Friday, July 3, 2009
Museum of ScienceBefore our visit to the Museum of Science, we had a reflective session with a facilitator from the Museum of Science. We were asked to define Science in our context as well as to draw a pictorial representation of Science. To me, Science is a process of exploration of things around us (Why and how things work?). Most of my tuition kids prefer doing Science than Math as their innate curiosity spurs exploration. However, as we grow older, Science has become a subject and most of us doesn't not have the motivation to explore like when we were younger. Especially in Singapore, where "spoon feeding" and "memorising" is rather common to achieve good grades, the natural exploratory process is neglected.
Similar to the Museum of Science is the Singapore Science Centre. There're activity for children to explore different Science concepts-
Ecogarden,
Water Works,
Primary Science Learning Experience,
Our Solar System,
NanoTechnology Exhibition,
Genome,
i-SPACE,
Living with Viruses,
Climate Change,
Mathematics,
Da Vinci The Genius,
Amazing Electron,
Atrium,
Chemistry Exhibition,
Discovery Zone,
Energy,
Human Body,
Kinetic Garden,
Space Science,
The Mind's Eye and
Web of Life.
There is the learning through self-exploratory experiments and the linking of contextual knowledge to self, text and environment, where Piaget's theory is applied- assimilation, accomodation and adaption. Children get to try out experiments on their own and sometimes facilitated by parents (Vygotsky's zone of proximal development).
I especially like the big Playground with in the Museum of Science! The children tried to balance the See-saw, play with the swings while exploring how can they make the swing go higher and they had this baseball cage where children test out the strength they threw the ball and the impact it has on the wall (this is very related to them as Red Sox is the popular baseball team in Boston which has won many championships).
Another section that I like is the Light house, where we explored the lights in the electromagnetic spectrum. The picture in grey was an image protrayed by Infra-radiation. As an adult, I realised that there are so many things to learn! Like I didn't know shadows can be coloured due to coloured light. Also, we played with the human kaleidoscope, which we ourselves have splited images in the picture reflected.
The classification section as well as the sensorial section are quite fun too. In the classification section we learned about characteristics of different snow flakes, beans, leaves and seashells and where they each come from, through playing classification games. At the sensorial section, we played a game called 'show and tell' which we needed to depend on our hearing. Both ger and I sat opposite of each other, in between us was a curtain. One of us needs to give instruction to build something with the blocks. Twice we tried taking turns to be the instuctor, we fail to build the same model! That shows how important our sense sight really is.
It is a fun-filled day for us, adults. I believe children will enjoy this place, where they can learn while having fun. Even in our own classrooms, we can create similar games for children to learn through play as well as experiments where children can try out their hypothesis. Many of these concepts can't be taught verbally. It takes us to learn through experimenting and building an atmosphere where children learn from mistakes and do not give up trying, from which an attitude of life-long learning through perserverance to find answers is nurtured.
Museum of Science