Learn Through Application with Science Kits
With the advent of the 21-st century has come the realisation that the traditional methods of learning such as board and chalk are rather insufficient in equipping the children with the knowledge necessary for traversing this complex and competitive world. While classroom teaching is important, real-world knowledge that is gained through practical experiences hold a lot of importance in the growth and development of the child.
Current teaching-learning methods in the classroom are largely restricted to the one-sided flow of information which in many cases becomes boring and even complex for the students to grasp. Such methods of learning often create a disconnect between what the child has learnt and the real-world applications of it. Understanding a theory or a concept is not the same as being able to apply it in one’s daily life. This is something that a lot of teachers forget to put their emphasis on.
What is Science Kit?
A science kit is an educational tool that can act as a supplement to the traditional science classroom. You can think of it as a mini science lab of sorts that would aid in the holistic development of the student through a hands-on approach. These kits come with various materials, lab equipment, manuals etc. that would help the student learn and explore science by themselves.
Advantages of Science Kits
- Allows much better understanding of the concepts for the students
- It is an experimental form of learning, and the students work through trial and error, learning through their mistakes.
- Ensures that learning is not boring and monotonous.
- Ensures better retention of concepts in the student’s mind.
- Creates lifelong learners by sparking the spirit of inquiry in children and making them want to learn more and explore.
- Improves a child’s manual dexterity and helps them develop a keen eye for detail.
- Makes sure that learning is not merely restricted to the classroom, and that students can even perform the activities in the comfort of their homes.
With the recognition that children need to be engaged in the learning process, Next Education has created the Next Explorer Science Kits to foster the innate curiosity of the child. Learning through a hands-on model is a fool-proof method that guarantees the clarity of the concept to the child. What might take a child ten times of revision would be etched in their minds through one single demonstration.
The science experiment kit for each grade has been created keeping in mind the unique needs of the child at every stage of their brain development. Each kit comes along with 10+ activities with at least 4-5 interlinking concepts which would make the real-life connect easier. Such a method, crafted specially to ensure that important skills such as experimentation, observation, problem-solving, language development and risk mitigation are inculcated in the child, also guarantees increased engagement and retention.
In addition, each science kit also comes with a product key that will unlock exclusive activity videos available on the NextCurriculum mobile app (Google Playstore) to help the children further learn through visualisation.
Science Kit (Class 3)
Science Explorer (Grade 3) is a science kit for students (8 years old) in the third grade. It consists of activity materials and an instruction manual detailing step-by-step procedures for executing different activities. Besides, it has a list of exploratory questions, knowledge nuggets, fun zones and looks around for each activity.
The activities include:
Internal Organs: The activity helps the child to distinguish the various parts of our body, differentiate between internal and external organs and also to understand the functions of the various body parts.
The kit provides a cardboard cut-out of the human body, on which the child can place the organs in their correct positions with the help of their teacher or the instruction manual or the videos. Seeing the body parts by themselves and learning their position and function ensures that the child learns the concept with greater ease.
The section also includes fun activities where the kids are encouraged to make their own cut-outs and clay models of the internal organs.
Family Tree: The activity helps the child to understand the concepts of family, lineage etc. and make their own family. Children are asked to bring photographs of their family members to the class. The kit includes cardboard cutouts which can be put together into a tree. With the help of connectors, the student can construct their family tree, with the photographs pasted on the various leaves.
Find your Way: The activity helps the students to understand maps, locations and directions better. It teaches the child how to use a compass. With the help of the various maps provided in the kit, the students will learn more about navigation and various locations. Putting the compass next to various objects will let the student see what direction an object is located in relation to another object or person.
The activity also encourages the students to create a man of their own locality and their own compass with the help of parents or teachers.
Fabric Designing: The activity will help the children to design patterns on a given piece of cloth by using various techniques like block printing, chikankari, tie and dye etc. It also helps the students understand how the fabrics are coloured using natural and synthetic dyes.
The activity also encourages the child to look around themselves and discover various natural elements that can be used as dyes. With the help of their parents or teachers, they can also design their fabrics with these natural dyes to show it to the class.
Handpump: In this activity, the students will learn how to create a hand pump as well as learn about its functioning. The activity helps demonstrate a science concept to the child while also emphasising the need to save and conserve water.
Fun with Birds: The activity helps the students identify different parts of a bird’s body and the various types of wings and beaks. It also helps the students understand the movement of a bird’s wings in flight
The activity also encourages the child to look around and identify various birds and even make a bird’s nest by themselves.
Through generating enthusiasm and interest in science, the Next Explorer Kits work towards making science fun and enjoyable, rather than scary and difficult. With the help of our detailed manuals, the students can easily build the various models, learning by themselves. In addition, the instruction videos available on the Next Curriculum app also ensures that the students will always have visual aids to always assist them in case of roadblocks.
With the changing times, the methods of learning and teaching also need to change and adapt. The advent of teaching assistance tools such as science experiment kits also makes the life of a teacher and parent easy. With the aid of the equipment in the kit, the teacher can easily demonstrate the concept in class, saving her the time and energy wasted in delivering monotonous lectures that do not guarantee a complete understanding of the concept to the listener.
