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Making the best of out-of-classroom time to supplement learning
Learning in times of a pandemic is a challenge for students and educators alike. Online learning has made effective teaching and engaging students more difficult than ever before. As a school that values holistic development of their students, Catholic Mission School is keen on providing its students with resources that enhance their learning experience. In times where face-to-face learning was impossible, the school decided to partner with Big Bang Academy to give students hands-on learning experiences even while they were remote. With our hybrid science-learning solution, Big Bang Lab, students conducted experiments at home without the needs of a lab.
💻 Virtual STEAM Day
We held an online STEM day for the school in the midst of the pandemic. We designed powerpoints and lesson plans and delivered experiments straight to students’ homes. Teachers were able to teach seamlessly without much preparation.
We catered to different grade levels with a variety of topics:
P.1 students learnt about the science of light and created optical illusions,
P.2 students learnt about states of matter and made oobleck, and
P.4 students learnt about conductors and insulators and built circuits of their own.
We focus our lessons around hands-on experiments because they challenge students to think independently and solve any problems they may encounter — doing so allows them to gain a deeper understanding of the science topics at hand.
Teachers also used Big Bang Lab, our online science video platform, to teach during the lessons. Animated educational content is able to capture students' attention well, especially through zoom.
Students also refreshed their memories after the lesson with Big Bang Lab’s exciting video adventures, interactive games and experiment videos!
🎓 Hybrid Learning Effectiveness
After the success of the STEM day, Catholic Mission School looked to further collaboration. As a school that valued evidence-based learning, they wanted to make sure that Big Bang STEAM aligned with their educational objectives
As a pilot to integrate Big Bang STEAM to their curriculum, we tasked a group of students to complete a range of topics (such as human body, electricity, amazonian ecology) on Big Bang Lab over the summer holiday.
Working with Cambridge researchers, we looked to systematically evaluate Big Bang Lab’s effectiveness. Students had taken tests before the summer holiday and after to compare their attitudes towards science, scientific thinking skills and knowledge before and after summer.*
We also provided them with the respective materials to complete hands-on experiments guided by Big Bang Lab, so students wouldn’t incur any extra costs.
With the help of Big Bang Lab, students never stopped learning throughout the long summer holiday. The science knowledge they learnt equipped them to make a smooth transition into the grade above.
*The full research is aimed to be published by the second quarter of 2022.
🧪Big Bang Lab in the classroom
Many teachers appreciated how Big Bang Academy acted as a one-stop STEAM education provider. Our comprehensive science curriculum covers much of the natural sciences, and our prepackaged teaching resources (from powerpoints to experiment materials) saved teachers a great deal of preparation time
Moreover, Big Bang Lab as an online platform gives students new ways of learning science in the classroom.
Teachers at Catholic Mission School can use Big Bang Lab to conduct flipped classrooms — an innovative teaching approach where students will learn at home through Big Bang Lab, and discuss what they’ve learnt in class.
This approach lets students engage in active discussion with their peers and lets teachers conduct meaningful learning activities instead of having to lecture during precious class time.
After our successful collaboration on both the virtual STEAM day and research, Catholic Mission School has fully committed to our hybrid science-learning solution.
We are proud to provide all 500+ Catholic Mission School students with a subscription to Big Bang Lab along with its experiment materials for the 2021-22 school year.
With a shared vision, both Big Bang Academy and Catholic Mission School continue to work and provide students with the best science learning experience possible.
👍 Key Highlights
Written By
Maison Li
Maison is a content writer at Big Bang Academy. An avid proponent of educational innovations, Maison strives to showcase the latest science learning solutions to the world.