Mr. Harmon Returns from One Place to Another
Mobile Science Lab and the Future of Science Education
February 13, 2010
Originally published at AshokaTech.
As an interesting complement to yesterday's Youth Venture presentations, attendants got a unique opportunity to see Ashoka-Lemelson fellow Ramji Raghavan's Mobile Science Lab in action. The Mobile Science Lab is a traveling science classroom that has reached over 700,000 children in India.
Students from a local school joined us and demonstrated Ramji's experiments. I was impressed with the kids' understanding of complicated concepts as well their ability to discuss and think about scientific issues rather than recite a script. The experiments covered a wide range of topics: centripetal force, magnetism, cell structure, astronomy, and much more. Without naming names, I'll say I saw a few people try to crack the kids by asking them hard and/or stupid questions, but nothing would faze them.
This morning at a panel discussion on cultivating the next generation of scientists through education, Ramji explained the ideas behind the Mobile Science Lab. He said that humans remember 5% of what they read, 50% of what they hear, 70% of what they discuss, 80% of what they experience (particularly if it's an emotional experience, positive or negative), and 95% of what they teach others. The Mobile Science Lab's priorities are arranged to mirror those statistics. The curriculum is based on empowering students through experience to teach science to other students, and even to teachers.
Similarly, Ramji's process for training teachers is based on a learn-by-teaching model. He said that when teachers are in the training program, they'll learn in the morning and then teach the same subjects they learned in the afternoon. Ramji stressed that for engaging with children, someone with energy and excitement about teaching is infinitely more valuable than a degree in science. "We require a B.E.E degree," he said. "A bachelor of electrical enthusiasm."
Ramji also insisted that for a change in scientific curriculum to have any lasting impact, it must have government support. The best way to receive government support, he said, is to stir a lot of enthusiasm in the community. He told a story of one tour he'd made with the Mobile Science Lab that reached a few thousand children. "But the tour generated a lot of excitement in the region. Students told other students about it, teachers told their administrators about it, and eventually we got a call from the state office asking how they could add this sort of program to their curriculum."
