The Njombe Regional Science Conference took place over several eventful days, so I have broken the post up into days to make it easier to follow.
Day 1
Well, my students packed up their bags and boarded the bus
bright and early (actually, not bright at all, it was still dark out) Friday,
May 16 to head to Njombe. We arrived at the same time as Darryl, my closest
Education volunteer and we worked together to get our kids out to the
conference center. We all got a small tour of the center and had chai as we
waited for the last group of students from Joe’s school to arrive.
After Chai, we did some ice breakers and silly introductions to help us all
relax and become more comfortable with each other. Then it was time for their
pre-survey (we didn’t want to call it a test) during which they wrote their
thoughts about math and science, it’s importance and implementation in
Tanzania, etc.
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| One student hopping like a frog during our ice breaker to introduce himself |
Then we immediately dove into activities and competitions
afterward, starting with Jenga Jengo , which translates to build a building.
Teams were given 2 boxes of matches and a meter of tape to construct a
building. Points were given to the tallest, if the building could withstand a
wind test, and the first to complete. After every construction project,
students must explain why they designed it the way they did.
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| A group of students working on their match tower |
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| Match tower entries |
After a lunch break, we set up stations that focused on the
use of the scientific method. Students were given background information, then
had to formulate hypothesis and finally test their hypothesis. Stations
included guessing your lung capacity, acids and bases, washing your hands,
mixing colors, etc.
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| Testing lung capacity by displacing water using an iv tube and bottle of water |
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| Darryl teaching about acids and bases |
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| Entranced by Science! |
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| the math station |
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| Now, what have we learned? |
After cleaning up the stations and thoroughly destroying any
linen that was unfortunate enough to be put in that conference room, we broke
for dinner. Students had free time to play sports and games, bathe, eat dinner,
and finally wind down by watching a movie.
Day 2
After a not-so-good night’s rest (I feel sorry
for every adult to chaperone a high school trip), we hit the ground running
with some morning math known as 24 Squares in which students must use the 4
numbers given and any series of operations to make an equation that equals 24.
After 24 Squares, we introduced the students to the concept of Sudoku, which
they worked on in their spare time for the rest of the conference.
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| Steve introducing the concept of 24 Squares |
After
tea break, we regrouped for a lesson on buoyancy and density, culminating in an
activity where students were given nothing but straws and foil to construct a
boat with the goal of holding the most weight. Groups first explained the reasoning behind
their construction methods and then tested out their boats.
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| Testing the buoyancy of various items |
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| boat entries |
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| How many nails will it hold? |
The final activity before lunch break was a biology relay
which incorporated 3 lessons. Each member of the team had to bend over and do 5
dizzy-bat spins before running to the other end of the course in bed. This was
a lesson about balance and the fluid inside the semi-circular canal of the ear.
Then each student had to carry a ping-pong ball on a spoon down the course and
back to practice balance and coordination. Finally, once each member of the
group had completed their physical activities, the students had to work
together to place a number of organisms in a logical food chain order. When
they got the order complete, the timer was stopped and the cumulative time of
the team for the team was recorded. The fastest time won.
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| balancing a ping pong ball on a spoon |
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| Madame, is the order correct? |
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| my counterpart fell after spinning with her head down and then trying to run |
After lunch, was an activity called Build It, Do It. Joe put together small items made out of
simple items. The task was for each team to send one representative outside to
study the object and then write instructions on how to build it and what it
looked like. The paper was the only thing allowed back in to the room and the
other 2 members of the team had to use the instructions to try and build what
their team mate saw and wrote about. When time was over, the teams gather back
together and we compared the teams creations with the originals. This was a
practical implementation of the importance of observations.
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| How similar do the toilet paper roll bugs look to the original? |
The next activity was about discovering formulas. There were
3 stations set up, biology, math and chemistry. The students rotated around the
stations and had to discover formulas. In math, they had to use a homemade
geoboard to write formulas to find area and perimeter of shapes. In biology,
they worked on classifying different items/organisms by Artificial and Natural classification
methods, and they in chemistry, they had to organize elements on the periodic
table by only knowing the group and period information.
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| Geoboard made from cardboard, tape and nails being used to teach area and formulas |
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| Learning about period and groups of the Periodic Table of Elements |
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| How many ways can you group the various organisms? |
That remainder of the day was given to the students to work
on their science fair projects. They played some sports and games, ran around,
bathed, ate dinner and we corralled them to bed yet again.
Day 3
Bright and early the next morning we did more morning math,
this time called Four 4’s in which students had to create equations only using
Four number 4s and symbols to make the equations equal 1-10. For example, to
get the answer of 1, the equation may be (4x4) / (4x4) = 1. After our morning
math session, I taught a lesson about nutrition and how to
balance their diet to get all of the vitamins and minerals they need. They were
all able to see that the meals they receive at school are not in the least bit
balanced, so that is a step in the right direction.
