Remote Learning - Reflections
Looking into the small lab
Isolated at home, we all showed creativity and flexibility with the random ingredients found at the back of the fridge or pantry over the past months. I’ve found myself doing a lot of experimentation, trying out new ingredients because my mainstays were unavailable.
I feel much the same way with regard to the shift to online learning. My mainstays of wandering around, gesticulating wildly and doing elaborate experiments with bunsen burners were, of course, not available to me during this lockdown. I’ve found myself developing my technological skills further, such as using a range of video creation and editing tools, and finding new platforms like Google Science Journal (which turns the sensors on your phone into data loggers) to complete at-home experiments.
I’ve also learnt that sometimes I need to take a step back from the screen. I can’t spend eight hours a day working on the computer and then relax by playing a video game. That way lies very dry eyes and a headache! I’ve started to read books more regularly, and am crocheting what will be a rather intricate jumper.
With that in mind, I’ve tried to integrate non-screen based activities for the students such as photographing organisms to go into a food chain, in Year 7 Science, or using dissolvable aspirin at different temperatures to demonstrate rates of reaction, in Year 11 Chemistry.
By the way, my back of the fridge recipe - fried wild rice with bacon, tinned champignons, freezer edamame and kimchi - was most excellent!
Constraints can breed creativity, so long as we see it as an opportunity, rather than a limitation.
Amy Byrne
Teacher of Science & Chemistry