Science at Sand Creek Secondary

– How one teacher’s efforts are making a difference

Of the 68 students at the Sand Creek Secondary School in Region Nine, 50 have opted to pursue the Science stream, thanks to the diligent efforts of the only trained Science teacher there who has been trying to make the subjects less boring and more fun with the help of very innovative ideas.

But the students there have not always been into Science. In fact, teachers were barely seeing a 40 percent pass rate until Teacher Abigail Buckley decided that she would undergo training to be of more help to the students. And help she did, as the school has now been having over 90 percent passes in Integrated Science.

“Since the school was established, we have been struggling in the Science area. We had no trained teacher, so mostly we relied on our Project Trust volunteers to help us in the Science Department. That is one of the reasons that drove me to train as a Science teacher,” Buckley told Pepperpot Magazine in an interview a few days ago.

With Science undoubtedly being a tough subject to teach, requiring much more than the ‘chalk and talk’ approach, Buckley and the other teachers at Sand Creek set out on a mission to make Science more appealing to the students.

As part of quarterly events in the Science Department, the teachers recently organised a Science fair with the theme, “Promoting the use of ICT [Information and Communications Technology] and Innovative teaching methods in Science.”

The word “innovative” in the chosen theme bears much significance as the teachers and students at Sand Creek often have to make do with whatever materials they can find to teach essential concepts that would’ve best been accomplished with the proper apparatus.

“We do not have the equipment needed to conduct experiments. This puts us at a disadvantage. A proper lab was built here at the school, but even so, it’s been a real challenge to us because we now have to think of other ways and means of getting chemicals, equipment; inventing our own, so that the students can understand the concepts we’re teaching them,” Buckley explained. This especially becomes challenging when the students would need to get their SBAs done since a lot of practical work is involved.

Despite the challenges and shortcomings, though, Buckley and the other teachers have not given up on their efforts to help the children. “Our school results have motivated us to continue working and have shown us that we can excel just as any other secondary school,” she expressed.

The Science fair that was recently held effectively complemented the efforts of the teachers to get the attention of students. “We tried as much as possible to use demonstrations and experiments, games and ICT in the classroom to get them interested. We wanted to see how the students would have responded to some of the attractive models we created at the fair. We’re using it as a learning experience. We now know what our students are interested in and what they respond best to,” Buckley shared.

The fair’s main focus was to help the students view Science as an interesting subject and one worth pursuing. “The work that we presented at the fair was using innovative materials. Everyone who came was impressed and left that day learning something.”

Trained Teachers

Since her return to the region after completing her studies, Buckley has noted that there has been significant improvement where the sciences are concerned. It seems that the children are just ready to embrace the field if they’d just be given the help that they need.

Sand Creek Secondary has only been managing to offer Human and Social Biology (HSB) and Integrated Science. But with more students now interested, more Science subjects will be added.

“I have another colleague at CPCE (Cyril Potter College of Education) who is training for Science and as soon as she’s done, we will go fully into offering Chemistry, Biology and Physics. The two of us I think can handle the sciences here,” Buckley offered.

Even as other teachers are willing to help, they simply do not have the required training. “Lack of trained teachers is a major challenge across the entire region,” Buckley pointed out, with St. Ignatius having just two, Annai having one and Aishalton with one also.

“As the only trained teacher here, I try as much as possible to share my knowledge and it has really been working,” Buckley said.

source:https://guyanachronicle.com/