think differently about science education. We were thrilled about a month ago when a teacher training college in Iringa town called Klerruu invited us to come and run a day-long training for the biology, physics, and chemistry teachers-to-be.
Four of the seven of us Shika members started planning for the event. We decided what activities to do, made a schedule for the day and got a materials list ready. We arrived the day before the training and went shopping, put together some teaching aids and finalized the schedule.
The next morning we showed up early and started getting set up. The school told us there would be approximately 100 students but there were closer to 160. We thought we would have a big hall to make an introduction and talk to everyone for a bit but there were only small class rooms and labs available in te morning. So we had to be flexible and work with the teachers to make everything work out.
We started off by introducing everyone to the Peace Corps, then to our roles here as education volunteers and then to Shika na Mikono. After a short introduction we broke them into subject groups and did an activity we call "Box of Fun." During this activity we gave the student teachers a box of various cheap items. Some were garbage like plastic bags and used plastic bottles. Some were just cheap supplies like rubber bands, Q-tips, toothpicks and clothes pins. Then we broke them into small groups and assigned them a topic from their subject's syllabus and told them to make a teaching aid that they can use to teach that topic.
Talking with one of the groups about their teaching aids for Newton's Laws
I was with the physics groups and had a great time checking out their teaching aids and helping them to think creatively (something that is not encouraged and often is actively discouraged here). At first their teaching aids were very simple and not always well thought through, so as I walked from group to group I challenged them to think about how they would use this tool to directly or metaphorically to teach their topic. Some teaching aids did not match well with the topic initially but after a few changes they could be used throughout a lesson to teach several points in the same topic.
After about half an hour of preparation the groups presented their teaching aids to the other physics groups. Many provided some theory first and then demonstrates how it worked in a practical sense with their teaching aid. It was really rewarding for me to see the teachers proving to themselves that readily available, cheap materials can be used to teach physics more effectively. Most teams did a really good job explaining their new apparatus and how it connects with the topic, but some had a little more trouble and I was more than happy to help them out when they struggled with some of the details.
One teacher showing off his group's teaching aid for the physics topic of pressure in fluids.
New physics teachers showing off their teaching aids to the whole group.
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