my student and i are very happy to share news of a contribution we have made in response to an invitation from Professor Liu Woon Chia. we were thrilled when she invited us in November 2021 to contribute a chapter to Developing Future-ready Learners for a Global Age: Pedagogical Innovations in Singapore which she has co-edited with Associate Professors Suzanne Choo and Chua Bee Leng.
the abstract of our chapter reads:
In the Singapore-Cambridge General Certificate of Education Ordinary Level (SCGCE O-Level) Science and Physics syllabus, Dynamics is a required topic to be read by students. In a bid to pique students’ interest on this topic, an activity involving Lego Mindstorms® has been developed to introduce the topic in a more hands-on and novel way. Students will be able to witness for themselves the effects of forces (provided by the Lego Mindstorms®) on objects.
This activity has been conducted with six Secondary 2 students from a local secondary school. The lesson was video recorded, researchers’ field notes were collected, and a post-lesson interview was conducted with the subject teacher and the students. The data gathered was analysed to assess the effectiveness of the activity in inciting students’ interests in the topic of Dynamics.
The findings suggest that integrating tangible, technology-augmented activities like this one into classroom practice can enhance student engagement and interest in the topic of the lesson. Due to the small sample size and limited scope of this study, further research is recommended to validate and generalise these findings.
