Connect the Learning to Their World #30GoalsEdu

Goal 25: Connect the Learning to Their World of The 30 Goals Challenge for Educators! Click the link to find out more about the 30 Goals Challenge for Educators!

“When you teach a child something you take away forever his chance of discovering it for himself.” ~ Jean Piaget

One of my first teaching internships was at a hands-on science museum. My job entailed designing tasks, lesson plans, and activities that would help individuals tie the difficult science concepts into their real world experiences. For example, when teaching about density and bouyancy, my students enjoyed doing the Sink and Float activity. Each student would get various objects and drop them into a large clear, bowl of water to see if they sank or floated. Students would first list objects they were going to test and make predictions according to the object’s weight, mass, material, etc. After the activity, we would discuss the importance of learning the material by students sharing experiences and everyday examples.
There are various ways I could have taught these difficult concepts. I could have had my students read about these concepts in a book, showed them a video, or let them study a diagram. Preparing those lessons is much easier as well as the clean-up. However, the students would have never experienced the concepts first-hand or been able to test the knowledge or draw their own conclusions. They wouldn’t have been able to make predictions and experiment. Teaching from a book or lecturing will never result in experiential learning, because with these instructional methods the answers and knowledge are already laid out for our learners. Our learners are forced to accept it and memorize it to pass tests. Connections are made when learners are able to test, question, play, observe, create and experiment.

Goal

Short-term– Take one lesson that is primarily taught using the textbook or by lecturing and have your students instead do tasks in which they connect the learning to their real-world experiences.

Long-term– Throughout the year, begin to find more ways of getting your students to participate in real-world learning.

Resources

The following resources will help you find and create hands-on lesson plans.

Important News

Challenge:

Help your students connect their learning to their real world experiences.

Did you reflect on this goal? Please leave a comment that you accomplished this goal by either posting your own video reflection on Youtube, using the hashtag #30GoalsEdu, posting on the 30 Goals Facebook group, adding a post to the GooglePlus page, or adding a comment below!

Be inspired with these Inspirational songs, videos, quotes, and more on my Pinterest board, Inspiration for World Changers!

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