Hovercrafts for Education
I was recently on Twitter and came across videos of science classes that were racing hovercrafts as part of their lessons. It reminded me of my daughter’s third grade class. Students were divided into small groups and taught how to design a robot. They then got to build the robot and the student groups raced them the last week of school. This was genius! Not only did the children learn about robotics but they had to work as a team and build something.
After seeing the Twitter post (https://twitter.com/i/moments/870028310469763072), I went and looked up more information about students building hovercrafts. I came across a short article in Popular Mechanics. (http://www.popularmechanics.com/home/how-to/a4626/4254866/) It is great that a well-known magazine would talk about something (like teaching technology students how to build hovercraft) and a few years later schools from all over are replicating it. Sometimes, we learn better by doing.
In some parts of world action is still how students learn the majority of their knowledge. In industrial countries that call to action in the classroom is a key to innovation. Rather than learn about coding software through a book or someone yelling to a student, students can get on a computer and code. The difference between these two methods is the first is teacher-centered learning and the second is student-centered. This visual (https://twitter.com/paulscurtis/status/390188798618771456/photo/1) by Paul Curtis (https://twitter.com/paulscurtis) offers a better explanation.
Who knows if by participating in this learning activity, a future designer for Toyota, Ford or Mercedes? Who knows if participating in designing or building a hovercraft or robot is going to spark excitement that lasts a student’s lifetime? Who knows if by participating in this learning activity, a future designer for Toyota, Ford or Mercedes? Previous Global Learn Day presenter, Dr. Terrence R. Redding, shared his thoughts about this when talking about “The First Moment of Lasting Excitement”. You can learn more about that here!
This is more of what Global Learn Day celebrates! Education opens doors, it excites us and helps us learn who we are and where we belong. Education builds a bridge to a better future. Across the globe, we are a learning people. We share our previous experiences and hopefully, we learn from them. Education, and our thirst for knowledge, is what helps us to unite and become “One People, One Planet”.