contributed by Mr Keith Giacomotto, Class 6.2
During Science lessons, our boys are given the opportunity to carry out their own investigations and to come up with their own ideas and conclusions. When presenting the topic of ‘Matter’ we asked two questions. The first one was, “Is air matter?” We provided the boys with a box and a balloon and they had to use the given resources to answer the question. Subsequently, the boys where asked the 2nd question: “Does air have weight?” Again, the boys used the given materials to carry out a simple investigation in order to answer the second question. These exciting and lively sessions should help us realise that our roles as educators should be to assist the students in reaching their own conclusions, which will ultimately lead to meaningful learning. As Mark Van Doren accurately puts it, “The art of teaching is the art of assisting discovery.”
