Our audience consisted of children ages 6 to 11, so our focus is to create simple learning outcomes suitable for beginner students. Our team comprises members with backgrounds in information systems, mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and physics. We all have a solid foundation in physics, a required course for each of us, and collectively decided that Newton's Laws of Motion are among the most basic yet important scientific concepts.
Our team utilized the 5E Inquiry-Based Instructional Model (Engage, Explore, Explain, Elaborate, and Evaluate) into our lecture and presentation as a way to help us better interact with our students.
Towards the end of the workshop, each group presented their final project. Based solely on the presentations, two out of the three groups were able to completely finish the project and showcase a great understanding of Newton's Laws of Motion. One group was unable to complete the project within the given 1-hour mark.
However, the class was given a short exit quiz before leaving the workshop to double-check their understanding. The quiz contained 5 questions with a variety of true or false, multiple-choice, and fill-in-the-blank questions. As a result, 73% of the class were able to score a perfect 100. Only two students showed a lack of understanding with a score of 2/5. Therefore, the workshop was a success in helping elementary students retain knowledge of Newton's Laws of Motion.
This workshop was only held for one day; therefore, much of the material I covered was brief. However, this workshop helped future staff implement more effective ways to interact with our students. Another optional survey was sent to the students and parents to fill out to gauge the likeness of this style of teaching. We received overwhelmingly positive feedback and were told that many students enjoyed interacting through multimedia. This suggests that for future reference, we can incorporate more hands-on and sensory activities to engage with our class.
