Part 2 - West Papuan Mount Zaagham School Project: 2017
Effective development initiatives have legacy - longer term impact. Form the Papuan project with Mount Zaagham School (MZS) - the PTA wanted a lot of enrichment activities. The Students were at a very good school, and we had great support from the PTA and school leadership. So we set an ambitious goal - To make the world's most remote mini science centre ( that I know of) in about 6 hrs. I coined the name "Science Oasis". If successful, the mini centre, the collection of basic exhibits would remain, as a small retreat, rich in self directed learning. And of course, every Science Nomad journeys from Oasis to Oasis.
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| Some basic material sourced in the community (thanks Katherine) to feed into the Science Oasis project. |
When we originally scoped this part of the project with the PTA, I thought we have a few hours of after school program time each day. The older primary school students would assist in making the exhibits from local materials, and few from parts I brought in on the chopper. I also wanted this to be THEIR oasis. So, after sharing the exhibit with them, explaining and teasing out some of the principles - I left it to them to draft, design and produce the graphic panels....the interpretive elements to help support the use of the exhibits.
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| The girls spent 3 days on the paint work - and were so proud. |
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| The staff - being briefed BY the students on what they had done. |
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| The Students stepping naturally into the role of explainer and educator. |
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| Parents, trying, and trying again. |
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| Humble materials - powerful experiences. |
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| Exhibits and graphic panels all in use.. and queues forming. |
Plans - being what they are - are what you depart from.. The couple of hours after school during the week, became about 40 min each day- the timetable and pickups being what they were. The BIG IDEA was to have as many exhibits produced and explained by the students as we could.. and to wrap up the whole week of Science Nomad engagement - we would set the exhibits up in the library, and invite all students young and old, there families and the community in.
Monday afternoon was MZS teacher PD, so we didn't even get started until Tuesday after school. So By Friday morning.. we had just had 2 hours of exhibit making .. The students were very keen to be involved, and had been all week. Some students - gravitated to the graphic design side of things, others wanted to know when they could use the jigsaw ( yeah as if).. but all were busy.. getting briefed, rushing off to find a classroom to play music while they did the work. ( free choice learning for this age is a multi tasked kind of thing ).
By Friday afternoon, it became clearer to them .. the scale and significance of the project - the community exposure of the work - and we collectively agreed to swap out the last structured session to give us all more time to work up the exhibits. Their previous interest shifted gear to smiling frenzy - graphic panels were getting illustrated at tables all over the place. One group of girls ( clearly more inclined to art than hand saws) reappeared, having gone off the radar for an hour.. with the biggest Science Oasis sign to flag the area ( pictured above).
While it is true that I did some little preparation before hand, and spent a few extra hours after school with a jigsaw, and cutting PVC pipe for the harmonograph - the team, OUR TEAM did end up with over 20 great interactive exhibits, make from scratch - with graphic panels, in less than 6 hours.
On time near 6 pm ( and well under budget) we opened the oasis. The teachers, the oasis teams parents and siblings and the PTA, and members from the community stated to trickle in. The trickle soon became a torrent. The students were stretched,, staffing their exhibits, explaining the how, the what the why. All were great - some were natural science communicators. Parents from the State school next door, asked if they could have one.. I hope they have seen that they can have one, and they can make it themselves.
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| For 3 hours the place buzzed - kids stepping up to their roles, being proud, and effective. |
I have other projects coming on line for 2018. and these have heard of the Science Oasis, and have requests for this to happen again. I expect it will.
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