So I'm a little late on this one, but here it is. A couple weeks back, the Shika na Mikono team had a hand over meeting to initiate its newest members. It started with three of us veterans and three of the new members going to Dar Es Salaam for the annual Pi day celebration. We had a prep day and got some math/science teaching aids ready. Then the next day we went to the event and presented them in a sort of science fair context. The event was mostly the same as last year when I went as a new Shika member so I'll leave out the details. Here are a few pictures from that.
A teaching aid to show that the same volume can look different in different containers.
A simple interactive teaching aid for equilibrium and moments.
This Tanzanian teacher brought a clever teaching aid which proves that 1 liter is equal to 1000 cubic centimeters!
After Pi day, we all traveled together to Morogoro where we met the rest of the group. There are six new members and six of the seven of us veterans were there too.
We arrived in the evening and didn't have anything planned except for us from the older generation to get our schedule figured out for the next few days.
I ended up sitting out the first day because I wasn't feeling well (I'm fine now, mom. Don't worry). But the others started the day with a session about what Shika na Mikono is and what our generation has done in the past year. After that, they went to a local secondary school where we arranged to have a science day the following day. They took note of the space we would have access to, met some of the teachers, and got an idea of what activities we would do with the students. Then they went to town to buy any supplies we would need.
When they got back, we got to work constructing all of the things we would use the next day and planning how we would present them. The older generation tried to stay mostly hands off to let the new members get more experience.
The next day we went to the school again, set up, and guided students through our science activities.
Lucy and Sharon showed the students osmosis and diffusion in action
Rickie and Riley shared a teaching aid using water bottles to show elastic and inelastic collisions
The hand over meeting last year was really helpful to us because it just threw us into a situation where we had to be creative and get a feel for how many of the Shika na Mikono events go. This year it was good being more of an observer and seeing the new members get a feel for what Shika is all about.
Throughout the day, each station saw about 18 groups of kids which was repetitive, but also allowed the new members to improve their lessons incrementally each time.
We ended the day with a group dinner at a really nice restaurant. Best steak I've had since leaving the states.
The last day was split in half. In the morning we broke into interest groups and in the afternoon/evening we talked about administrative stuff.
The interest groups were my favorite part of the meeting. The projects that we are currently working on were presented briefly to the new members on the first day so by the last day they had an idea of what they were interested in working on. The project I've been leading is a new resource for Tanzanian teachers. It will provide teachers with pre-made lesson plans that include some sort of activity or teaching aid that is worked into the lesson. The idea is to make it easier for teachers to use this book and the teaching aids it suggests than to write their own notes and just talk at their students. At its least effective, it will allow the students to be taught four lessons (for each form for each subject) using alternative teaching methods. At its most effective, it will show the teachers that using teaching aids and activities in the class improves student learning and in turn will spark the teacher into creating more teaching aids and/or activities in the future. So this book has been my baby for the past year and I have been a little nervous about what will happen with it in the next year after I have gone. But during the interest groups, almost all of the new members were really excited about it. We broke it down into what parts need finishing, assigned these parts to new members, and I think by June we should have all of the lessons finished and we should be able to get started on formatting and compiling them. I'm hoping to see a finished first iteration before I leave!
Other sessions were about teacher trainings, science conferences/competitions, IT stuff, and maintaining the current resources we have.
The afternoon sessions were about administrative stuff. Checking email, annual events, choosing a point person for communication, keeping contact with the ministry of education, etc. Boring but necessary.
For the next few months we will keep an eye on the projects in this transition stage and help out where we can. With my class on its way out, it's good to know that Shika is in good hands with the new members.
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