The bridge from the classroom to the real world
If you build it, they will come. Or in my case: if you teach it, they will do it.
Some of my students participated in in the Toshiba/NSTA ExploraVision competition for over 4 year. It’s a challenging and rigorous competition, but the researching, designing, hypothesizing, and innovating students are challenged to do are all things that make science, science. These are lessons I incorporate into my teachings throughout the year.
Lab experiments, for examples are central to the creative process of ExploraVision. While labs are often teacher-directed exercises, their value is in allowing the students to build the skills required to execute the scientific method. Once the students have a strong foundation, we work to grow those skills by adding analysis questions that go beyond the basics and ask students to hypothesize not just current applications of the concepts but future applications and innovation. This allows me to implement a science capstone project in my course that essentially mirrors the ExploraVision competition.
It’s only then after learning those skills do students decide if they want to participate in ExploraVision. It’s not part of the curriculum and there is no stress of a final grade which to me, is key. It allows for creativity and innovation as students are free of the constraints of the classroom and pressure of making a passing grade. This empowers students to come up with ideas of their own they are passionate about without my influence, giving great potential of sparking a lifelong purist.
ExploraVision is not a requirement of my class, but it is rooted in the skills and knowledge that my class has always provided. ExploraVision is simply a manifestation of what science has always been. So, if you teach it, they will do – and get much more out of doing it than they ever thought.
Get involved and register here. There are various benefits by joining a part of NSTA family!
Author: Huy Pham, Westminster High School, Westminster, California
