FGD on Elementary Science

  SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS

a.   Eight (8) students were randomly selected among the Grade 6 students of St. Michael Academy in Meycauayan, Bulacan. I was only able to gather their first names due to time constraint as I was only allowed to talk with the students during their afternoon recess.  Students Were randomly chosen by their Class Adviser. They were Christian, Milca, Charmaine, Anna, Sophia, Rachel, Vince and Carmina.

b.     The students were led to a room and were asked to take their seats prior to starting the FGD.

II.           INTRODUCTION

a.     I introduced myself and they in turn briefly introduced themselves.

b.     I told them that for a period of 20 minutes, we will be talking about Math and Science and that I was hoping everybody could actively and honestly participate.

III.         FOCUSED GROUP DISCUSSION

The following are the questions I asked and the answers I gathered:

a.   Who among you like Science? – Seven (7) of them raised their hands. Milca and Anna answered that Science offers more practical things which they can apply in their everyday life as compared to Math. Only Christian said that he doesn’t like Science because of the difficult questions that their teacher asks them in class.

b.    Who among you like Math? – Only four (4) of them raised their hands.  

c.    What should their teacher do to make Science more interesting for them? - Charmaine thinks that the way a teacher teaches Science is crucial to liking & learning Science. If their teacher’s voice is loud, it will call the students’ attention to actively participate more. Otherwise, the subject becomes boring and the students oftentimes lose interest. Sophia also suggested that it would be better if they have activities to do which are related to the topic at hand so that it will be easier for them to remember what they need to learn. The rest of the students agreed. However, Christian proposed if essays could be eliminated or at least lessened since he doesn’t quite understand some of the difficult questions given by their teacher sometimes.

d.    What should their teacher do to make Math more interesting for them? - For Math teachers, they think it’s important that the process of computation  be explained thoroughly and if possible, present practical applications as well so they wouldn’t be left confused and struggling for better understanding.

e.    Would you rather have essays or identification exercises in your Science subject?  - Four of them preferred essays, three preferred identification and one prefers either.

f.    Can you give me an example of activity you remember doing in your science class. – One of them mentioned about watching the movie “THE CORE” as a demonstration of the earth’s parts. They mentioned that having visual presentation helps a lot since they got very engaged in the movie resulting in storage of facts in their long-term memory. It became easier for them to visualize the earth’s parts (crust, mantle and core) while also learning other important facts about electromagnetism which was also tackled in the movie.

g.   Which do you prefer: assignments to be done at home or class activities? - All of them preferred classroom activities rather than assignments to be done at home so that their work could be immediately checked and cheating (like use of calculator for Math homework) could be eliminated.

h.   Which do you like better, Math or Science? – 7 students out of 8 prefer Science over Math.

SUMMARY

Based on what I gathered from the eight students that I have

talked to, most of them like the subject Science. Generally, they like it better than Math and any other subjects they have because they learn more practical things from it which they could easily apply in their young lives. It also helps that their teacher in this particular subject is very candid and lively every time she teaches their lessons. And sometimes, audio visual aids are used to enhance the students’ learning process like watching a movie related to their topic or presenting other concrete visual aids (like a balloon in a bottle to show how a diaphragm works as described by one of the students). Because of their interest in the subject, they suggested that doing a lot of practical science activities could help them learn more about their lessons.

As for Math, they do like this subject too but only second to Science because computations can be a bit hard sometimes especially when the teacher doesn’t explain the computation process very well.

Overall, I would say that these students have good future ahead of them and if their teachers could sustain their interest in these subjects, then all the more beneficial for them since we do live and breath science (and math) these days.

V.            SYNTHESIS

a.   Module I of our book, COMMUNICATION OF SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL INFORMATION (CSTI) taught us four (4) basic norms, one of which is communalism. In this norm, it is said that “as a general rule science continues to thrive because of sharing of information and knowledge” (p. 6). I think that the reason why Science is very well-loved by the students I interviewed is because the teacher knows how to appropriately share her information and knowledge to her students. If in the real world, scientists attend symposia, conferences and the like, in the classroom, the students watch sci-fi flicks and share their thoughts to the rest of the class as they relate to their lessons at hand. Another norm exhibited (in a smaller scale) in their class is organized skepticism wherein students do ask questions, no matter how silly they are, if they can’t seem to fully understand what their teacher is saying. With this, clarifications are made which eventually contribute to the students’ better understanding of the lessons.

b.   Module I of our book CSTI also talked about three good values (good work, honesty and simplicity). I think, these values are being practiced in their classroom because of the way the students answered my questions. They know what they were talking about which shows good work; they were honest enough to admit that not all of them like Math the same way as they like Science (honesty) and they explained their reasons in simple terms (simplicity).

c.    Domains of Science Communication was also dealt in Module I saying that there are certain ways in which science  can be better appreciated and received by people. In a classroom set up though, it could simply be done by having a lively teacher who uses appropriate tools to make the subject more interesting.