Explain w/ Games
Crafting a practitioner's toolkit for teachers that allows them to introduce concepts in a fun & engaging way to their students. The idea is to leverage the theory of embodiment with practical learnings.
Crafting a practitioner's toolkit for teachers that allows them to introduce concepts in a fun & engaging way to their students. The idea is to leverage the theory of embodiment with practical learnings.
We initiated this project from our studio, Embodied Experiences. We explored the techniques of Embodiment & Somaesthetics to note our findings & understandings for the primary question - "How would we design if we started from our bodies instead of our minds?"
To further explore this budding field of 'Embodied Experiences', we focussed our understanding on the context of Classroom Learning. Our primary goal was to give teachers access to a repository of games that they could have their students play and concepts that they could teach them via using the analogy of the game.... and this percentage counts only the lack of ICT bare-bones, but not the limitations like fluctuating electricity, little-to-no internet, and unavailability of a good Curriculum. All in all, while computer science education has become a necessity in this increasingly tech-driven world, most students in India find themselves devoid of appropriate infrastructure, understanding and fascination towards Information Technology.
Most educational programs still follow traditional teaching methods that separate the mind from the body. These methods don't provide an individualised experience for the students, and don’t consider the fact that not all students learn the same way or are able to keep up in class. Every half-an-hour, students switch to a different subject, open a different textbook and read the next chapter. And at the end of the term, they give an objective exam with standardised testing. From the perspective of a student, who is unable to pay attention to and learn from only text and written information, they find it frustrating to memorize and then write an exam that tests the skill of memorization over understanding.
Ionic bonds occur when electrons are transferred from one atom to another. The bond forms as a result of strong electrostatic forces of attraction between a positively and negatively charged species.
It might happen that one of the team would become so powerful that they just pull the rope & the heat source completely towards them.
In Polar Covalent chemical bonding, electrons are shared unequally since the more electronegative atom pulls the electron pair closer to itself and away from the less electronegative atom.
So if one team is stronger than the other, they will pull the rope with more force towards them. They will share the heat source, though the weaker team would feel less warmth from the source since it is at a greater distance from them.
A nonpolar covalent bond is a covalent bond in which the bonding electrons are shared equally between the two atoms. In a nonpolar covalent bond, the distribution of electrical charge is balanced between the two atoms.
If both the team are equal in power, the source of heat will remain in the middle of the rope. And thus, will give equal warmth on either side.
We revisited our school days and recalled being unable to grasp concepts easily.
We weren’t able to recall things immediately because we were learning so many concepts.
Classroom lessons aren’t built for people who can’t understand through memorization.
Students cannot concentrate because of the teacher-centred classroom, i.e the teacher continues to teach for every period without any major interaction with students.
Our basic concepts aren’t fully clear, because we were more focused on being able to solve the numerical/application questions.
Asking students about the topics they found difficult to understand.
Understanding everyday pain-points of sitting in the classroom environment.
Understand how teachers want to interact with their class, and how they think the activity should be done.
Understand how the activity can be introduced to students and how the teacher should mediate the game.
School Visits
Leverage the idea of familiarity and nostalgia
Refresh our minds so that we know what games are available and can be used as an analogy to concepts
See which concepts are feasible to make a game/activity out of.
Research and go through various websites, videos and articles to brush up on the chosen concept.
Explain the concept according to the game and give specifications for the teacher.
Illustrate, with diagrams, the similarities between the game and the concept to further promote the imagery/analogy.
Create Website & Add Information
Facilitating and trying out the activity with volunteers.
Finding things that didn’t work out to reiterate.
After embodying ourselves into to high school memories, we went to different schools in Yelahanka and talked to students from different grades. This helped us to make a crisp understanding of what motivates (and demotivates) them to “learn something.”
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‘Insight’ has become a horribly misused word, much in the same vein as ‘brand,’ ‘strategy’ and ‘innovation’ have become misused words. Here, we are defining & using Insights as a tool to understand the context to envision the end-state OR as we say, creating 'I wish there was ...' statements.
Textbooks are only textual and don’t necessarily engage the body.
Written examples are useful for some students but not all.
Students get bored and tired from sitting in their seats all day. They can even become antsy.
Students get burnt out from sitting in each class and stop being able to retain the information being taught.
Teachers have to teach unenthusiastic students who are waiting for the day to end.
Teachers also become unenthusiastic about teaching since there’s no discussion with the students.
The fundamental concepts are not fully understood by the students.
Examples become increasingly more complex and unrelatable as the concepts become tougher.
Through this project, we tried to link different games, which we have played in our childhood, or sports which we follow, with some concepts. The idea is to make a practitioner’s toolkit for teachers that allows them to introduce concepts in a fun way to their students. It is based on the fact that students will perform much better when they are fully engaged in a learning activity that activates more than just their sight sense and their mind. They show increased attention, motivation and enthusiasm. As a result, they are more likely to remember and retain information.
To be inclusive of various learning styles; visual, auditory, kinesthetics.
To encourage teamwork and discussion.
To inculcate an enthusiastic interest in the subject.
Since 'Embodied Learning' is still a budding field, we look at our future outcome as a research paper that could be referenced by fellow enthusiasts. Therefore, our next step should be to back this experiment with strong research & testing. Unfortunately, due to limited studio tenure & COVID-19 rules and restrictions, my team couldn't reach out to schools to test our intervention. To keep the project alive & for the best use of time, we are working on to create a website with structured information that includes a “Framework” that the teacher could use to introduce a concept into the class, based on what suits them and their school environment. This website, as we share among facilitators, would help us to get feedback & recommendations that would help us to continue the research.
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