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| Teaching about a balanced diet |
It was a nice day, so we decided to do an activity outside.
This was an activity addressing malaria in which the students were split into
two teams with the goal of sticking as many toothpicks into a little cardboard
man on the other side of the course as possible. The difference was, one teams
cardboard man was exposed and the other was under a mosquito net. At the end of
the 2 minutes, there were around 30 mosquito bites (toothpicks) on the exposed
man and none on the man under the net because they all could not reach the man
through the net. We even peaked the interest of workers at the conference center and passerbys, so hopefully they learned something too. This activity then lead into a great discussion about how
malaria is spread, how communities can work together to eradicate it, etc.
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| Malaria demonstration relay |
The next activity was new and wasn’t originally part of the
schedule. Joe thought of it on the spot and named it Aquaduct Assembly, but it
turned out to be incredibly successful and educational! The students were given
random materials and posed with a problem: There is a village and the closest
water supply was a river quite a ways away. They were to construct a device to
transport water 1 meter. They would have 2 minutes to pour water through their
device and the group with the most water at the end would be the winner. Many
groups made a fatal error, forgetting that paper absorbs water and after a few
seconds of contact with water became saturated and collapsed.
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| The winning team explaining how they designed their aquaduct |
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| pictures of the river on the right and the village on the left to help explain the problem and the goal of the activity |
From this point on, teams were given the rest of the night
to wrap up their Sudoku puzzles, additional Four 4’s puzzles and their science fair
projects as they were to present them the next night.
Day 4
As we awake to the last full day of the conference, all of
us teachers realize how utterly exhausted we are, but we muster up the energy
to fight another day. The morning activities included building card towers and
a chemistry matching game which Darryl and his counterpart made up in which
students had to match the cations and anions.
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| matching cations and anions |
The following activity was none other than our favorite game
show: Jeopardy. The students chose from different categories and were then
posed different math related puzzles about sequencing, unscrambling words,
patterns and word problems; the bigger the point value, the more difficult the
question. The students love competition, so they really got into it.
Then was on to the last big competitive event of the
conference: Bridge buider. This was another construction activity, but this
time, it was a little different. The students were given a certain amount of
fake money and had to purchase the materials necessary to build their bridges.
Points were awarded to the teams who could hold the most weight, and additional
points were given for any money that was leftover.
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| bridge construction |
This time, the evening was spent with the students
completing their post-test and then presenting their science fair projects,
almost like an expo. The students were told to create a project, model, poster,
etc that incorporated 1 or more science subjects that they are interested in.
This was probably the highlight of the conference because the students all gave
presentations about their projects and then the other students were able to ask
them questions about it. One group made one of the best circuits I have ever
seen! I was so impressed.
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| The amazing circuit group! also showed how you can use a cut bottle of water as a candle holder if you put a nail in the bottom of the candle to shift the center of gravity |
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| made a pendulum to show potential and kinetic energy |
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| This group made a wind turbine model. It was very functional! |
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| Cell posters as well as a model of an plant cell in a plastic bag for the cell membrane with a balloon inside to represent a large, permanent vacuole. They also included leaves to represent chloroplasts and placed the whole thing in a box to represent the cell wall. |
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| representation of the digestive system |
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| the formation of carbon dioxide using baking soda and vinegar |
Day 5
The final morning was upon us. We were sad to see it end,
but we were all so tired that we were also pretty excited to get some rest.
That morning, the students did their final project, and that was to write thank
you letters to the donors of the grant which allowed us to put the conference
on.
The original plan was then to leave and go back to site in the afternoon, but
Darryl went above and beyond and scheduled us a tour at the milk and cheese
factory of Njombe which just happened to be right down the street. We packed up
our things and headed out. The tour was perfect to tie into the science conference,
because they got to see and try a real life application of titration, centrifuges,
acids and bases, bacteria, etc. They even got a free sample of yogurt when they
left. After the tour, we headed into town and immediately caught busses back to
our villages.
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| And of course we had fun taking pictures the next day! |
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| Group shot of everyone at the conference including PCVs, counterparts and students |
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| Representing MNGSS. I'm so proud of my students |
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| PCV Njombe Science Teachers |
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| Darryl, Steve and I in our sanitary gear to enter the factory |
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| Yes, when you live in TZ, cheese and milk is this exciting! |
The conference was a whirlwind, but I know that I enjoyed
every second of it and so did my students. It was so inspiring to see the
creativity and abilities of these bright students in a setting where they were
encouraged to really use their brains and do hands-on science, the way it’s
meant to be learned. In the Tanzanian system like most education systems now, teachers are so focused on students passing standardized tests, that we forget what it means to really learn. This conference reminded me of the potential that exists in all of my students and it's my job to help them realize it.
