Hands-on activities for: Biology, Chemistry & Science

Multipurpose SCIENCE TEACHING KIT

By Elsie Sharon Giluk SMK Bandaraya Kota Kinabalu, 88450 Kota Kinabalu, Sabah

PERTANDINGAN GURU INOVATIF KEMENTERIAN PELAJARAN MALAYSIA 1. KATEGORI PERTANDINGAN/CATEGORY INDIVIDUAL/ INDIVIDU SEKOLAH MENENGAH 2. TAJUK/TEMA INOVASI/ INNOVATION THEME:

3. SYNOPSIS

This Multipurpose Science Teaching Kit provides hands on activity to help students understand better the different important concepts in Sciences subject such as Chemistry, Core Science and Biology. hands-on (h ndz n , -n )
adj.

Involving active participation; applied, as opposed to theoretical:

"We're involved in hands-on operations, pulling levers, pushing buttons" (Arthur R. Taylor).

the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved

In order to excel in exam the students must be able to elaborate on certain difficult topics in Biology, Chemistry and Core Science. Using power point presentation and simulation plays a major part in making the students understand topics in these subjects. For the students to be able to elaborate and do well in exam especially in answering essay questions the students need to remember and know the sequence of certain processes.

The current activity suggested in the Biology, Chemistry and Core Science practical book uses pictures, slides and diagrams.

This multipurpose teaching kit is very economical and fun to use. It is usable for teaching important processes found in all the three subjects. Using this teaching kit also improve students ability to retain memory.

4. TARGETTED GROUPS Students who are taking Biology , Chemistry and Core Science subjects. 5. BACKGROUND Through constant sharing among Science teachers I found out that we face a common problem at explaining the concept or processes like mitosis, meiosis, vulcanization, structural formula of chemical molecules and etc. Most of the time a teacher will use teaching courseware prepared by Ministry of Education or pictorial diagram to teach these topics. To test the effectiveness of the innovation I chose 4 Blossom and 5 Gardenia 2011. Their visualizing ability is limited. If T & L is confined to diagrammatic illustrations without hands on activity they cannot understand the concept. 6. BEFORE INNOVATON In chapter 5 of Biology form 4 and chapter 3 of Core Science form 4, the process of Mitosis and Meiosis are considered as two very important topics. Teachers usually use teaching courseware and diagrammatic illustrations to explain these topics. The weakness of this method is there is no hands-on activity for the students. To allow students to have hands-on activity on this topic I prepared activity using plastecine. In this activity the students worked in group to mould the plastecine according to the different phases. This is a very useful activity and it helped the students remember the processes better. Besides that I also asked the students to draw diagrams or pictures by providing them with manila card or drawing block and colored pencils. 7. PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

7.1 Once moulded and labelled the plastecine are not usable anymore because then it consist of a mixture of colors. The plastecine also becomes smelly and oily after sometime so using plastecine is

not economical because we have to purchase a different set for the next group of students. Certain types of plastecine sticks on the table and this is not hygenic.

7.2 Drawing diagram is time consuming and not cost effctive. Once drawn on a manila card and colored it will be very hard to do any corrections. A replay of the process is impossible unless the students start with an entirely new sets of material, so this is a waste of school resources.

7.3

Weak students have low visualizing ability. When the students have difficulty understanding a concept, ripple effects as below will happen: - not paying attention - Talking - escaping from class - other non cooperative behaviours

8. OBJECTIVE OF THE INNOVATION To Students:To help students understand thedifferent concept and processes in Biology, Chemistry and Core Science using common applicable and fun material

To Teachers : - To provide a creative and interesting Teaching and Learning environment - To encourage participation of students in the T & L Process (Fun In Learning) To School: - To reduce unnecessary spending on the purchase of materials for making teaching aids.

9. TABLE OF PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION No 1 Dates 2/2/2011 Activities - Identifying the problems and topics - Reflection T & L is done using the suggested activity in the biology , Core science practical book at page 26-28 Discussion based on the sets of questions in page 28

4.2.2011

9.2.2011

T & L is done using Teaching KIT Discussion (as shown in the Diagrams)

INNOVATION DONE 10.1 Materials used Different colours of wisdom wheel block