Launching of a new relationship!!

Being the new kid on the block has its upside and downside…there are no familiar faces, so making friends will take time, but then we can also look forward to the many adventures that lay before us!! As we find our feet at Stable Bow, we get to see some truly maverick educators who are ready to push the envelope to ensure children are being provoked to question, to push boundaries of creativity and to innovate.For us at stable bow, our prime objective has always been to spark an interest in science through physics as it is something that is around us in everyday life.

Legacy school has been one such mavericks, having established our credentials they were quick extend a warm welcome to us. Our first pitch to the high school coordinator/head of science department and her staff was indeed a productive interaction where both parties were quickly able to align on the problem we were trying to address. Setting up time with the children for our first session, finalising what we would cover in that session, all discussed in detail and closed out. We were ready for our session with the grade eight students.

Handing over chart paper, balloons, straws, candy and masking tape we posed the children with a challenge, to create a moving vehicle. Concept of simple machines was something they had been taught, but using the candies as wheels and straw as axle, application of theory was bringing the concept alive for the children!

The children’s creativity was sparked by hints we gave along the way. Getting them comfortable with working with their hands, tinkering were aspects the children had never really explored and one child said “I don’t even like physics but I am enjoying this”. Models developed revealed the level of detail that each group pushed themselves to reach.

Design thinking process of creating empathy meant the children got to share some powerful stories from the movie clip we showed, their storytelling skills being ignited as they got under the skin of the characters. The ensuing design and prototyping phase involved them breaking up into teams, collaborating to create rockets & launchers, from the materials we provided them.

“Education is not about filling the pot, but lighting the fire underneath”.

WB Yeats

We are confident that a spark has been lit in the minds of the students at legacy and the teachers will continue to nurture and fan the flames of inquisitiveness as to the marvel of science in everyday things around us.