Science Week

After three weeks of holidays, Term Three began for us with our Science Week. It was a crazy, chaotic week that ended with a very successful Science Fair and some Very Proud teachers! We gave every student a project that consisted of an experiment they had to publish and present at the end of the week. 

Not coincidentally, we were also visited by a group of students and teachers from a school in Canada. The group is connected with a Rotary Club in Canada that is hoping to invest in and support the construction of a larger and more permanent school at Refilwe (at the moment we hold classes in modified house!). They were a great help with assisting our students with their projects.

Instead of normal classes, we focussed only on science experiments all week, with our main aim to teach the students the vocabulary and process of the Scientific Method. After every one of us made the students recite "aim, hypothesis, apparatus, method, observations, conclusion" at the beginning, middle and end of every class you can be sure they learned it! We often find with our students that learning and repeating technical English vocabulary can be challenging (one student called experiments 'experiences' all week- so by Friday we were all getting mixed up and saying the wrong word!) so have to concentrate on making sure the terminology is understood before starting on complicated concepts.

As I said, our Fair on Friday was a big success! All of the students worked very hard (some were even knocking on my front door at 7.45am on Friday morning asking me to hurry up and get to school so they could work on their finishing touches!) and produced excellent work! Everyone learned something new in the process of their experiments, from how aeroplanes are able to take off to how hydroelectric power is produced to how sound waves move. We all had so much fun and it was a great way to begin the term. Next week we begin our normal time table again, hopefully with as much energy as we produced this week!.