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"No more dead parrot-fashion learning. No more rote
learning by passive pupils. Let us enter the age of Project Based
Learning – and see why the American College of Sofia officially has been
given the title of an “Innovative School”"according to The Sofia Globe staff.
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| Photo: The Sofia Globe staff |
The American College of Sofia follows project based
learning, an effective, dynamic and enjoyable way for pupils to acquire
and retain the knowledge they need.
It’s an approach based on the idea that students
acquire a deeper knowledge through active exploration of real-world
challenges and problems. Let’s translate that into English, or shall we
say, science.
Today we are visiting three classes at the American
College of Sofia’s science department, the grade 11 and 12 chemistry and
physics profiles.
In the well-equipped physics lab, science department
head Krasimira Chakarova and her colleague Vanya Angelova are
interacting with pupils who are working in separate teams to go through a
stage of experiments they are conducting.
The pupils were given their tasks the previous week,
and before beginning the practical stage, had to come up with three
theoretical sources on which to base their experiments.
Here, a laser is being used in an experiment
involving condensation; there, a meniscus optika and at another table, a
team is seeking to establish why it is that clothes go dark when
they’re wet.
That’s the thing about project based learning, PBL to
initiates. Pupils are learning to use the scientific method to answer a
research question, and in the process, also improve their communication
skills by writing a scientific article, giving an oral presentation and
engaging in debate to defend their findings.
In the case of these science experiments, they have
learnt to use the devices, carry out observations, and must keep a
journal to record all of these observations, which will be submitted to
the teacher for discussion and feedback.
This process, of which today’s session is part, began
around the start of the second week of November and will continue to
third week of January, with a final research paper submitted and then
the engagement, in the presentation, with opponents and reviewers.
This would be a good place, by the way, to mention that they rather seem to be enjoying themselves.
